Pub Date : 2021-12-23DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10051
S. Granovetter
Animal activists serve as symptom-bearers for trans-species collective trauma within Western-industrial society. Findings from literature on traumatology and nonhuman animal activism, contemporary discourse, and the voices of ten activists currently in the field suggest that many animal activists suffer some form of trauma. Activist trauma arises through overlapping, complex relational processes of intersubjective attunement with nonhuman animals and embeddedness within a human social context that disavows nonhuman suffering. In understanding activist trauma as a symptom of a dysfunctional system, I depathologize activist suffering and view activists as integral members of a whole society that seeks healing.
{"title":"Activist as Symptom: Healing Trauma within a Ruptured Collective","authors":"S. Granovetter","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10051","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Animal activists serve as symptom-bearers for trans-species collective trauma within Western-industrial society. Findings from literature on traumatology and nonhuman animal activism, contemporary discourse, and the voices of ten activists currently in the field suggest that many animal activists suffer some form of trauma. Activist trauma arises through overlapping, complex relational processes of intersubjective attunement with nonhuman animals and embeddedness within a human social context that disavows nonhuman suffering. In understanding activist trauma as a symptom of a dysfunctional system, I depathologize activist suffering and view activists as integral members of a whole society that seeks healing.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47245182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-23DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10056
Valerie L. Stevens
Aware of her pupil’s plans to torture and kill a nest of birds, and with no authority to stop him based on her class, gender, and professional positions, the governess-heroine of Anne Brontë’s (2010/1847) Agnes Grey kills the nonhuman animals to keep them from needless suffering. Building on Brontë scholarship as well as animal studies understandings of violence and embodiment, this article considers expectations that Victorian sympathy will be a simplistic and pretty play on reader emotions to argue that nineteenth-century sympathetic feeling was more theoretically and ethically complex than we might imagine. Agnes Grey demonstrates how human-animal violence was thought to be an acceptable expression of middle- and upper-class masculinity, while proper women were expected to be complicit with this treatment of nonhumans. By looking at the close relationship between wanton and merciful embodied violence, the article shows how grotesque Victorian human-animal sympathy could be.
{"title":"Embodied Violence Towards Nonhuman Animals in Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey","authors":"Valerie L. Stevens","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10056","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Aware of her pupil’s plans to torture and kill a nest of birds, and with no authority to stop him based on her class, gender, and professional positions, the governess-heroine of Anne Brontë’s (2010/1847) Agnes Grey kills the nonhuman animals to keep them from needless suffering. Building on Brontë scholarship as well as animal studies understandings of violence and embodiment, this article considers expectations that Victorian sympathy will be a simplistic and pretty play on reader emotions to argue that nineteenth-century sympathetic feeling was more theoretically and ethically complex than we might imagine. Agnes Grey demonstrates how human-animal violence was thought to be an acceptable expression of middle- and upper-class masculinity, while proper women were expected to be complicit with this treatment of nonhumans. By looking at the close relationship between wanton and merciful embodied violence, the article shows how grotesque Victorian human-animal sympathy could be.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47198750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-23DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10055
K. Altizer
This article examines historical dog pianists and the pianistic training of Lolabelle the rat terrier to explore a musical question beyond structure and intention: what might musical encounters between human and nonhuman animals make possible? Reviewers of Laurie Anderson’s film Heart of a Dog, in which some of Lolabelle’s performances appear, rarely center either Lolabelle or her pianism and frequently distance themselves from indicating belief in the musicality of the activity. The tone of this reporting is consistent with that of other Western reporting on dog pianists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While piano-playing dogs have historically strengthened the human-animal divide by reinforcing dogs’ status as never-human, the frames for anthropomorphic acts are what strengthen this divide rather than something inherent in the anthropomorphic activity itself.
