Living with Animals 2 - Eastern Kentucky University
Living with Animals 2: Interconnections Co-organized by Robert W. Mitchell, Radhika N. Makecha, & Michał Piotr Pręgowski Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky, 19-21 March 2015 Conference overview Each day begins with a keynote speaker, and follows with two tracks that run concurrently. Locations: All talks are in the Crabbe Library. You enter the library from outside on the second floor. If you follow straight through doorways from the outside, you will eventually arrive at the Grand Reading Room, which is on the second floor. Room 108 is located on the first floor (the basement), Rooms 201, 204G and 208 are located on the second floor, and the Saturday buffet lunch and poster presentations are located on the third floor. If lost, just ask someone for help. Coffee breaks: Breakfast foods, snacks and coffee/tea/water are available throughout the day. Book display: Throughout the conference in Library Room 201, there is a book display. Several university presses have generously provided books for your perusal (as well as order sheets), and some conference participants will be displaying their books as well. Art displays: We are pleased to have visual art in diverse media during the conference. Peter Sherman’s ceramic animal sculptures, and Julia Schosser’s photography about human-animal interaction and John Hochensmith’s photography concerning horses, can found in different areas in the library during the conference. Claudia Medina’s film is presented on Friday afternoon. In addition, during the poster sessions, Linda Brant will display her artwork memorializing animals, and Lyn Miles will present artwork created by the sign-using orangutan Chantek, whose development Lyn supported and studied starting when Chantek was quite young. Thursday features the “Living with Horses” sessions, as well as concurrent sessions, and has an optional (pre-paid) trip to Berea for shopping and dinner at the Historic Boone Tavern Restaurant. Friday features the “Teaching with Animals” sessions throughout the morning and early afternoon (which includes a boxed lunch during panel discussions and a movie showing and discussion); “Living with Animals” sessions continuing in the late afternoon, and a Conference Dinner at Masala Indian restaurant. Saturday includes “Living with Animals” sessions throughout the day with intervening Poster Presentations during a buffet lunch. In addition, there is the optional trip to the White Hall State Historic Site (you pay when you arrive at the site). Sunday includes an optional (pre-paid) trip to the Kentucky Horse Park. NOTE: Boxed lunch, conference dinner, and buffet lunch are included in registration fee. Parking on campus is located ONLY in the Commuter section of the Alumni Coliseum parking lot. Be sure to avoid parking in the yellow Faculty E parking locations in the Alumni Coliseum lot, or you may be towed. Saturday parking, however, can be anywhere on campus. Please contact us if you need special assistance in traveling to and from locations. Shuttle schedule is in the folder. Foothills Shuttle, phone: 859-624-3236, M-F, 8:30am-4:30pm. You may also contact David Sowder at 859-893-4363 if you are having shuttle difficulties. Posters can be put up on Saturday morning. Posters will be attached to a 3 feet x 4 feet poster board on an easel. Pushpins will be provided. Talks (other than keynotes) will be 20 minutes long, presumably 15 minutes for the presentation, and 5 minutes for questions. If you wish to arrange your 20 minutes differently (e.g., 18 minutes for presentation, 2 minutes for questions), speak with your session chair before your session. Thursday, 19 March 2015 9:00-9:20am Grand Reading Room EKU President Michael T. Benson Welcome to EKU Robert W. Mitchell, Radhika N. Makecha, & Michał Pręgowski Welcome to Living with Animals 2: Interconnections 9:20-10:25am Radhika N. Makecha Introduction to Ian Duncan Ian Duncan Asking the Animals Living with Horses 10:45-10:50am Angela Hofstetter Introduction to Living with Horses Chair: Angela Hofstetter Grand Reading Room (for Concurrent sessions—see following page) 10:50-11:50am Grand Reading Room Gala Argent “Babysitters” and “Schoolmasters”: The Interpersonal, Intersocial and Intercultural Implications in Learning to Ride and Be Ridden Gwyneth Talley Of Stallions and Men: Moroccan Masculinity in Traditional Horseback-riding Fabienne Meiers The Urban Horse: Equestrian Traffic and Horse Husbandry in Late Medieval Cities 11:50am-1:10pm Lunch (Lunch can be purchased in Powell Building; see map) 1:10-2:10pm Grand Reading Room Hannah M. Biggs Horse Books for Kids: World War II Adolescent Fiction, Film, and Television Jopi Nyman Rereading Sentimentalism in Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty: Affect, Performativity, and Hybrid Spaces Sarah Tsiang Breeds for Needs: Type and Breed Names as a Reflection of the Horse-Human Relationship 2:30-3:30pm Grand Reading Room Keri Cronin “Mendacious Representations?”: The Camera as Witness in the Battle Over the Live Export of Horses in Early 20th Century England Jessica Dallow A “Galaxy of Distinguished Horses”: Schreiber & Sons and the Emergence of Equine Portrait Photography Angela Hofstetter Reel/Real Horses: Animals, Visual Pleasure, and Narrative Cinema Thursday, 19 March 2015 (Concurrent sessions to “Living with Horses”) Living with Elephants Chair: Radhika N. Makecha 10:50-11:50am Room 108 Catherine Doyle Keeper-Elephant Relationships: A Discussion of Patterns found in Keeper Perception of the Human-Elephant Relationship, and the Potential for Disconnect. Preston Foerder What Do Elephants Know and When Do They Know It? Ratna Ghosal, Andre Ganswindt Polani B Seshagiri, & Raman Sukumar Endocrine and Behavioural Correlates of Musth in Male Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) 11:50am-1:10pm Lunch (Lunch can be purchased in Powell Building; see map) Emotions Chair: Laura Newhart 1:10-2:10pm Room 108 Theo Verheggen Embodied Cognition and Affect Attunement in Anthrozoological Research Michele Merritt Depressed Dogs, Heartbroken Humans, and a New Philosophy of Emotions Melissa Burns-Cusato, Brian Cusato, & Amanda Glueck Threats from the Past: Barbados Green Monkeys Retain Fear of Ancestral Predators for over 350 Years Living with Dogs Chair: Michał Pręgowski 2:30-3:50pm Room 108 Helena Pycior Collective Memory of the “First Dogs”: Privilege and Power of the “First Families” of the United States Michał Piotr Pręgowski Dog Training as Taming Beasts: Canine Science versus Whispering Scott Hurley The Dog Fancy: A Site for the Intersection of Ableist, Healthist, and Speciesist Ideologies Erica Feuerbacher & Clive Wynne Most Dogs Prefer Food…But Sometimes They Don’t: Effects of Familiarity, Context, and Schedule on Dogs’ Preference for Food or Petting Optional (Pre-paid) trip to Berea with Dinner: ~5:00-9:00pm Friday, 20 March 2015 9:00-10:05am Grand Reading Room Robert W. Mitchell Introduction to Julia Schlosser Julia Schlosser Walking the Dog: An Exploration of Recent Lens-Based Images of Companion Animals Concurrent Teaching with Animals Sessions Follow: Teaching with animals 1 Chair: Mary Trachsel 10:30-11:30am Grand Reading Room Mary Trachsel Ecological Consciousness Raising: Animal Studies in the Anthropocene Jeannette Vaught Animal Infiltrations: Teaching Animal Studies in Traditional Courses Jack Furlong & Ellen Furlong Melding Justice and Science: An Interdisciplinary Course, “Ape Sapiens: Wild Minds and Captive Dignity” Teaching with animals 2 Chair: Stephanie McSpirit 