Regarding Animals

Animals, Culture, and Society

by Arnold Arluke, Clinton Sanders, Leslie Irvine

Winner of the Charles Horton Cooley Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 1997 The first edition of Regarding Animals provided insight into the history and practice of how human beings construct animals, and how we construct ourselves and others in relation to them. Considerable progress in how society regards animals has occurred since that time. However, shelters continue to euthanize companion animals, extinction rates climb, and wildlife “management” pits human interests against those of animals. This revised and updated edition of Regarding Animals includes four new chapters, examining how relationships with pets help homeless people to construct positive personal identities; how adolescents who engage in or witness animal abuse understand their acts; how veterinary technicians experience both satisfaction and contamination in their jobs; and how animals are represented in mass media—both traditional editorial media and social media platforms. The authors illustrate how modern society makes it possible for people to shower animals with affection and yet also to abuse or kill them. Although no culture or subculture provides solutions for resolving all moral contradictions, Regarding Animals illuminates how people find ways to live with inconsistent behavior.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Animals, Sociology

297 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provided a perspective the inconsistencies in how humans treat animals and explores the question of how we came to hold these opposing views in tandem. An enjoyable read with a good balance of sociological analysis and personal stories.

I'd recommend it to animal welfare activists as a way to show how inconsistent we are with our treatment of animals (think along the veins of "Why do we love our pet dogs, put then eat pigs for dinner?", though it surprisingly never does mention that omnivorous inconsistency). It explores many aspects of our human interactions with animals (kill shelters, zoos, pets, research labs, etc), and I think it provides many places to start a discussion.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The different relationships we have with animals -- loving companions and commodities (eg food, clothing) -- makes one think about our treatment of all animals