{"title":"“Is it gonna be fun?”: Lolabelle, Dog Pianists, and Musical Réussite","authors":"K. Altizer","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10055","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines historical dog pianists and the pianistic training of Lolabelle the rat terrier to explore a musical question beyond structure and intention: what might musical encounters between human and nonhuman animals make possible? Reviewers of Laurie Anderson’s film Heart of a Dog, in which some of Lolabelle’s performances appear, rarely center either Lolabelle or her pianism and frequently distance themselves from indicating belief in the musicality of the activity. The tone of this reporting is consistent with that of other Western reporting on dog pianists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While piano-playing dogs have historically strengthened the human-animal divide by reinforcing dogs’ status as never-human, the frames for anthropomorphic acts are what strengthen this divide rather than something inherent in the anthropomorphic activity itself.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46579617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-23DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10054
Seven Mattes, Aviva Vincent, C. Whitley
The Animals and Society Institute facilitates an annual interdisciplinary meeting of emerging scholars from around the world, encouraging attendees to interrogate what it means to be a scholar, with an emphasis on animal studies within our respective disciplines. In that vein, we assess what it means to be an emerging animal-studies scholar in three interconnected but distinct academic disciplines: anthropology, sociology, and social work. We elaborate on three dominant themes: (1) the place of animals or the “animal turn”; (2) our subjectivity and how we find unorthodox networks or what Donna Haraway refers to as our “oddkin”; (3) and our inherent roles as interdisciplinary scholars and the liminal positions we occupy, as we address complex social problems like climate change. By reflecting on how we have encountered barriers and overly strict binaries collectively and as individuals, we can begin to deconstruct these obstacles and create opportunities.
{"title":"Emerging with Oddkin: Interdisciplinarity in the Animal Turn","authors":"Seven Mattes, Aviva Vincent, C. Whitley","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10054","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Animals and Society Institute facilitates an annual interdisciplinary meeting of emerging scholars from around the world, encouraging attendees to interrogate what it means to be a scholar, with an emphasis on animal studies within our respective disciplines. In that vein, we assess what it means to be an emerging animal-studies scholar in three interconnected but distinct academic disciplines: anthropology, sociology, and social work. We elaborate on three dominant themes: (1) the place of animals or the “animal turn”; (2) our subjectivity and how we find unorthodox networks or what Donna Haraway refers to as our “oddkin”; (3) and our inherent roles as interdisciplinary scholars and the liminal positions we occupy, as we address complex social problems like climate change. By reflecting on how we have encountered barriers and overly strict binaries collectively and as individuals, we can begin to deconstruct these obstacles and create opportunities.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45051808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-15DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10066
Elena Gobbo, Manja Zupan Šemrov
Using a web-based questionnaire with 29 close- and open-ended questions about 400 self-reported dog-biting incidents in Slovenia, this research investigated the contexts of dog bites, focusing on characteristics of the dogs and the descriptions of the situations to identify the main risk factors for the occurrence of dog bites. Even though it has been suggested that most dog bites occur during initially non-aggressive interactions with the dog (e.g., during petting, playing), in our study we discerned a wide variety of contexts, including those in which the person did not intend to interact with the dog. Most victims reported unprovoked bites during fast movements near the dog, while coming into close proximity, and during incidents without a reason. These incidents more likely occurred in public than private places and were associated with purebred dogs with a history of aggression.
{"title":"Factors Affecting Human-Directed Aggression Resulting in Dog Bites: Contextual Aspects of the Biting Incidents","authors":"Elena Gobbo, Manja Zupan Šemrov","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10066","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Using a web-based questionnaire with 29 close- and open-ended questions about 400 self-reported dog-biting incidents in Slovenia, this research investigated the contexts of dog bites, focusing on characteristics of the dogs and the descriptions of the situations to identify the main risk factors for the occurrence of dog bites. Even though it has been suggested that most dog bites occur during initially non-aggressive interactions with the dog (e.g., during petting, playing), in our study we discerned a wide variety of contexts, including those in which the person did not intend to interact with the dog. Most victims reported unprovoked bites during fast movements near the dog, while coming into close proximity, and during incidents without a reason. These incidents more likely occurred in public than private places and were associated with purebred dogs with a history of aggression.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44996668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-03DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10060
Úrsula A. Aragunde-Kohl, Yahaira Segarra-González, Liza M. Meléndez-Samó, Ivemarie Hernández-Rivera, Carolina Quiles-Peña
The purpose of this research was to better understand the beliefs and practices that the residents of Puerto Rico have regarding cockfighting, including their perception of the recently passed prohibition against nonhuman animal fighting on the island. It had an exploratory descriptive design consisting of three phases, where the qualitative data obtained from phase one would guide the process of identifying variables that could be measured. In the second phase, an instrument was developed, and in the third, it was administered. Most of the participants agreed with the prohibition of cockfighting in Puerto Rico and that it was necessary. The data showed that there is a disconnect between what the federal government of the United States legislated, what the local government and agencies that were supposed to enforce the prohibition did with the legislation, and what the people directly affected by the legislation received for education and guidance.