10:30-11:30am Room 108 Joseph Tuminello Teaching with Foer's Eating Animals Elizabeth A. Lorenzen Let's Strike while the Iron is Hot! Using the Cause of Equine Welfare as a Vehicle for Teaching Information Literacy Susan Rustick Transforming Human Identity: Encounters in the Classroom through Animal Eyes ~11:40pm Pick up BOXED LUNCHES OUTSIDE Room 108 12:00-1:30 Room 108 Robert W. Mitchell, Anne Perkins, & Erica Feuerbacher Developing the Animal Studies/Anthrozoology Curriculum Short Movie “Animal Blessings” and discussion by filmmaker 1:50-2:30 Grand Reading Room Claudia Medina Animal Blessings: Rituals of Appreciation as Pathways to Ecological Reconnection Friday, 20 March 2015 Concurrent Sessions: Animal Agency Chair: Amy Nelson 3:00-4:00pm Room 108 Jeanne Dubino Listening to the Dogs: Orhan Pamuk and the Mongrelization of Fiction Laura Keith Creatures of Warfare: The Use, Misuse and Agency of World War I Animals Amy Nelson Canine Agency in the Soviet Manned Spaceflight Program Animals in Ecological Cultures Chair: Ed Frederickson 3:00-4:00pm Grand Reading Room Benjamin Z. Freed Pleistocene Humans and Canids: A View from Studies of Primate Polyspecific Associations Robert Michael Morrissey Tall-Grass Ethnohistory: Indians, Europeans, and Other Animals in the Prairie Borderlands Ed Frederickson, An Peischel, Greg Brann & Rick Griebenow Potential Applications for Targeted Grazing to Enhance Ecosystem Services and Rural Economies in Eastern Kentucky Concurrent Sessions: Animal Agency (continued) Chair: Sarah Tsiang 4:20-5:00pm Room 108 Magdalen J. Walton Killer Whales or Whale Killers? A Routine Activities Analysis Introducing Agency Among Orca Whales during the Capture of Orca Calves Linda J. Sumption “The tiniest glance”: Narrative, Wildlife, and the Recognition of Intimacy Imagining Alternatives Chair: Brett Mizelle 4:20-5:20pm Grand Reading Room Kathryn Kirkpatrick “Every Polar Bear Alive”: Representing Animals in the Sixth Extinction Ziba Rashidian Epistemological Artifacts, or Death and the Specimen: Nabokov’s Butterflies, for Example Brett Mizelle Mary Griffith’s Odd Future: Real and Imagined Human-Animal Relationships in Antebellum America Conference Dinner at Masala Indian Restaurant: ~6:00-9:00 Saturday, 21 March 2015 9:00-10:05am Grand Reading Room Michał Pręgowski Introduction to Marie-José Enders-Slegers Marie-José Enders-Slegers The Human Animal Bond and Further Professionalizing of Human-Animal Interventions: Theories, Results and Challenges Concurrent Sessions (Morning) Communication and Connection Chair: Sara Waller 10:30-11:50am Grand Reading Room Jane Desmond & Maria Lux Thinking “Big”: Collaborative Processes between Artists and Scholars for Public Art Production Martha Robinson Avian Encounters: Connecting with Bird Lives through Live Streaming and Contemporary Art Linda Brant American Pet Cemetery Gravestone Image Pairings: A Visual Strategy for Exploring Interspecies Relationships Sara Waller, Christopher Kloth, & Mariana Olsen Cats Talk Back: Feral & Socialized Making Decisions for Animals Chair: Matthew Pianalto 10:30-11:30am Room 108 Miranda K. Workman Euthanasia Decisions in the Sheltering Industry - A Critical Inquiry Hazuki Kajiwara Strong Bonds, Ambiguous Futures: Responses to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Japan Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton When People are in Conflict about Animals Saturday, 21 March 2015 POSTER SESSION AND BUFFET LUNCH 11:50am-1:50pm Posters will be presented during a Buffet Lunch in the Library, Third Floor. Be sure to talk with presenters to learn about their work and ideas. Linda Brant Mourning the Unknown and Honoring the Unmourned Autumn Costelle Expanding Horizons: The Goals and Achievements of EKU’s Animal Studies Club Elena Cox Lead Poisoning in Raptors: Impacts of Game Hunting with Lead Ammunition Verda A. Davis The Need for Anthrozoology in Veterinary Technology Curricula Guadalupe Delgado, Victor Pataky, Richard Ford, Brian Cusato, and Melissa Burns-Cusato Dangerous Liaisons: Human-Monkey Interactions at a Wildlife Reserve Kate Ford & Ellen Furlong Moral Reasoning in Dogs Tabitha Foster Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Making a Positive Impact on EKU’s Campus Ashley Hammond Opt to Adopt: Lexington Humane Society Tia G. B. Hansen, Mai Andreasen, Åsa H. Jansson, & Runa E. Gjellan Belief in Profit Animal Mind Predicts Attitude to Profit Animal Welfare Elena Iokimanskaya (Елена Иокиманская) A Brief Overview of the Stray Animal Problem in Russia Jessica Kraut, Stephanie AuBuchon, Connor Hughes, & Ellen Furlong Self-Control in Dogs Shane Locker The Effects of Human Interaction and other Enrichments on Captive Tiger Stereotypy and Exploration Radhika N. Makecha Paper Mache Giraffes and Puzzle Box Feeders, These are a Few of my Favorite Things: Teaching Animal Enrichment Using Traditional and Applied Avenues H. Lyn White Miles & Ross van der Harst The Art, The Artist: The Orangutan Chantek’s Paintings and Found Art Assemblages Pegah Naghib Effect of Music on Horses KiriLi N. Stauch, Stephanie AuBuchon, & Ellen Furlong Domestic Dogs’ Understanding of Intentional and Goal Oriented Action Brenden Wall, Anthony Bohner, Jeffrey Toraason, & Ellen Furlong Good Dog! APPlications of Dog Science Lucinda Woodward Research and Development of the Pet Attribute Work Sheet (PAWS—for dogs) Miranda K. Workman & Christy L. Hoffman An Evaluation of the Role the Internet Site Petfinder Plays in Cat Adoptions Saturday, 21 March 2015 Concurrent Sessions (Early Afternoon) Sanctuary/Shelter/Adoption Chair: Elan Abrell 1:50-2:50pm Grand Reading Room Elan Abrell Captive Freedom: Multispecies Ethics in US Animal Sanctuaries. Jessica Austin Moral Stress, Meaning-Making, and Mourning: How Shelter Employees Process Euthanasia Jennifer Blevins Sinski “A Cat-sized Hole in My Heart”: Public Perceptions of the Companion Animal Adoption Process Humans and Animals in Animal Assisted Interaction Chair: Tia Hansen 1:50-2:50pm Room 108 Chalotte Glintborg & Tia G. B. Hansen Importance of a Dog for Recovery after Acquired Brain Injury: Two Case Stories. Martha Sherrill Animal Assisted Therapy for Adults with Communication Disorders: An Ethnographic Approach to Therapeutic Human/Animal Interactions. Gillian Squirrell Working Dogs Working Lives: Cost-Effectively Frustrating Human and Animal Disposability Saturday, 21 March 2015 Concurrent Sessions (Late Afternoon) Animal-Human Comparisons and Identities Chair: Joshua Kercsmar 3:10-4:10pm Room 108 Joshua Kercsmar Managing Livestock and Slaves in Barbados, ca. 1650–1816 Reiko Ohnuma Animal Doubles of the Buddha Keridiana Chez Canine Connections in George Eliot’s Adam Bede and Middlemarch Valuing and Using Animals Chair: Radhika N. Makecha 3:10-4:30pm Grand Reading Room Bob Sandmeyer The Value of a Varmint Erin McKenna Loving Pets Means Caring for Livestock Radhika N. Makecha, Kathleen M. Dudzinski, Stan A. Kuczaj II, Otto Fad, & John Anderson Animals in Captive Settings: What Can We Learn From Them? Jonathan L. Clark Uncharismatic Invasives Conference Farewell! 4:30pm Optional trip to White Hall State Historic Site: ~5:45-7:30pm Sunday, 22 March 2015 Optional (Pre-paid) Trip to Horse Park, ~8:00am-1:00pm Abstracts in Alphabetical Order by Author’s Last Name Elan Abrell Captive Freedom: Multispecies Ethics in US Animal Sanctuaries. Department of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center, New York [email protected] In the last decade animal rights activists have established thousands of sanctuaries across the United States in an attempt to save tens of thousands of animals from factory farms, roadside zoos, and other situations where, activists believe, animals are neglected, abused, or unjustly slaughtered. In addition to saving the lives of individual animals, these activists seek to challenge conventional ideas about the proper treatment of animals in contemporary US society. They thus typically establish sanctuaries with the goal of creating spaces where animals can live out the rest of their lives relatively free from human control. This principle guides efforts to create lived spaces in which animals are treated as fellow subjects with interests and needs equal to those of their human co-habitators, in contradistinction to the ways animals are treated as property in more conventional contexts. While modeling these alternate ways of living with animals, all sanctuaries must also balance animals’ freedom against concerns for their safety and well-being. Indeed, practices of care limit animals’ freedom in multiple ways, from movement to medical care to diet. Even the finite spatiality of the sanctuary itself necessarily limits animal freedom. How sanctuaries navigate these dilemmas of captivity, however, is determined by animals as well as their human caretakers. This article examines several different sanctuaries’ approaches to balancing the tensions between animal wellbeing and freedom to illustrate how animals influence this balancing act. Drawing on work in queer ecology and ecofeminism, it further argues that human-animal engagements within sanctuaries queer conventional species relations, creating multispecies communities in which animals can—at least to some extent— influence the ethical, social, and material conditions of their own rescue and care. Jessica Austin Moral Stress, Meaning-Making, and Mourning: How Shelter Employees Process Euthanasia Canisius College, Buffalo, NY [email protected] Animal shelter employees face each day with the possibility of inhabiting antithetical roles: the caretaker, charged with ensuring the safety and well-being of the wards in their custody; and the executioner, overseer of these same animals’ untimely deaths. With shelter euthanasia estimates reaching nearly three million adoptable animals per year, shelter workers shoulder a considerable burden of grief, resulting in stress and manifesting in depression and even physical complaints, such as sleep disturbance and headaches. While several authors describe coping mechanisms for those whose work involves death, both in general and specifically tailored toward shelter employees, little is written about how shelter workers mourn the animals they euthanize, and how grieving for these beings shapes their sense of self. Separating coping from mourning entails examining both the proximate mechanisms that shelter personnel employ in order to continue to fulfill occupational obligations, as well as the ultimate emotional effects of ongoing loss and how they influence understanding of one’s beliefs and values. In this study, semistructured interviews with shelter staff explored the myriad emotions that inform shelter workers’ outlook on their role in animal death, and how personal mourning rituals and practices occur and empower them to continue in their bipolar role as both protector and life-taker. This presentation will discuss the findings and perspectives gathered from six shelter employees who reported in equal part mourning, not mourning, and mourning only specific animals. Ignoring the possibility of mourning does a disservice to these individuals and perhaps quashes some of the benefits to be realized both to employees and the animals who they may advocate for even more strongly through forging a new sense of purpose. Strategies will be discussed for shelters to pay heed to the benefits of recognizing both coping and mourning in their employees. Hannah M. Biggs Horse Books for Kids: World War II Adolescent Fiction, Film, and Television Rice University, Houston, Texas [email protected] As World War II raged on, a new genre of children’s literature was developing out of both the U.S. and England. This genre was the ‘horse book’: stories about children and their horses. Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet was published shortly before WWII in 1935 in England; Mary O’Hara’s My Friend Flicka was published in 1941 in the U.S.; Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion in 1941, again in the U.S.; and Marguerite Henry’s, Misty of Chincoteague wrapped up the influx of wartime horse literature out of the U.S. two years after the war’s end, published in 1947. These four books are still considered reading staples for every equestrian youth. But the question begs: what about the wartime era fostered stories of children and horses? And what is it about the romantic aura of a child and his/her horse that is so attractive to children’s book authors of the mid-20th century? There is something intrinsic about the story of a child and his/her horse that captivated wartime children, both on the page and later on the screen. This paper will parse out those captivations, these four major authors’ fascination with the child-horse protagonist pair, and posit that wartime children’s equestrian literature (starting in WWII) exemplifies some of the earliest, most under recognized 20th-century portrayals of human-animal kinship. These kids’ books place the entire emphasis of the novel on the intrinsic connection between a human and his/her animal. In a period fraught with war and crumbling human and family relationships, the stuff of children’s dreams at night, a child’s daytime playmate and, ultimately, his/her fantasy world of fiction were populated and made better by an animal, a horse. Linda Brant Mourning the Unknown and Honoring the Unmourned Independent Artist & Part-time Faculty Ringling College of Art and Design Sarasota, Florida [email protected] Is it possible to mourn the loss of unknown animals? How can animals that most people do not consider “grievable” be recognized and honored? I explore these ideas through the process of cleaning, polishing and re-presenting the bones of typically unmourned animals such as cow, pig, lamb, turkey, and chicken. To clean is to purge, purify, detoxify, chasten, sanctify, improve, or absolve. In many cultures, ritualistic exhumation and cleaning of human bones is considered an act of love and reverence. Could the process of cleaning, sanding and polishing the bones of common animals be similarly construed? Might it also be interpreted as an act of mourning, honoring or atonement? The process of mourning the unknown and honoring the unmourned is investigated through text, photographs and sculpture in this ‘hands on’ poster presentation. Linda Brant American Pet Cemetery Gravestone Image Pairings: A Visual Strategy for Exploring Interspecies Relationships Independent Artist & Part-time Faculty Ringling College of Art and Design Sarasota, Florida [email protected] The process of honoring can take many forms, ranging from traditional burials and funerary rites to everyday acts such as story-telling, picture-making and memory production. Its traces can be observed in American pet cemetery gravestones. Prior to the 1960s, animals were rarely honored with individual gravestones. If they were, the stones were simple, indicating only the first names of pets. As the quality of human and companion animal relationships changed, so too did pet cemetery gravestones. Some of the major changes on gravestones include giving human first names and surnames to pets, references to pets as family members, religious references and symbols, references to the afterlife, the addition of color photographs and even websites for pets (Brandes). Over the past two years, I have taken dozens of photographs of pet cemetery gravestones in rural and suburban Florida cemeteries. I have selected the most compelling photos and paired them with images from contemporary culture with the aim of highlighting the myriad contradictions and inconsistencies in our treatment of nonhumans. In my presentation, I will show a range of images from my fieldwork, demonstrating the historical changes in gravestones, highlighting the interplay of human judgments, language, and chance factors in determining the fate of non-human animals, and revealing the power of visual art to provoke informed discourse on interspecies relationships. Brandes, Stanley. "The Meaning of American Pet Cemetery Gravestones." Ethnology 48.2 (2009): 99- 118. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. Melissa Burns-Cusato, Brian Cusato, & Amanda Glueck Threats from the past: Barbados green monkeys retain fear of ancestral predators for over 350 years Department of Psychology, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] The ability to recognize and differentiate between predators and nonpredators is a necessary skill for animals that engage in anti-predator behaviors. While there is evidence that both genetic and experiential factors mediate predator recognition in various animal species, it is unknown which of these two mechanisms the green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) utilizes. A feral population of green monkeys that has been isolated from predators on the island of Barbados for over 350 years offers a unique opportunity to investigate the mechanisms underlying predator recognition in this species. Two experiments were designed to determine whether green monkeys’ ability to recognize predators as threatening was largely genetic or learned. In separate experiments, monkeys’ approach to visual representations of a leopard (exp 1) and a snake (exp 2) were measured. In both experiments, monkeys showed less approach to the predator stimuli than control stimuli. The results of these two experiments suggest that the green monkeys have retained the ability to distinguish ancestral predators from ancestral non-predators despite not having the opportunity to observe the predator-response pairing for over 50 generations. Keridiana Chez Canine Connections in George Eliot’s Adam Bede and Middlemarch Department of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY [email protected] Irrational instinct and uncontrolled passion were, for centuries, externalized onto the non-human animal so that the human could conceive of himself as a uniquely rational being. But what if animals also served as useful tools to comprise humanity by their inclusion? This talk grows out of a larger project investigating how the middle classes on both sides of the Atlantic developed the use of animal companions as emotional prostheses. The advent of modernity fueled a dramatic change in attitudes towards animals, yet the goal of these humane attitudes was not, as it would first appear, to fill emotional vacancies with animals, but rather to forge new connections between humans via the animal. Expanding the model of prosthesis (as emotional rather than physical, being rather than thing), I argue that the bourgeoisie used intimacies with companion animals to enhance their capacity to feel and connect—transforming the concept of the “animal” and of themselves as “human.” The mobilization of affect on this large a scale was an achievement of narration: the novel forged an imagined community between the “humane” subjects of England and the U.S. by regulating the representation of human-animal relationships. In her fiction, George Eliot includes emotive character sketches of canine subjects who are endowed with autonomous existence. They often have little histories of their own and more willfulness in their ways of being. They are empowered as judges of character, able to distinguish between persons they like and do not like and act accordingly. Most importantly, they participated in the development of the nineteenthcentury discourse of human-dog relationships, particularly in the work dogs performed in signaling the potential for and development of sanctioned interhuman connections. Adam Bede is a representative example of a key moment in history where the dog transitioned from family members into more exclusive personal attachments. In Adam Bede, Adam’s attachment to Gyp enables him to maintain the ability to sympathize with others and is central to his moral development. Eliot’s novels represent a process I am calling “togethering”—the process by which the “irrational” animal Other is then reappropriated as an attached, affect-enhancing instrument. My talk will explore how “man’s best friend” was central to the making of the modern individual not only by exclusion, but by intimate inclusion. Jonathan L. Clark Uncharismatic Invasives Department of Sociology, Ursinus College [email protected] Late on June 4th or early on June 5th, 2012, more than a year after a devastating tsunami struck Japan, a massive commercial fisheries dock washed ashore on a popular Oregon beach. But what was even more surprising than the dock itself were the passengers who had come along for the ride. The surface of the dock was quite simply teeming with marine life, including various invertebrates. The dock was quickly traced to the coastal town of Misawa, Japan, where the tsunami had dislodged it with these “biofouling” organisms attached. Soon after arriving on the scene, biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) identified several potentially invasive species. As a precautionary measure, an ODFW team scraped the organisms off the dock and then buried them above the high-tide line. Although philosophers have explored the question of whether “invasive species” ought to be worthy of moral consideration, there has been little anthropological or sociological research on how invasive species managers think about these kinds of normative questions. Taking a descriptive, ethnographic approach to the ethics of invasive species management, this paper examines how the members of the ODFW team thought about the moral status of the potentially invasive marine invertebrates on the dock. I argue that the position of these animals on two intersecting scales of moral worth—the sociozoologic scale and the phylogenetic scale—rendered them unworthy of moral consideration. Autumn Costelle Expanding Horizons: The Goals and Achievements of EKU’s Animal Studies Club Animal Studies Program, Department of Psychology, EKU [email protected] This poster is an overview of the Animal Studies Club at Eastern Kentucky University and its achievements. The Animal Studies Club was established in 2011 and continues to grow under the guidance of Dr. Radhika Makecha and strong student leadership. The Animal Studies program at EKU is unique, and the club celebrates this by promoting awareness of the major and the field of Animal Studies. Our main purpose is to explore ideas, internship and career opportunities, and to benefit the lives of animals. We plan events and trips that help our members gain knowledge and hands-on experience outside of the classroom. With every speaker event and trip we take, students make connections with professionals in the field. With visits to (e.g.) the Primate Rescue Center, the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, and the Lexington Humane Society, students get exposure to animal welfare issues and animals themselves, as well as to the people who engage in humane action toward animals. The Animal Studies Club donates and volunteers at these and other organizations. Our meetings have presentations on numerous topics, most recently on dog chaining and abuse; the Ross University Vet School program; the pros and cons of using trap, neuter, release with cats on campus at EKU; the politics of the New York horse carriage business; rabbit rescuing and rescuers; and wildlife rehabilitation. Meetings provide opportunities for Animal Studies majors to share their knowledge and ideas, and discuss current animal-related issues. Students have presented to the club on reptiles, the exotic pet business, wildlife rehabilitation, therapy and service dogs, and buying cruelty-free products. A fundraiser, “Zoo to You Day,” educated children on animals through a day camp with various presenters and live, well-cared-for animals. This semester our events include a trip to the Liberty Nature Center, an overnight trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, and a presentation on the many internship opportunities available. The Animal Studies Club is an asset to EKU’s students, whose active participation in it allows the Club to thrive. Elena Cox Lead poisoning in raptors: Impacts of game hunting with lead ammunition Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine [email protected] Lead is a non-specific toxin that is known to affect a broad spectrum of physiological processes. At levels as low as several parts per million, it can cause fatal neurological damage and organ failure; milder symptoms are often secondary causes of death. Due to their morphology and feeding behaviors, diurnal raptors have been disproportionately impacted by lead toxicosis. Previous reports on lead impacts on waterfowl before and after existing lead shot bans, combined with data from wildlife biologists and veterinarians, indicate that the most likely source of lead for these birds is spent ammunition and bullet fragments left in gut piles or carcasses. The birds present with symptoms of toxicosis after ingesting the lead fragments, rather than being directly shot and targeted by game hunters. This report includes data from the Wildlife Center of Virginia, a wildlife rehabilitation facility that receives approximately 2500 patients a year, many of them birds of prey. Patient data from wildlife rehabilitators provides a window into significant causes of morbidity and mortality of wild species. The findings support the high mortality rate of lead toxicity, and the high rate of morbidity within our sample of the population. Considered with the human health risks associated with lead ammunition for terrestrial game hunting, the consequences of lead toxicity in raptors show a substantial need to further engage the hunting community as conservation partners. Keri Cronin “Mendacious Representations?”: The Camera as Witness in the Battle Over the Live Export of Horses in Early 20th Century England Department of Visual Arts, Brock University [email protected] This paper focuses on a 1914 film made as part of the fight against the live export of horses for slaughter from England to continental Europe in the early 20th century. This film was made at the insistence of a Norfolk reformer named Ada Cole, and was the culmination of a series of visual tactics that Cole engaged in to bring attention to the issue. This was a significant undertaking, in all likelihood the first time this technology was used in service of animal advocacy efforts. To create the film Cole worked with both the RSPCA, who financed the endeavor, and the famed Pathé firm. In November 1925, over a decade after the film was made, there were allegations that it had been based on faked footage, and a high-profile court case saw Cole and members of the RSPCA defending themselves against these allegations. In the end their accuser, Captain Robert Gee, a Member of Parliament from Leicestershire, recanted his accusations and was sued for slander. In addition to providing good copy for the newspaper and fodder for the gossip mills, this incident also illustrates some of the complexities relating to the use of imagery in animal advocacy. Cole’s insistence upon obtaining film footage of this industry speaks to the broader cultural associations that equate camera-based imagery with a form of documentary truth, showing things as they really are. Some of the questions that this research raises include: How do ideas about what constitutes “humane” and “cruel” activities get articulated through visual means? How do images function in this context and what kinds of expectations do viewers have of them? Why do certain types of images have more currency than others when it comes to political activism? How do ideas about “witnessing” get complicated through different types of visual material? Jessica Dallow A “Galaxy of Distinguished Horses”: Schreiber & Sons and the Emergence of Equine Portrait Photography Department of Art History, University of Alabama at Birmingham [email protected] This paper addresses the emergence of equine portrait photography in the United States through an examination of Portraits of Noted Horses of America, a collection of fifty albumen prints of the nation’s trotters and Thoroughbreds, published in 1874 by the Philadelphia-based firm Schreiber and Sons. Patriarch Franz George and his sons specialized in animal portraiture, photographing zoo animals, pets, livestock, and many of country’s most renowned race and show horses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Though the Schreibers were not the first artists to attempt a comprehensive portrait portfolio of American horses, they were the first to successfully complete and publish one. In the preface to Noted Horses of America, the Schreibers describe their photographs as “taken from life,” with nothing omitted nor added “to make a picture to please the still more pitiful vanity of an owner.” Their emphasis on accuracy and objectivity signals their audience’s desire for truthful likenesses, but also emerges from the climate of nineteenth-century Philadelphia, a city with a dynamic photographic community and a rich history of portraiture. The Schreiber name is perhaps best known in connection to local artist Thomas Eakins, who often relied on friend Henry Schreiber’s photographs for aids for his paintings. But in addition to describing their images as “perfectly accurate”, the Schreibers also stress Noted Horses of America’s value as a collection of images. The act of bringing together a “galaxy of distinguished horses” affords the viewer the opportunity for comparative study, a means by which to determine not only how heredity, evidenced by pedigree, but also how form and proportion, shown through equine physique, produce speed and endurance. In this paper, I argue that the combination of accuracy and comparative analysis is key to understanding how the Schreiber’s book epitomized the conflicting ideologies of the American horse industry in the post-Civil War period and helped to codify them. Though invigorated by modern technologies of representation and scientific theories of training and selective breeding, the industry—and consequently its attendant visual traditions—remained faithfully committed to early modern models of animal portrait composition, natural history illustration, and comparative anatomy. Verda A. Davis The Need for Anthrozoology in Veterinary