This textbook provides a full overview of human-animal studies. It focuses on the conceptual construction of animals in American culture and the way in which it reinforces and perpetuates hierarchical human relationships rooted in racism, sexism, and class privilege.

An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships is a comprehensive introduction to the field of human–animal interaction from a psychological perspective across a wide range of themes. Hollin examines the topic of the relationships between humans and animals as seen in owning a companion animal alongside more indirect relationships such as our approaches to eating meat. The core issues under discussion include the moral and ethical issues raised in using animals for entertainment, in therapy, to keep us safe, and in sports such as horse racing. The justifications for hunting and killing animals as sport and using animals in scientific experimentation are considered. The closing chapter looks to the future and considers how conservation and climate change may influence human–animal relationships. This key text brings an important perspective to the field of human–animal studies and will be useful to students and scholars in the fields of psychology, sociology, animal welfare, anthrozoology, veterinary science, and zoology.

Human-animal studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores the spaces that animals occupy in human social and cultural worlds. It examines the interactions humans and animals have with each other and the ways animal lives intersect with human societies. Since existing social orders rely on the exploitation of animals to serve human needs, the questions posed by human-animal studies touch upon a wide range of fundamental issues. Animals and Society provides a broad overview of this rapidly growing field. Margo DeMello offers students and scholars a holistic and comprehensive picture of the state of inquiry into the relationships that exist between humans and other animals. She considers interactions between animals and humans in social organizations, such as the family, the legal system, and political and religious institutions. A major focus is the social construction of animals in world cultures and the way in which these social meanings are used to reinforce and perpetuate hierarchical human relationships such as racism, sexism, and class privilege. The book also examines how different human groups construct a range of identities for themselves and for others through animals. This second edition of Animals and Society is fully updated and expanded throughout, enhancing the book’s relevance for student and activist readers alike. It includes many new international examples, all-new case studies, and updated supplementary readings.

Contributors to this book consider how researchers study human-animal relationships, focussing on the methodologies they use, and how these might give new insights into how humans relate to animal kind.

The ethics of human/animal relationships is a growing field of academic research and a topic for public discussion and regulatory interventions from law-makers, governments and private institutions. Human/animal relationships are in transformation and understanding the nature of this process is crucial for all those who believe that the enlargement of moral and legal recognition to nonhuman animals is part of contemporary moral and political progress. Understanding the nature of this process means analysing and critically discussing the philosophical, scientific and legal concepts and arguments embedded in it. This book contributes to the discussion by bringing together the ideas and reflections of leading experts from different disciplinary backgrounds and with a range of scientific perspectives. This book both provides an up-to-date examination of the transformation of human/animal relationships and presents ideas to foster this process.

The field requires both learning and unlearning to develop forms of critical thinking that are scientifically informed and ethically sensitive.

There have been dramatic increases in the financial, emotional, and psychological investment in pets over the past four decades. The increasing importance of animal companions in people's lives has resulted in growing emphasis on the human-animal bond within academic literature. This book introduces practicing and emerging professionals to vital subject matter concerning this growing specialty area by providing an essential framework and information through which to consider the unique contextual backdrop of the human-animal bond. Such contexts include a wide array of themes including: issues of attachment and loss, success and frustration with making and sustaining connections, world views regarding animal ethics, familial history of neglect or abuse, and cultural dynamics that speak to the order of things between mankind and nature. Adopting a contextual stance will aid mental health professionals in appreciating why and how this connection has become a significant part of everyday life for many. As with any other important clinical dynamic, training and preparation are needed to gain competence for professional practice and research. To this end, an ensemble of international experts across the fields of psychology and mental health explore topics that will help both new and established clinicians increase and understanding of the various ways the human-animal bond manifests itself. Perspectives from beyond the scope of psychology and mental health such as anthropology, philosophy, literature, religion, and history are included to provide a sampling of the significant contexts in which the human-animal bond is established. What brings these divergent topics together in a meaningful way is their relevance and centrality to the contextual bonds that underlie the human-animal connection. This text will be a valuable resource that provides opportunities to deepen one's expertise in understanding the psychology of the human-animal bond.

The Waltham Book of Human-Animal Interaction: Benefits and Responsibilities of Pet Ownership discusses the scientific study of the relationship between man and animals, focusing on the behavior of companion animals, and how humans and animals affect each other's behavior. This first half of this book discusses research on benefits that have been found to accumulate from associations with animals, and the role of animals in care and therapy program. The responsibilities toward the animals kept, and how to enhance their care and welfare are considered in the next chapters. The human response to pet loss is also elaborated. This publication is beneficial to veterinary students and individuals concerned with the study of human-animal interactions.

As Julie Urbanik vividly illustrates, non-human animals are central to our daily human lives. We eat them, wear them, live with them, work them, experiment on them, try to save them, spoil them, abuse them, fight them, hunt them, buy and sell them, love them, and hate them. Placing Animals is the first book to bring together the historical development of the field of animal geography with a comprehensive survey of how geographers study animals today. Urbanik provides readers with a thorough understanding of the relationship between animal geography and the larger animal studies project, an appreciation of the many geographies of human-animal interactions around the world, and insight into how animal geography is both challenging and contributing to the major fields of human and nature-society geography. Through the theme of the role of place in shaping where and why human-animal interactions occur, the chapters in turn explore the history of animal geography and our distinctive relationships in the home, on farms, in the context of labor, in the wider culture, and in the wild.

Does living with a pet really make people happier and healthier? What can we learn from biomedical research with mice? Who enjoys a better quality of life—–the chicken destined for your dinner plate or the rooster in a Saturday night cockfight? Why is it wrong to eat the family dog? Drawing on more than two decades of research into the emerging field of anthrozoology, the science of human–animal relations, Hal Herzog offers an illuminating exploration of the fierce moral conundrums we face every day regarding the creatures with whom we share our world. Alternately poignant, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny—blending anthropology, behavioral economics, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy—this enlightening and provocative book will forever change the way we look at our relationships with other creatures and, ultimately, how we see ourselves.