{"title":"A View from Inside: Understanding Puerto Rico Cockfighting","authors":"Úrsula A. Aragunde-Kohl, Yahaira Segarra-González, Liza M. Meléndez-Samó, Ivemarie Hernández-Rivera, Carolina Quiles-Peña","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10060","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The purpose of this research was to better understand the beliefs and practices that the residents of Puerto Rico have regarding cockfighting, including their perception of the recently passed prohibition against nonhuman animal fighting on the island. It had an exploratory descriptive design consisting of three phases, where the qualitative data obtained from phase one would guide the process of identifying variables that could be measured. In the second phase, an instrument was developed, and in the third, it was administered. Most of the participants agreed with the prohibition of cockfighting in Puerto Rico and that it was necessary. The data showed that there is a disconnect between what the federal government of the United States legislated, what the local government and agencies that were supposed to enforce the prohibition did with the legislation, and what the people directly affected by the legislation received for education and guidance.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43888521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-07DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10065
E. Evans, Edwin Amenta, T. Elliott
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a marked increase in non-moderate, or “radical,” non-human animal advocacy organizations. Social movement scholars argued that these organizations have greater difficulty than “moderate” ones in receiving substantial news coverage. But forms of substantive news coverage have increased for both moderate and non-moderate animal advocacy organizations. To address this, media analyses were conducted using content coding of The New York Times articles from 1946–2011. Logistic regression and qualitative, comparative analyses examined the conditions under which both moderate and non-moderate organizations had their demands in news coverage. Aligned with an augmented political mediation model, the findings indicated that non-moderate organizations are more likely to get substantive coverage when they target non-governmental entities on a local level through “assertive collective action.” The conclusion was that non-human animal advocacy organizations that have radical goals or tactics do not compromise the quality of media coverage in the long-term.
{"title":"The Mediation Model: How Non-Moderate Nonhuman Animal Advocacy Organizations Get the Media Coverage They Want","authors":"E. Evans, Edwin Amenta, T. Elliott","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10065","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a marked increase in non-moderate, or “radical,” non-human animal advocacy organizations. Social movement scholars argued that these organizations have greater difficulty than “moderate” ones in receiving substantial news coverage. But forms of substantive news coverage have increased for both moderate and non-moderate animal advocacy organizations. To address this, media analyses were conducted using content coding of The New York Times articles from 1946–2011. Logistic regression and qualitative, comparative analyses examined the conditions under which both moderate and non-moderate organizations had their demands in news coverage. Aligned with an augmented political mediation model, the findings indicated that non-moderate organizations are more likely to get substantive coverage when they target non-governmental entities on a local level through “assertive collective action.” The conclusion was that non-human animal advocacy organizations that have radical goals or tactics do not compromise the quality of media coverage in the long-term.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48670084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-29DOI: 10.1163/15685306-bja10059
A. P. Rossi, C. Maia
This study investigated how keepers report correcting their dogs’ undesired behaviors by using what they consider to be aversive to them. Over 60,000 dog keepers responded to an online questionnaire addressing this issue. The questionnaire included the frequencies of delayed corrections of perceived signs of previously occurring undesired behaviors, the type of aversive actions applied (independently of correction timing), and the frequencies of specific canine behaviors that the keepers sought to correct. Based on results, correcting undesired behaviors of dogs that occurred some time ago is frequently reported, and the most common corrections are not necessarily effective in reducing these undesired behaviors. Moreover, keepers commonly use aversive actions to correct dogs’ urination/defecation in inappropriate places or destruction of objects, but they do not commonly do so for excessive barking or incorrectly responding to a cue.
{"title":"Keepers Report Application of Delayed and Not Necessarily Effective Corrections to Undesired Behaviors of Dogs","authors":"A. P. Rossi, C. Maia","doi":"10.1163/15685306-bja10059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study investigated how keepers report correcting their dogs’ undesired behaviors by using what they consider to be aversive to them. Over 60,000 dog keepers responded to an online questionnaire addressing this issue. The questionnaire included the frequencies of delayed corrections of perceived signs of previously occurring undesired behaviors, the type of aversive actions applied (independently of correction timing), and the frequencies of specific canine behaviors that the keepers sought to correct. Based on results, correcting undesired behaviors of dogs that occurred some time ago is frequently reported, and the most common corrections are not necessarily effective in reducing these undesired behaviors. Moreover, keepers commonly use aversive actions to correct dogs’ urination/defecation in inappropriate places or destruction of objects, but they do not commonly do so for excessive barking or incorrectly responding to a cue.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42337249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}