Anthrozoology, Human-Animal Interactions, Anthropology

Dossier de Presentación del Programa Viopet VioPet es un programa que acoge temporal o definitivamente a los animales domésticos de
víctimas de la violencia familiar. Esta iniciativa surge desde GEVHA (Grupo para el Estudio de la Violencia hacia Humanos y Animales) y el
Observatorio de Violencia Hacia los Animales a partir de la relación establecida entre la violencia hacia animales y humanos y debido a
la falta de protección de los animales que desemboca en una desprotección total de les víctimas humanas que sufren este
fenómeno.

This is a draft of the introductory chapter of a book-in-progress entitled Lizard, which has been contracted for publication in the Animal series of Reaktion Books in London. It discusses the changing definitions of "lizard" throughout history, and the  methodological difficulties, together with their philosophical foundation, involved in settling on a single definition today.  These are compared with the problems of settling on a single meaning for "humankind." It concludes that the meaning of "lizard" cannot be fixed, and the animal may only be understood within the context of an evolving tradition. I would be very interested in any comments or suggestions.

This is the final chapter of my book tentatively entitled >Dinomania: Why We Love, Fear, and are Utterly Enchanted by Dinosaurs<, which is to be published by Reaktion Books in London. It discusses how dinosaurs mark a limit to our tendency to anthropocentrism, since we center the story of evolution around them, far more than about our biological ancestors. It also endeavors to sum up many themes of the book. I would be grateful for any perspective. Thank you very much for looking.

By examining the narratives associated with animal-themed tattoos, this study explores the various ways in which humans relate to other animals. Participants used animal-likenesses to think about themselves, others, and the world around them. By embodying positive attributes of a species that they loved and admired, the tattoos enabled participants to construct meaning and identities based on shared human–animal traits. A thematic discourse analysis of the tattoo narratives grouped them as (1) shared experiences with another species, (2) life experiences and semiotic production of meaning, (3) animal traits embedded in the process of identity formation, (4) animals representing a connection with other humans, or (5) experiences of and/or ideas about animals that represent a profound or transcendent experience. The tattoo narratives were examined in the context of theoretical frameworks associated with “symbolic interactionism” and “interspecies intersubjectivities” to understand how animals were perceived and engaged with. In contrast to how nonhuman animals are often used as objects of ridicule, or representations of inferiority and uncouthness in various discourses and mediums, the animal subjects of the tattoos discussed here are positively portrayed and incorporated into the bearers’ own identity. Participants merged ideas about humanity and animality in a manner not representative of a naturalistic ontology, but rather a form of anthropomorphism that is dichotomous with naturalism.

El texto ofrece una observación sobre la asimilación iconográfica del uso bélico de animales, usando como ejemplo paradigmático el proyecto Bat Bomb (oficialmente X-Ray) desarrollado durante la segunda guerra mundial y que tuvo un cierto efecto en la cultura popular asociado a la iconografía del murciélago y la sombra audiovisual del personaje de Batman creado por Bill Finger y Bob Kane.


The text offers an observation on the iconographic assimilation of the warlike use of animals, using as a paradigmatic example the Bat Bomb project (officially X-Ray) developed during the Second World War and that had a certain effect on the popular culture associated with the iconography of the bat and the audiovisual shadow of the Batman character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

This article aims at comparing social practices and rituals related to companion animal death in Japanese, Polish and American cultures. In contemporary Japan, companion animals are increasingly regarded as family members rather than property – a change in perception that Poland has been witnessing recently as well, and one that American researchers have been analyzing as early as almost 40 years ago, that is before the animal rights discourse became mainstream (e.g. Beck & Katcher, 1983; Cain, 1985). As this study reveals, numerous practices and rituals related to pet cemeteries are strikingly similar – or simply the same – across Japanese, Polish and American cultures. Such practices include: (a) bringing animal-related memorabilia to the graves of companion
animals, and (b) decorating these graves with toys, pet food, as well as items typically used for commemorating humans, such as incense sticks (Japan) or votive candles (U.S. and Poland). All three cultures (c) hold formal or informal holidays where dead companion animals are remembered and honored. Furthermore, (d) the belief in an afterlife for animals is also shared across the three discussed cultures, and is typically reflected by a description of heaven or the non-denominational, largely secular concept called the Rainbow Bridge.

