Regarding Animals

Animals, Culture, and Society

by Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders

How is it that people can express great affection for animals as sentient creatures and yet turn a blind eye to the most callous behavior toward them? Animals are sold as expensive commodities, used as food and clothing, killed as vermin, and hunted for sport. They are also treated as members of the family, used as the cause celebre of social movements, and make the subject of art, film, and poetry. Such contradictions compel the authors to explore the social worlds of veterinary clinics, animal shelters, primate labs, and others through active participation.

Regarding Animals chronicles the day-to-day experiences of people who work in these places and reveals the complex strategies used to cope with the emotional traumas of the job. Combining sociological analysis with personal experience, the authors offer fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking insights into the history and practice of how we as human beings construct animals and how we ultimately construct ourselves in relation to them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Animals, Sociology

218 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Melody]

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]

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

[Emilee]

Especially enjoyed chapters 4-6. I really enjoyed the chapters that more heavily utilized ethnography (the chapter interviewing shelter workers and monkey lab techs). Some chapters were stronger/more memorable than others, but overall I enjoyed this analysis and its proposed frameworks a lot!

[Vivien Danzi]

I did like it a lot, when you're interested in animal rights, it's a great book to read!