Regarding Animals
Second Edition

Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders, and Leslie Irvine
Book Cover

PB: $34.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-2310-8
Publication: Jul 22

HC: $110.50
EAN: 978-1-4399-2309-2
Publication: Jul 22

Ebook: $34.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-2311-5
Publication: Jul 22

296 pages
6 x 9

A new edition of an award-winning book that examines how people live with contradictory attitudes toward animals

Read the Introduction

Description

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 second 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.

Reviews

“If the contemporary literature on human-animal relations has something like amodern ‘classic’ it is Arluke and Sanders’s Regarding Animals. ”—Sociological Forum

“It is clearly not the authors’ objective to preach or judge, but rather to observe the socially constructed view of animals that ultimately sheds brilliant light on the humans who are doing the constructing.”—Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents

Preface: What’s New in This Edition?
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Bringing Animals to the Center

Part I: The Human-Animal Tribe
1. The Human Point of View
2. Learning from Animals

Part II: Living with Contradiction
3. Speaking for Dogs
4. Pet Ownership on the Street
5. Animal Abuse and Adolescents
6. The Organizational Self of Shelter Workers
7. Dirty Work and Good Intentions
8. Systems of Meaning in Primate Labs
9. Making News about Animals
10. Boundary Work in Nazi Germany

Part III: Paradox and Change
11. The Sociozoologic Scale

Conclusion: The Uses, Abuses, and Limits of Culture

References
Index

About the Author(s)

Arnold Arluke is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Emeritus at Northeastern University and a Senior Scholar at the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. His books include Underdogs: Pets, People and Poverty (with Andrew Rowan), Just a Dog: Understanding Animal Cruelty and Ourselves (Temple), and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935 (with Robert Bogdan).

Clinton R. Sanders is a Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the author of Understanding Dogs: Living and Working with Canine Companions, Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing (both Temple) and the co-editor (with Jeff Ferrell) of Cultural Criminology.

Leslie Irvine is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Animals and Society Certificate Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her books include If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals and Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters (both Temple).


Subjects

Animals and Society Sociology

In the Series

  • Animals, Culture, and Society edited by Arnold Arluke and Clinton R. Sanders

    Animals, Culture, and Society, edited by Arnold Arluke and Clinton R. Sanders, is concerned with probing the complex and contradictory human-animal relationship through the publication of accessible books that consider the place of animals in our culture, our literature, our society, and our homes.