This research study explores human and dog relationships through cultural perspectives. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether there are more positive attitudes towards pet dogs within Mexican communities, or if negative attitudes are still present like they have been in past Mexican traditions. While previous studies have presented increasing dog attachment bonds within Americans, I will instead focus on Mexican minorities in the Las Vegas community. Bilingual self-report surveys were distributed in order to examine gender, age, ethnicity, number of pets, and dogs’ living styles. In order to target the desired population, public venues such as dog parks, pet stores, and other cultural events within the Mexican community were examined. Using IBM SPSS v.24, the attitudes Mexican-Americans showed similarly positive attitudes toward pet dogs as American pet owners. The difference between Mexican and Mexican-Americans attitudes towards pet dogs was statistically significant (p = 0.5). Future research may focus on changing attitudes towards foster and assisted animal therapy dog programs within Mexican or Mexican-American communities.

Abstract ‘Being autistic’ or ‘having Autism Spectrum Disorder’ implies a limited range of ‘being social,’ but the in situ organization of interaction, what Maynard and Marlaire (Qual Soc 15(2):177–202, 1992) call the ‘interactional substrate,’ within which this delimitation enfolds is usually hidden from sight. Analysis of processes constituting different ‘interactional substrates’ provides a view of how one comes to be known by and to self and others as a certain kind of being who is available (or not) for acting and feeling in certain ways. People diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 2013) are often described as ‘being’ impaired in intersubjective understanding of others. But the story of ASD as an impairment of sociality and intersubjectivity becomes more complicated when animals enter into the picture. I consider two interactional substrates: a psychological interview in a mental health clinic, and an animal-assisted activity in a child’s neighborhood. I aim to elucidate the practical problems of ‘being social’ encountered by two children with ASD, both nine-year-old girls, within these two very differently organized interactional substrates. I consider ways in which ‘being with’ therapy animals provides a way of ‘being social’ through “sensory modalities of knowing” (Haraway, When species meet, 2008:371).

Aбcтpaкт Koгдa мы гoвopим чтo y кoгo-тo ayтизм, или cидpoм ayтичнoгo cпeктpa, пoдpaзyмeвaeтcя чтo y этoгo чeлoвeкa oгpaничeннaя cпocoбнocть coциaльнoгo oбщeния. Ho кoнтeкcтyaльнaя opгaнизaция этoгo oбщeния, тo чтo
Mэйнapд и Mapлэp (Кволит Cоциoл 15(2):177–202, 1992) нaзывaют ‘интepaкциoннoй cyбcтpaтoй ‘ в кoнтeкcтe кoтopoй этo oгpaничeниe peaлизyeтcя, oбычнo cкpытa oт aнaлитичecкoгo пoнимaния. Aнaлиз пpoцeccoв кoтopыe coздaют paзличныe интepaкциoнныe cyбcтpaты дaёт вoзмoжнocть пoнять кaк чeлoвeк ocoзнaётcя дpyгими и coбoй кaк индивидyyм кoтopый cпocoбeн (или нeт) чyвcтвoвaть и дeйcтвoвaть cвoим coбcтвeнным, yникaльным oбpaзoм. Пpинятo дyмaть чтo тe кoму дан диагнoз cидpoма ayтичнoгo cпeктpa (Амepикaнcкaя Пcихиатpичecкая Аccoциaция, Руководство по диагностике и статистической классификации психических расстройств, 2013) oгpaничeны в интep-cyбъeктивнoм пoнимaнии дpyгиx людeй. Ho этa кapтинa знaчитeльнo ycлoжняeтcя кoгдa дoмaшниe живoтныe включeны в нeё. Я coпocтaвляю двe интepaкциoнныe cyбcтpaты: пcиxoлoгичecкoe интepвью в пcиxoтepaпeвтичecкoй клиникe и ceccию тepaпeвтичecкoгo oбщeния c живoтными в знaкoмoм кoнтeкcтe. Moя цeль - oпpeдeлить пpaктичecкиe пpoблeмы coциaльнoгo oбщeния иcпытaнныe двyмя дeтьми c ayтизмoм в кoнтeкcтe этиx двyx, oчeнь paзныx интepaкциoнныx cyбcтpaт. Я идeнтифициpyю пpoцeccы в кoтopыx oбщeниe c живoтными дaёт вoзмoжнocть coциaльнoгo oбщeния чepeз “мoдaльнocти ceн- copиaльнoгo пoзнaния” (Хapaвaй, Когда встречаются виды, 2008:371).

