Attitudes and Dispositional Optimism of Animal Rights Demonstrators

Shelley L. Galvin
MARS HILL COLLEGE

Harold A. Herzog, Jr.
WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY


Mail-in surveys were distributed to animal activists attending the 1996 March for the Animals. Age and gender demographic characteristics of the 209 activists who participated in the study were similar to those of the 1990 March for the Animals demonstrators. Most goals of the animal rights movement were judged to be moderately to critically important, although beliefs about their chances of being realized varied considerably. Movement tactics judged to be least effective included the liberation of laboratory animals and the harassment of researchers. Education was seen as being a particularly important instrument of future social change. Demonstrators' scores on the Life Orientation Test -- a measure of dispositional optimism -- were significantly greater than scores of comparison groups of college students and of patients awaiting coronary bypass surgery. There was a significant positive relationship between levels of optimism and activists' perceptions of the achievement of movement objectives.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lloyd Morgan, and the Rise and Fall of "Animal Psychology"

Alan Costall
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH, UNITED KINGDOM

Whereas Darwin insisted upon the continuity of human and nonhuman animals, more recent students of animal behavior have largely assumed discontinuity. Lloyd Morgan was a pivotal figure in this transformation. His "canon," although intended to underpin a psychological approach to animals, has been persistently misunderstood to be a stark prohibition of anthropomorphic description. His extension to animals of the terms "behavior" and "trial-and-error," previously restricted to human psychology, again largely unwittingly, devalued their original meaning and widened the gulf between animals and humans. His insistence that knowledge of animal psychology could be trusted solely to "qualified" observers initiated the exclusion from science of the informal and intimate knowledge of animals gained by pet owners, animal trainers, and other scientific outsiders. The presumption, however, that animals, in contrast to people, are to be understood solely as "strangers," begs, rather than addresses, the question of animal-human continuity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Herpetofauna Pet-Keeping by Secondary School Students: Causes for Concern

Ian Bride
DURRELL INSTITUTE OF CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY, UNITED KINGDOM

This study of the patterns of herpetofauna pet-keeping and associated animal welfare issues among secondary school pupils in the United Kingdom suggests that a large proportion of the animals kept as companion animals by this group are indigenous species. In comparison with purchased species, these captured animals, even those normally long- lived, appear to suffer a high rate of mortality. Relatively large numbers of escape- and food-related deaths among these animals imply that many are not furnished with suitable vivaria or adequate care. Traded reptile and amphibian species were reported to have been kept by nearly 40% of the students who said they had kept herpetofauna, and the proportions of most taxa reflected their availability in shops. Data concerning students' opinions about their own care-knowledge appeared to support the general conclusion that students have much to learn about keeping reptiles and amphibians. These findings are considered in relation to issues of animal welfare and herpetofauna conservation. Their ramifications for school-based education about reptiles and amphibians are also discussed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have a Heart: Xenotransplantation, Nonhuman Death and Human Distress

Tania Woods
BRUNEL, THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST LONDON

An increasing shortage of transplant donor organs currently results in an escalating number of preventable human deaths. Xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans, is now heralded as medicine's most viable answer to the urgent and insurmountable human organ scarcity. Although claimed to be a biomedical prerogative, xenotransplantation is a cultural phenomenon -- a procedure engaging both the physical and symbolic manipulation of human and nonhuman bodies, thereby transforming corporeality, identity, and culture. Biomedical and scientific discourses about xenografts have obscured issues related to nonhuman animals and also could be distressful to human organ recipients, revealing that the xenograft may not be widely embraced.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dogs and Human Beings: A Story of Friendship

Sophia Menache
UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA, ISRAEL

The wide consensus in research with regard to the modernity of keeping companion animals lies behind the prevailing conclusions about attitudes toward the canine species in premodern societies. These were reviewed mainly from a utilitarian perspective. Characterized, in part, by the protective shelter of the extended household and, as such, free of the tensions affecting the nuclear family in industrial cities, premodern societies supposedly lacked in the emotional stress and indigence that condition or encourage dog keeping. A careful examination of the sources, both narrative and pictorial, however, suggests more ambivalent attitudes thus challenging widespread research premises and justifying further analysis. This study, covering rural and urban societies in the ancient and medieval periods, examines references to dogs as companion animals in traditional societies.

 

For FULL TEXT of all issues, including the most current, click FULL TEXT

To order Society & Animals Journal, go to our secure online ordering page

You can Search the online issues of Society & Animals, as well as the entire Society & Animals Forum (formerly PSYETA) website,
for topics and keywords of your interest: