A Bird in the House: An Anthropological Perspective on Companion Parrots

Patricia K. Anderson

Although companion birds are the third most-common animal companion -- after dogs and cats -- in U.S. households, few anthrozoological publications focus on them. This study examines the role of companion parrots in American households. The study combines a literature review with the results of a survey of bird owners and participant observation. The study uses the resulting qualitative and quantitative data in addressing the social dynamics of companion parrot ownership in the household. The data support the impression that companion parrots increasingly are being considered family members, or “Fids” (“Feathered Kids”), thus following current trends in American society that accord companion animals in general a greater investment in time, money, and emotion. However, the general public is not well informed about the complexities of captive parrot care, and psittacine wellness is an important concern.
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The Development of the P.E.T. Scale for the Measurement of Physical and Emotional Tormenting Against Animals in Adolescents

Anna C. Baldry

The Physical and Emotional Tormenting Against Animals Scale (P.E.T.) is a new self-administered scale to measure physical and emotional abuse against animals among adolescents. This study is a first attempt to establish the reliability and validity of this newly developed scale with a non-clinical sample of 1396 Italian adolescents, aged 11-17 years. The scale measures different dimensions of animal abuse, ranging from mild to more severe: bothering, tormenting, hitting, harming, and being cruel to an animal. The scale measures the prevalence and frequency of directed and witnessed abuse against animals. Principal components analysis suggested a two factor solution, with factors labeled “direct” and “indirect” animal abuse; internal consistency was good for each factor. The direct animal abuse factor was significantly correlated with the Child Behavior Checklist’s single item assessing engagement in cruelty against animals. These findings suggest that the PET scale has potential as an instrument for the measurement of animal abuse. Future studies of the PET scale’s psychometric properties, and cross-validation on new populations, are needed.

Key words: animal abuse, scale validation, adolescents
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Moby-Dick and Compassion

Philip Armstrong

Because the notions of “anthropomorphism” and “sentimentality” often are used pejoratively to dismiss research in human-animal studies, there is much to be gained from ongoing and detailed analysis of the changing “structures of feeling” that shape representations and treatments of nonhuman animals. Literary criticism contributes to this project when it pays due attention to differences in historical and cultural contexts. As an example of this approach, a reading of the humanization of cetaceans in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick--and more broadly in nineteenth-century whaling discourse--demonstrates how radically human feelings for nonhuman species are affected by shifting material and ideological conditions.

It is only recently that literary critics have begun to explore historically the changing representations of the human-nonhuman animal relationship in romanticism or early modernity (Bate, 2000; Fudge, 2000; Boehrer, 2002). This seems surprising, especially because the dedication of literary texts to documentation of the subjective minutiae of everyday life would seem to offer a mechanism finely calibrated for recording how humans have been disposed to animals in particular times and places. As a demonstration of this, my argument will focus on Melville’s Moby-Dick, as a case history of the ways in which interactions between literature and other cultural practices both produce and reflect historically-specific attitudes, especially feelings of compassion, toward nonhuman animals.

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From Animal Abuse to Interhuman Violence? A Critical Review of the Progression Thesis

Piers Beirne

This paper reviews evidence of a progression from animal abuse to interhuman violence. It finds that the “progression thesis” is supported not by a coherent research program but by disparate studies often lacking methodological and conceptual clarity. Set in the context of a debate about the theoretical adequacy of concepts like “animal abuse” and “animal cruelty,” it suggests that the link between animal abuse and interhuman violence should be sought not only in the personal biographies of those individuals who abuse animals but also in those institutionalized social practices where animal abuse is routine, widespread, and socially acceptable.

Key words: animal abuse, assaultive children, cruelty, institutionalized abuse, longitudinal analysis
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The Human-Animal Bond and Self Psychology: Toward a New Understanding

Sue-Ellen Brown

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and define self psychology and its concepts (self and selfobject) so that they can be applied toward a new understanding of the human-nonhuman animal bond. The paper utilizes selected literature from both self-psychology and the human-animal bond fields. The paper contains four primary conclusions:

1. Self psychology provides a unique model for understanding the depth and meaning of human-animal relationships;
2. Companion animals and humans can be equally important in their selfobject roles;
3. Self psychology can offer a model for understanding individual differences in attachment to companion animals; and
4. A future direction includes finding ways to assess self psychology constructs in order to measure the depth and function of the selfobject relationship.

Although the benefits of companion animals to human health have attracted a lot of scientific interest and research (Friedman, Thomas, & Eddy, 2000; Garrity & Stallones, 1998), theoretical conceptualizations of why the human-pet bond is beneficial are lacking.

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