Monografia w języku polskim, która ukazała się w Wydawnictwie Naukowym "Śląsk" w 2016 roku.

Spis treści:
Wstęp do ekokrytyki  17
Zagadnienia i problemy badawcze ekokrytyki  19
Przegląd polskich stanowisk wobec problematyki ekologicznej w literaturze  52
Redefiniowanie realizmu i nowe możliwości interpretacyjne  86
Niemota przyrody a realizm (post)traumatyczny  94
Słaby ludzki podmiot – miejsce na język przyrody 119
Realność ekosystemu w Placówce Prusa  121
Niezdara Dygasińskiego i sprawstwo przyrody  139
Dziecięce pomiędzy: Świat i ślepa dziewczyna Dygasińskiego oraz  Suka Reymonta  155
Nie-ludzki rodowód poezji: Leśmian  176
Splot historii i zagrożenia: głos drzew w Glorii victis Orzeszkowej  195 Zwierzęta – podmioty (nie)obecne 207
Człowiek i zwierzę – problem granicy w Dziennikach Gombrowicza  209 Ujarzmianie bestii? Walka byków Sienkiewicza  222
Relacje: Wilk, psy i ludzie Dygasińskiego  239
Próba reprezentowania zwierząt: Ostatnie historie i pisarstwo Tokarczuk  256
Moja przyjaciółka krowa – wspólne doświadczenia.  Hartwig i Brach-Czaina  272
Posthumanizm i znaczenie zwierzęcych narracji w literaturze  286 Zookrytyka i zoonarracje. Oczy tygrysa Czyżewskiego  314

Avian Illuminations Avian Illuminations tells in detail about the many roles of birds in human society, including omens, food, messengers, deities, pets, muses, timekeepers, custodians, hunting companions, environmental indicators, decorative motifs, and, most importantly, embodiments of our aspirations. It narrates the history of human relationships over the centuries with crows, owls, parrots, falcons, eagles, wrens, nightingales, chickens, turkeys, hummingbirds, and many other birds. It describes in detail how the nesting behavior of birds has provided models for human romance and domestic life, while their ability to fly has inspired millennia of inventors. Finally, the book concludes that the interconnections between birds and human beings are so manifold that a world without birds would effectively mean an end to human culture, even if we continued to pass on some lonely strands of our DNA.

Egyptologists have struggled to understand the role of pigs due to the relatively scarce archaeological evidence that attests to their existence in ancient Egyptian life. Yet despite the poor record at our disposal, a picture has emerged of a complex relationship with this animal, one that perhaps tells us more about the Egyptians’ zoological interests than their more positive attitude towards other species. It is thus significant that a new and highly unusual image of a pig has recently been identified at the Middle Kingdom cemetery of Beni Hassan, one that may shed new light on the Egyptians’ interactions with the animals.

Retomamos nuestras publicaciones tras la pausa estival, y creemos oportuno hacer referencia a las lecturas que nos han acompañado como incentivos de nuestra curiosidad, llenando nuestro ocio de forma constructiva. Un interesante descubrimiento ha sido "Ecoanimal", de Marta Tafalla, a quien conocíamos referencialmente por sus artículos y alusiones a cuestiones relativas a la percepción, como la sinestesia o síndromes perceptivos particulares como la anosmia, la falta de olfato, que la propia autora padece y que se refleja en sus obras de ficción (como "Nunca sabrás a qué huele Bagdad"). El caso de "Ecoanimal" nos parece especialmente interesante porque no sólo profundiza en cuestiones plurisensoriales a menudo ignoradas por la historia de la estética, esencialmente audiovisual, sino que además extiende este concepto global de los sentidos a la percepción de nosotros mismos como animales específicos, y por tanto a un replanteamiento de nuestra percepción del mundo animal, de las demás especies animales, en un momento de la Historia especialmente crítico desde un punto de vista ecológico. Esta investigadora, escritora y profesora universitaria barcelonesa se muestra preocupada por cuestiones referentes a la ética animal, y observa en profundidad cómo la tradición estética impregna la cultura occidental no sólo de un especismo antropocéntrico (además de afectado por un patriarcado machista), sino que está

Present research was intended to investigate the relationship between pet attachment and empathy among young adults. CENSHARE Pet Attachment Survey (Holcomb, Williams, & Richards, 1985) was used to measure pet attachment and Multi-Dimensional Scale of Emotional Empathy (Caruso & Mayer, 1998) was used to measure empathy. Sample which included young adults (N = 250) within the age range of 18 to 26 years (M = 21.16; SD = 2.10), was taken from both public and private universities. The results showed significant positive relationship between pet attachment and empathy. Further, the result showed women scoring higher on pet attachment and empathy as compared to men. Pet owners spending less time with their pets showed stronger pet attachment. Significant predicting role of pet attachment was shown for empathy, with highest variance shown with intimacy component of pet attachment for the empathy dimension of feeling for others, then responsive crying, empathy and emotional attention respectively. Lastly, significant moderating role of gender for the effect of pet attachment on empathy was shown, with women scoring higher than men on empathy with increasing pet attachment.


Author's Note.
In the research article, a piece of information regarding the CENSHARE Pet Attachment Survey is missing. It was adapted in the present study. After conducting a pilot study which led to the discovery of confusion on part of the participants with the existing 4-point Likert scale and for analysis purpose, the coding of the responses was reversed such that "Almost Never" was coded as 1 and "Almost Always" was coded as 4. The results and consequent discussion is based on this reversed coding schedule.

The discipline of archaeology has long engaged with animals in a utilitarian mode, constructing animals as objects to be hunted, manipulated, domesticated, and consumed. Only recently, in tandem with the rising interest in animals in the humanities and the development of interdisciplinary animal studies research, has archaeology begun to systematically engage with animals as subjects. This article describes some of the ways in which archaeologists are reconstructing human engagements with animals in the past, focusing on relational modes of interaction documented in many hunting and gathering societies. Among the most productive lines of evidence for human-animal relations in the past are animal burials and structured deposits of animal bones. These archaeological features provide material evidence for relational ontologies in which animals, like humans, were vested with sentience and agency.

Some 2200 years ago, people belonging to the Pazyryk archaeological culture gathered together to bury their dead in mounds on high plateaus in the remote Altai Mountains in the center of Asia. Entire horses—and often groups of horses—were sacrificed at these funerals and interred with the men and women, presumed leaders and commoners alike. By employing an human-animal studies approach to these burials, in this chapter I digress from the archaeological position which views nonhuman animals as calories or constructs to one which includes animal others as impactful upon human social realities.

After grounding this approach in multidisciplinary theory, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human-horse relationships, through both ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy which uses my position within the context of those I shall term working riders: riders who live with and care for horses and possess the ability and knowledge to school them to be ridden. I touch on aspects of human-horse intersubjectivities and situate particular elements of the Pazyryk horse burials. I then attempt to phenomenologically recreate the actual killing of the Pazyryk horse from the perspective of the humans—and the horses—and suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviors of both at the burial ceremony. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human-animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

Prior interpretations of the tattoos of nonhuman animals etched upon the preserved human bodies from the Pazyryk archaeological culture of Inner Asia have focused on solely human-generated meanings. This article utilizes an ethnoarchaeological approach to reassess these tattoos,
by analogizing the nature and possibilities of human-ridden horse intersubjectivities in the present with those of the past. As enlightened by people who live with horses, including the author, the process of learning to ride can be seen as an interspecies apprenticeship process, where both humans and horses pass along social knowledge as thoughtful actors with defined roles. From this perspective, the horse tattoos are presented as polysemic materializations of the
bonds between particular Pazyryk horses and people, of blended identities, and of cosmological values related to time, memory, and belonging. The article concludes that exploring smaller-scale
human-nonhuman animal interactions in the present allows for fresh interpretations of similar interactions in the past and provides a means for archaeology to move beyond the objectification of animals as sets of resources or symbols.

This paper discusses the relationship between anthropomorphism and zoomorphism, using examples of Benga, a pygmy, and Baldy, a highly anthropomorphized chimpanzee, who were both displayed at the Bronx zoo in the early twentieth century. Anthropomorphism projects human characteristics on to animals, as was done with Baldy, and zoomorphism projects bestial characteristics on to humans, as was done with Benga. The article concludes that anthropomorphism and zoomorphism are closely associated since they are both dependent on a very sharp ontological divide between the realms of people, or "civilization," and "animals," or nature. This creates a need for mediators, who can take the form of bestialized humans or anthropomorphized animals.

No es lo mismo un animal blanco que un animal albino, ni hay que confundir los animales megros con los que sufren melanismo. Visual y simbólicamente, los animales blancos y los animales negros se destacan en la iconografía antrozoológica, y también, por motivos relacionados con las técnicas de reproducción de imagen, facilitan cierta preferencia icónica por las especies blanquinegras.

Over the past century, animal healing, channelled and mediated in the past by the longitudinally found figure of the shaman (Winkelman, 2002), has manifested in a very different form through the modern medical practice of Animal Assisted Interventions, from here onwards referred to as AAI.
However, evidence-based official medicine has relegated AAI to the role of complementary medicine, arguing that more effective results have been recognized in the ownership of pets, especially dogs and cats (Friedmann, Son and Tsai, 2006).
The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the impact of other animal species often underestimated in AAI and to contemplate the possibility of employing birds of prey because of their unique entanglement with humans testified throughout the history of falconry practice.
Falconry refers to hunting of wild quarry by utilizing hawks and falcons purposely trained through a lengthy process, which becomes transforming and moulding for both the falconer and the falcon, as elaborated by Schroer (2015).
The human–hawk co-evolution is expressed in Schroer’s concept of ‘beings-in-the-making’ (2015; p. 270) and is supported and fostered by the author’s auto-ethnographic experience of having been entangled with hawks for the past 10 years. 1
The ephemeral or even aerial entanglement of co-responsive mutual-making between human and hawk very much resonates with the post-humanist movement and Haraway’s definition of ‘significant otherness’ (2003, p.8), entangled with humans in ‘ontological choreographies’ (Thompson, 2003 p. 8) of co-shaping and consequent co-education.

This study utilises relational and human–animal studies approaches—a goal of both of which is to decentre the human as but one element functioning within a web of connections to create human social realities—to explored aspects of the archaeologically visible burial practices within the human–horse burials carried out by the Pazyryk Iron Age archaeological culture of Inner Asia. To do this, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human–horse intersubjectivities, as enlightened by ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy utilising my position as a lifelong horse person. I present characteristics of sociality possessed by both humans and horse—including elders, empathy and emotion—that might be seen as essential qualities impacting the ways in which individuals from the two species come together. From this standpoint, I suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviours of members of both species at the burial ceremony, enlightening several previously unexplained aspects of mortuary patterning. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human–non-human animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

Despite the increasing interest in, and scope of, human-animal studies, few statistically robust measures of attitudes towards animals exist beyond the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS—Herzog, Betchart and Pittman 1991). While extensively utilized, the AAS does not discriminate between categories of animals, that is, pet, pest, and commercially valued species. The current study was therefore conducted to develop a scale aimed at isolating differences in attitudes towards animals across three different categories: (1) pet (companion animal), (2) pest, and (3) profit/utility animals (PPP). Despite limitations due to a low return rate (n = 210), the PPP scale proved to have strong internal reliability, and related well to the AAS. The development of this scale and initial validation are described. Scores on the "pet" subscale were found to be the highest, followed by those on the "profit" then "pest" scales. Othe rnoteworthy results including interactions between gender, occupation, and scores on the PPP subscales are discussed.

A Pith of Oneness delves into the (meta) philosophical underpinning of exploring what might consciousness "be" as it is formed in new amniotic-fluid, gravity-buffered embryonic space.  It defines existance as merely polarity energy keeping tabs on gravity; asking what constitutes Extended Self;  as well as Individual-self.

Pursuing Animal History as Body History, this paper focuses neither on animals nor on humans, but rather on bodies and the different societal demands made on them. It rejects the simple attribution of a history and an actor- or even subject-status to humans and animals per se. Instead, the paper suggests a historical problematization of the processes that produce humans or animals as having a history and as being actors or even subjects. Against this background, I try to demonstrate the usefulness of distinguishing between a praxeological approach in a broad sense on the one hand and a genealogical perspective in a narrow sense on the other. I thus understand Animal History less as an expanded form of Cultural History, but much more as a special form of Social History, placing at the center of interest neither the nature/culture dichotomy nor the concept of life, but rather the concept of the social.

In my native Galician language, written with spelling corresponding to the jheada (between "j" and "hache" aspirated), coastal and southern, in the style of Manuel Rivas, we have a flat tautological saying and not very subtly anthropocentrist (and macho):

"a home and a home and a jhato a bug" (a man is a man and a cat a bug).

Recently I discovered a summary and repetitive version, in homage or parody of the famous poem by Gertrude Stein, the redundant rose that is a rose (and which José María Cano would appropriate to embed it in the Spanish-speaking musical memory with the voice of Ana Torroja ).

This version simply says: "a cat is a cat is a cat", the claim title for an intervention by Concepción Cortés Zulueta at the XVIII CEHA congress, held in September 2010 in Santiago de Compostela, and which was published a compendium of the proceedings at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2012, under the title "Looking at Clio. The Spanish Art mirror of its history".


Mafa Alborés
The aforementioned contribution of Concepción Cortés Zulueta was complemented with the subtitle "The history of art and animal studies", an excerpt or summary (rather a point or approximation) thematic work developed as a doctoral thesis at the Autonomous University of Madrid: " Biological foundations of creation: animals in art and animal art ”

As we have done timidly on some other occasion, we have approached certain questions related to the image of the naturalist, and as such, as a naturalist would do, we will try to establish whether or not they all belong to the same species, as it were, or if Ideal of the student of the natural sciences differs much from the average citizen or on the contrary expressly express the opinion that this is the one deserves the interest for the other animal species. The truth is that we had raised these questions by referring to the relations between art and science, or to the lands shared by artists and scientists, although perhaps we should speak of the image that society has of each other throughout history.

Abordamos hoy, como habíamos hecho tímidamente en alguna otra ocasión, ciertas cuestiones acerca de la imagen del naturalista, y, tal y como haría un naturalista, intentaremos establecer si todos ellos pertenecen o no a la misma especie, por así decirlo, o si el ideal del estudioso de las ciencias naturales se diferencia mucho del ciudadano medio o por el contrario representa precisamente la opinión que a éste le merece el interés por las demás especies animales. La verdad es que habíamos planteado dichas cuestiones al referirnos a las relaciones entre arte y ciencia, o a los terrenos compartidos por artistas y científcos, aunque tal vez deberíamos hablar de la imagen que la sociedad tiene de unos y otros a lo largo de la Historia.

Anthropologists are paying increasing attention to human/animal entanglements, rather than treating animals merely as vehicles through which to explore human social life. We suggest that this emerging multispecies focus is best served by research that considers not only humans’ responses to animals but also their responses to us, and which attempts to access animals' subjective experiences. Following the interdisciplinary methods of ethnoprimatology, we used a combination of ethnography and ethology to study orangutans' relationships with one another, and caregivers' interpretations of orangutans' bonds, at Auckland Zoo, New Zealand. Drawing on two examples, we argue that integrating ethnography with both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of animal behavior can be useful for representing both species' daily lives, and for comparing interpretations obtained from different research methods. We conclude that although we were not able to capture the experiences of our human and orangutan participants equally, paying attention to both species highlighted how humans' interpretations of animals' motivations, relationships, and behavior differ depending on their roles and the tools they employ for understanding animals' experiences. We also suggest that using anecdotes and empathy in research with animals goes some way towards acknowledging animals’ agency and collapsing artificial distinctions between us and them.

The human-animal rapport has been a very genuine, honest and instinctive one in early human communities and in most indigenous societies (Grim, 2006;Serpell 2006; Hobgood-Oster, 2007) as much as it has evolved into a very complicated and problematic one with the growing and transforming of human culture into capitalistic industrialized societies, and this evolution has been represented and narrated in mythology and religious writings throughout human history. 
“The narrative thought”, in Carrithers’s terms, “consists not merely in telling stories, but of understanding complex nets of deeds and attitudes” (Carrithers, 1990 p.189) and the expression of moral and religious dogmas through language has had a crucial role in the human cognitive and emotional approach and relation to other animals throughout human history and spirituality.
In this paper we intend to explore the role of semantics, in particular logical semantics, especially concerned with the presupposition and implication of language, as an important and sometimes crucial agent in the determination of the animal moral status in human society.
In particular we would like to analyse the dichotomy created by the use of the term animal versus the term beast and how we believe it could be indiscriminately applied to both humans and other animals, from a religious and moral point of view

"La Voz del Animal Invisible" es un blog activo sobre antrozoología del arte y manifestaciones del arte como simulacro, así como de contenidos de divulgación naturalista susceptibles de adecuarse a dichos conceptos. El texto base, "El animal Invisible", tesis doctoral del autor, se compone de los tres apartados de los tres primeros bloques, publicados en forma de blog de entrada única. En este documento facilitamos los enlaces a dichas publicaciones en formato digital.

In the early hours of 30th June 1948 a small boy was seized and dragged from a field hut near Uroa on the east coast of Zanzibar and was never seen again. Pugmarks were found nearby, and it was presumed that he had been taken and devoured by a leopard. Over the next seven weeks three more people were killed in similar circumstances in the same general area: a young girl, a middle-aged woman, and another boy. These events generated considerable alarm not only in the local communities involved, but also among the British colonial administration, who ascribed the killings to a “man-eating leopard”, imagined in the mode of other “man-eaters” of African and Indian jungle lore. In an effort to prevent further deaths and contain the panic, the authorities went to some lengths to trap and kill the supposed man-eater, and its demise was announced in the second week of September 1948.

We know these and other details from the contemporary documents that have survived: a wealth of official correspondence – which reached up to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a few press and other published reports, and the personal notebook of Zanzibar’s Senior Commissioner at the time. But though these written archives give us some insight into the knowledge and beliefs of officialdom, including Zanzibari Arab civil servants and local administrators, the voices of the rural villagers who experienced these events first hand are largely absent from the record.  Many of these people are now dead: in 2011-12, however, I interviewed a number of elderly people who still remembered the events of 1948. Their accounts were very different from those preserved in the archives, and not just richer and thick with local colour. Rather than a single man-eater, they described the depredations of multiple “kept leopards”, sent to do the bidding of the witches who owned and controlled them. This reflected an understanding of leopard predation that persists to this day.

Who and what should we believe? Can we reconcile the conflicting interpretations of Zanzibar’s one-time rulers and the oral performances of their former subjects, discern unequivocal truth behind the competing fictions of colonial writing and postcolonial memory? This paper sets out to find an answer and explore the wider implications of the epistemological and ontological differences that it exposes.

Conflicts between foreign and Japanese volunteers concerning decisions to euthanize animals that are in terminal condition were noted during anecdotal observation by this author at a Japanese animal rescue shelter. Thus, this research was undertaken to explore attitudes of shelter staff in Japan. As a point of comparison, U. S. shelter workers were also interviewed. Twenty current or former shelter workers (16 participants from Japan and 4 participants from the U.S.), ranging in age from 20 to 65, were interviewed. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the Japanese participants; e­mail and/or Skype were used to conduct the interviews with the participants living in the U.S. Grounded theory was employed to analyze the interview data.

    The analysis suggested that euthanasia is a difficult and emotional process for all of the participants, and many of them have experienced the "Caring­Killing Paradox" (Arluke, 1994: Arluke & Sanders,1996: Reeves et al., 2005.) Both Japanese and U.S. participants indicated that euthanasia is a humane option to eliminate prolonged suffering of animals, and when their quality of life is greatly diminished. Most of them agree that euthanizing animals for space and behavioral reasons may not be fair and should be avoided.

    There is a subtle yet notable characteristic among Japanese participants. They seem to be rather unsure about euthanasia in practice, while agreeing with and understanding its principle of eliminating suffering. This became more apparent when it comes to their pets. In short, it seems that there was some disparity between what they believe and what they actually do. In contrast, participants in the U.S. seemed to express, with confidence, that euthanasia is a humane option in certain cases for both shelter and owned companion animals. More research is needed to determine what influences this subtle difference, if it stems from cultural, religious or other factors.

 

Chronic human presence and human-animal interactions (HAIs) define zoo environments and affect zoo-animals' behavior and welfare. Prior to the 1960s/70s (e.g., Hediger 1970; Morris 1964; Snyder 1975), humans in the zoo were considered of little consequence to zoo animals. Systematic studies of human impacts did not take off until the 1980s, primarily with nonhuman primates. Most of these studies examined visitor effects (i.e., the impact of visitors' presence and behavior) and found that visitors had primarily negative effects on zoo primates' behavior indicative of negative welfare. Visitor effect studies have provided a wealth of information, particularly for improving zoo primate welfare, visitor education, and enclosure design. Yet, such studies are limited because they only consider zoo primates' interactions with primarily unfamiliar visitors. Zoo primates regularly encounter and interact with a range of humans in addition to unfamiliar visitors, including zoo keepers and other zoo personnel, familiar visitors, and occasionally researchers, yet interactions with humans other than unfamiliar visitors have been largely unexplored until recently. In the late 2000s, researchers began to recognize the need to examine a wider range of zoo primates' HAIs and relationships (e.g., Hosey 2008). Recent empirical studies have examined zoo primates' interactions with zoo keepers/caretakers (e.g.,

The purpose of this essay is to explore histories of extinction that human activity is forcefully imposing on the planet and on all the other animals inhabiting it with equal rights to survival. The start of the era that has been defined as Antropocene (Crutzen and Steffen 2003; Boes and Marshall, 2014) sees humans, as never before in the history of the planet, as extremely active agents, who can potentially rescue and protect other life forms as much as wipe them off the face of the earth, as advocated by Kirksey and Helmreich. (2010)
The histories we are interested in are symbolic flight ways, as elaborated by Van Dooren, (2014) but with a special attention to birds that embody a very strong symbolism of respectively freedom and power and therefore evoke strong feelings and emotions in the human counterpart, with controversial and opposing reactions in different cultures.
On one hand the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), cultural icon of freedom and the American wilderness, that risked extinction in the early 20thcentury, was later rescued through a captive breeding program and reintroduced in its natural environment in the 1980s.
A parallel story of endangerment and risk of extinction is that of the Bonelli’s eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus) a relatively small size eagle species dwelling across the Mediterranean basin, which, together with the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and numerous other migratory bird species, is the helpless victim of a trophy hunting and poaching culture evenly distributed throughout the Mediterranean countries of northern Africa and southern Italy.
We intend to analyse how human culture can be the driving agent in preserving and actually rescuing a species or in contributing to its extinction and what might be the relevance of the species symbolic meaning and representation in the proactive effort of rescuing certain species over others.

Despite recent calls to view nonhuman animals as more than objects within archaeological studies, traditional interpretations of horses in Iron Age Inner Asian communities continue to consider them as relevant only through their functional or symbolic significance to humans. This article argues for a “relational” rather than “domination” model of human-horse interactions, and that a necessary step toward this is a more clear understanding of horses, themselves, as social beings. This is brought to light through ethological studies and the understandings of “working riders,” including the author. Using a case study of the Iron Age Pazyryk human-horse burials, it is then proposed that through this lens the outfits of the horses in the Pazyryk kurgans might be seen to reflect roles and statuses of the horses, rather than of the humans.