Technology Curricula Canisius College, Buffalo, New York [email protected] Anthrozoology is a burgeoning field of study that examines human relationships with, attitudes toward, and uses of nonhuman animal species. Anthrozoologists study animal behavior, animal welfare, the human-animal bond, and animal ethics, to name just a few of the field’s concerns. All of these issues are dealt with by veterinary technologist on a nearly daily basis. Veterinarians are relying more and more on vet techs in private clinics and animal hospitals, as well as in veterinary testing laboratories, biomedical research facilities, and in food safety roles. Because of their position in the front lines of animal health, vet techs are considered a valuable source of information regarding not only pets, but all nonhuman animals. Vet tech programs focus mainly on the ever so important technical skills needed for veterinary medical and diagnostic procedures. Some programs offer courses with sections on grieving clients, the human-animal bond, and veterinary ethics, however, none to my knowledge currently offer an explicit Anthrozoology course. I am proposing that an introductory course in Anthrozoology should be offered in veterinary technology programs. This poster discusses why Anthrozoology is important to veterinary technologists, what specific aspects of Anthrozoology should be covered in a vet tech program, as well as a sample course syllabus. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of Anthrozoology, I also offer suggested tweaks to the syllabus to make the course suitable in a number of academic departments, including anthropology, sociology, and animal science. Guadalupe Delgado, Victor Pataky, Richard Ford, Brian Cusato, & Melissa Burns-Cusato Dangerous Liaisons: Human-Monkey Interactions at a Wildlife Reserve Department of Psychology, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Wild green monkeys living in the vicinity of the Barbados Wildlife Reserve have received daily food provisions from staff for more than a decade. The purpose of provisions is two-fold: to demotivate monkeys from raiding nearby fruit crops and to attract tourists that would like to observe the free-ranging monkeys in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, some tourists ignore posted signs warning of the dangers of approaching the wild, unpredictable monkeys too closely. Tourists that tease, try to touch, or pick up the monkeys have been bitten or scratched. Such incidents have also occurred at many locations where humans can interact closely with primates (e.g., Monkey Island and Gibraltar). The present study examined the impact of a verbal greeter at the entrance of the Reserve on the rate of potentially dangerous behaviors seen in tourists. Subjects that were greeted with or without a verbal warning about touching the monkeys showed significantly lower rates of dangerous behaviors than subjects that did not received a verbal greeting. Implications for promoting safe interactions with these wild animals will be discussed. Jane Desmond1 & Maria Lux2 Thinking “Big”: Collaborative Processes between Artists and Scholars for Public Art Production 1 Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 2Independent Artist, Champaign, Illinois [email protected]; [email protected] Responding to the conference’s emphasis on the visual and on interdisciplinary work, this joint presentation by a scholar and a visual artist discusses our collaborative working process and the larger issues that arise from it. We take our experience in developing ideas and visual renderings for a billboard contest, called “Sky Gallery,” sponsored by our local art council last year, as a starting example. Working together to develop ideas through discussion, engaging with research on emergent topics, such as animal cognition, and then drafting and refining visual designs for a large scale artwork, we created three separate designs that were submitted to the competition, which drew about 60 entries. The 6 winning entrees are shown for 12 months each, potentially reaching a mobile audience in the tens of thousands as the artworks appear in changing billboard spaces throughout the micro-metropolitan area of Champaign-Urbana. One of our three submissions, which features a short narrative in the style of a book illustration, was selected, and continues to be on display. It depicts human-animal interactions in a public park, while drawing attention to new understandings of crow cognition through a three-panel narrative. In our contest of wills between humans and crows, the crows win. We consider the process of working from scholarly sources to visual designs and back again, the challenges of producing a politically engaged large scale public art piece that addresses a relatively undifferentiated public (potentially anyone in the community in any section of town in a car or public transportation), in a city with vested interests in agricultural animals, and the crucial issue of legibility when your audience is moving quickly past your image in traffic. We will also discuss briefly a mini-version of this project introduced into a college course as a way of encouraging students to combine a targeted argument and public rendering of their research. In the latter half of the discussion, we move outward from these examples to consider the larger issues they reveal: a) How might scholarly/artistic collaborations extend the work we are able to do alone? Do they require/encourage a sort of “third voice” that belongs in between the two arenas? b) How does the focus on the creation of an object change collaboration and c) how do we work within the demands of sponsored public art—which must accommodate a variety of community needs and desires—while still producing strong assertions about human-animal relations? Catherine Doyle Keeper-elephant relationships: A discussion of patterns found in keeper perception of the human-elephant relationship, and the potential for disconnect. Director of Science, Research and Advocacy, Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) [email protected] This discussion of the keeper-elephant relationship stems from a quantitative study that investigated captive African elephant preferences for certain keepers as measured by responses to olfactory and auditory cues. A key component in the study, which was conducted at a sanctuary and a zoo, was a survey that provided its own interesting findings on keeper perception of their relationships with the elephants. In the survey, 8 keepers (4 at each facility) rated their relationships with each elephant; predicted how each elephant would rate other keeper-elephant relationships; and predicted how each elephant would rate their own relationships, among other information. Keepers participating in the study included 4 males and 2 females, between 25 and 44 years of age, with a range of 3 to 14 years of experience working with elephants. The study analyzed keeper perceptions of relationships with the elephants; interactions and time spent with the elephants in relation to keeper-elephant relationship ratings; and length of keeper experience and relationship ratings. Patterns were found in the perception of keeper-elephant relationships both inter-facility and intra-facility. Keepers gave higher ratings to other keepers with more experience but experience was not a factor in rating their own relationships with the elephants. Keepers tended to rate their own relationships with elephants higher than those of other keepers. Keepers at the zoo rated their relationships with the elephants significantly higher than did keepers at the sanctuary. Keepers at the zoo also engaged more frequently than keepers at the sanctuary in nonhusbandry, non-training interactions with the elephants (e.g., giving treats, spending extra time with them). The difference in time spent working with elephants at the zoo and the sanctuary approached significance, with keepers at the zoo spending more time with the elephants. These differences and the suggested bases for them imply the potential for a disconnect between how keepers believe elephants perceive them and how elephants may actually view relationships with their keepers. This can have safety implications for keepers and welfare implications for captive elephants. Jeanne Dubino Listening to the Dogs: Orhan Pamuk and the Mongrelization of Fiction English and Global Studies Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina [email protected] Dogs do speak, but only to those who listen. Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red One of the nineteen first-person narrators in Orhan Pamuk’s polyphonic novel, My Name Is Red, is a stray dog who speaks directly to the reader in the third chapter, entitled “I Am a Dog.” What most particularly exercises this stray is the hostility he encounters from the “hajis, hojas, clerics, and preachers” who “persist in saying that dogs are impure” (My Name Is Red 12, 13). Pamuk’s dog is not ashamed of being “a four-legged beast” (Red 13), and concludes by the end of his chapter that he and his fellow canines are not the enemy; rather, the “boneheaded” clerics who vilify dogs are themselves the “infidels” (Red 11, 14). In a book that celebrates multiculturalism and hybridity, the dog becomes a spokesperson for a new and liberating way of looking at life, one that counters the narrowminded fetishization of purity and singularity represented by the clerics. My Name Is Red is a Neo-Ottoman novel set in the late sixteenth century, when dogs were considered unclean, or haram. But, as Kim Fortuny writes in “Islam, Westernization, and Posthumanist Place: The Case of the Istanbul Street Dog,” stray dogs are still considered dirty and taboo—and a sign of backwardness. Hence, programs of westernization, started in the nineteenth century, have entailed, among other things, the elimination of dogs from the streets of Istanbul. Pamuk writes about these efforts as well in his memoir Istanbul: “the state and the school system have launched campaign after campaign to drive dogs from the streets, but still they roam free” (44). As if in protest against this intifada on dogs, Pamuk continues to populate the pages of both of his Neo-Ottoman novels (also The White Castle) and his contemporary ones, including Silent House and The Museum of Innocence, with stray dogs. This paper will connect the mongrelization of Pamuk’s fiction—that is, his resistance to the singular vision of the clerics and also to the uniform, republican ideals of Kemalism—to the presence of the dogs who roam free within its pages. At the same time, Pamuk is keenly interested in the mongrels as mongrels. In one of his essays, “What I Know about Dogs,” Pamuk wonders what it must be like to be a dog. Along with considering Pamuk’s attempts to portray dogs from their points of view, I will return to the implied imperative of the headnote: we should learn to listen to those who speak. Ian J.H. Duncan Asking the Animals Professor Emeritus, Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada [email protected] Human beings have been able to control some species of animals for thousands of years. For example, they have been able to control horses for riding and draught, elephants and camels for riding, oxen for ploughing, and dogs for a variety of tasks. One could consider this as “Telling animals what to do”. During the 20th century, behavioral scientists began to understand communication systems of various species of animals and how they pass information amongst themselves. In the past 40 years, we have developed techniques of “Asking animals what they feel” and these techniques will be described. The argument will be developed that welfare is all to do with what the animal feels, with the absence of negative subjective emotional states that are usually called "suffering" and, probably, with the presence of positive subjective emotional states that are usually called “pleasure”. Although subjective states are not directly accessible to scientific investigation, it is possible to gather indirect evidence on how positive or negative an animal feels under particular circumstances. Methods of "asking animals what they feel” will be illustrated with examples of preference testing and motivational testing in a variety of species. Using these methods we can get a more objective measurement of the effect on the animal of the conditions we impose on it and the procedures we subject it to. These methods will help to answer the questions “Does it matter to the animal?” and “How much does it matter?” Marie-Jose Enders-Slegers The Human Animal Bond and Further Professionalizing of Human-Animal Interventions: Theories, Results and Challenges Anthrozoology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Open University Heerlen, the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands [email protected] The bond between humans and (companion) animals has existed for many thousands of years Germonpre et al., 2009). The role that (companion) animals play differs in the various time periods, the various societies and in the different life stages of humans. Since the last three decades many empirical research findings about meaning and effects of human-animal relational interactions have become available. Most emphasis is put on the positive effects of animal assisted interventions for the wellbeing of humans, and particularly for the wellbeing and quality of life of vulnerable populations (demented elderly, children with autism, psychiatric patients). Also the health promoting factors of having a companion animal for the ’normal’ population have been at the center of attention. Many social, psychological and physiological processes were revealed and Social Support Theories, Attachment Theories as well as the functioning of hormones were applied to explain the positive outcomes of human-animal interactions and interventions (Enders-Slegers, 1993, 2000, Julius et al., 2013). I would like to present the current state of affairs in this research on the human-animal bond and animal assisted interventions. In addition, I would like to point out the state of current affairs in the multidisciplinary and extended field of the practitioners, actually doing the animal assisted interventions. Theoretical backgrounds and new insights, drawn from developmental psychology (Fogel, 1993), cultural psychology (Voestermans & Verheggen, 2013), ethology (Hare & Tomasello, 2005), evolutionary science and neuroscience (Panksepp, 2011; Porges, 2007) will be briefly addressed. A final very important point that I would like to raise concerns challenges in the field of the practitioners, such as a guaranteed quality of the interventions, continuing education of professionals as well as volunteers, and the seminal challenge of safe guarding animal wellbeing in the human-animal bond or animal assisted interventions. Enders-Slegers, M.J. (1993). Investigation of the meaning for the elderly of a relationship with companion animals, in Hicks, E.K. (Ed) Science and the Human-Animal Relationship. Enders-Slegers, M. J. (2000). The meaning of companion animals: Qualitative analysis of the life histories of elderly cat and dog owners. In E. S. Podberscek, J. A. Paul, & J. A. Serpell (Eds.), Companion animals and us: Exploring the relationships between people and pets (pp. 209–236). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Fogel, A. (1993) Developing through Relationships. Origins of communication, self, and culture. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Germonpré, M., Sablin, M.V., Stevens, R. E., Hedges, R.E.M., Hofreiter, M., (2009). Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 473–490. Hare, M. & Tomasello, M. (2005). Human-like social skills in dogs? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 440-444 Julius H., Beetz A., Kotrschal K., Turner D., & Uvnäs-Moberg K. (2013). Attachment to Pets. New York: Hogrefe. Panksepp, J. (2011). The basic emotional circuits of mammalian brains: do animals have affective lives? Neuroscience & Behavioural Reviews, V 35, 9, 1791-1804. Porges S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74, 116–143. Voestermans, P.P.L.A., & Verheggen, Th. (2007). Cultuur & Lichaam. Een Cultuurpsychologisch Perspectief op Patronen in Gedrag. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Erica N. Feuerbacher1, and Clive D. L. Wynne2. Most Dogs Prefer Food…But Sometimes They Don’t: Effects of Familiarity, Context, and Schedule on Dogs’ Preference for Food or Petting 1 Department of Anthrozoology, Carroll College, Helena, Montana 2 Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona [email protected]; [email protected] Despite our long standing relationship with dogs, little is known empirically about their preferences for different types of human interaction. Previous research has indicated both petting (McIntire & Colley, 1967) and food (Feuerbacher & Wynne, 2012) have reinforcing effects on dog behavior and support social behavior towards humans (food: Elliot & King, 1960; social interaction: Brodbeck, 1954). Which type of interaction dogs prefer and which might produce the most social behavior from a dog has not been investigated. We assessed how dogs allocated their responding in a concurrent choice between food and petting. Dogs received five 5-min sessions each. In Session 1, both food and petting were continuously delivered contingent on the dog being near the person providing the respective consequence. Across the next three sessions, we thinned the food schedule to a Fixed Interval (FI) 15-s, FI 1-min, and finally extinction. The fifth session reversed back to the original food contingency. We tested owned dogs in familiar (daycare) and unfamiliar (laboratory room) environments, and with their owner or a stranger as the person providing petting. In general, dogs preferred food to petting when food was readily available and all groups showed sensitivity to the thinning food schedule by decreasing their time allocation to food, although there were group and individual differences in the level of sensitivity. How dogs allocated their time with the petting alternative also varied. We found effects of context, familiarity of the person providing petting, and relative deprivation from social interaction on the amount of time dogs allocated to the petting alternative. Preston Foerder What Do Elephants Know and When Do They Know It? Department of Psychology, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga [email protected] Elephants are generally considered to be extremely intelligent. However, until recently, there has been little empirical research conducted on elephant cognition. This presentation will give an overview of our current knowledge of elephant cognition. Elephants have been shown capable of many cognitive abilities including visual and olfactory discrimination, numerosity, tool manufacture, mirror self-recognition, and an understanding of cooperation. A focus will be on my research which has shown elephant’s capable of insightful problem solving: spontaneous problem solving without evident trial and error behavior. In humans this phenomenon has been referred to as insight or the “aha” moment. Surprisingly, elephants had failed to exhibit insightful problem solving in previous cognitive studies. I tested whether three Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. would use sticks or other objects to obtain food items placed out-of-reach and overhead. One elephant, a 7-year-old male elephant solved the problem by moving a large plastic cube, on which he then stood, to acquire the food. In further testing he showed behavioral flexibility, using this technique to reach other items and retrieving the cube from various locations to use as a tool to acquire food. In the cube’s absence, he generalized this tool utilization technique to other objects and, when given smaller objects, stacked them in an attempt to reach the food. Previous failures to demonstrate this ability in elephants may have resulted not from a lack of cognitive ability but from the presentation of tasks that required trunk-held sticks as potential tools, thereby interfering with the trunk’s use as a sensory organ to locate the targeted food. Preliminary results from ongoing problem solving research on African elephants will also be included. Kate Ford & Ellen Furlong Moral Reasoning in Dogs Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University [email protected]; [email protected] A sense of morality, values predisposing what is right (fair, just, kind) and what is wrong (unfair, cruel, dishonest) appears universally across all humankind. All major cultures share support for some values, such as self-respect, respect for others, and ‘the golden rule’—treat others how you wish to be treated—and disdain for some sins, such as murder, theft and dishonesty (Kinnier, Kernes & Dautheribes, 2000). Some moral behaviors, such as inequity aversion, the tendency to do no harm and cooperation are found to exist in virtually all human adults. But where does morality come from? Is it uniquely human or do we share some moral values with nonhuman animals? To explore these questions domestic dogs—nonhumans with exceptional social cognitive skills—were tested for moral values through a replication of a study on moral reasoning in human infants (Hamlin & Wynn, 2011). Dogs watched a puppet show with a moral and immoral actor—the moral actor helped a neutral character achieve a goal and the immoral actor prevented the actor from achieving the goal. Dogs reacted stronger when the neutral puppet chose to associate with the immoral hinderer than the moral helper, demonstrating that dogs, like human infants, expect agents to choose to associate with morally ‘good’ actors. Though this is a preliminary study it suggests that a sense of morality may not be uniquely human and may be an evolved trait shared by humans and nonhumans alike. Tabitha Foster Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Making a Positive Impact on EKU’s Campus Community Cats Volunteer; Animal Studies Program, EKU [email protected], [email protected] Similar to many institutions of higher education, Eastern Kentucky University is “home” to a community cat population that has resulted from (1) cats that have been abandoned by their owners, (2) stray cats that have become lost from their owners, and (3) feral (or community) cats that have descended from abandoned and lost cats. For decades, individuals at EKU have made significant contributions of their personal money and time to control the community cat population on campus through humane sterilization while also providing daily care for the cats. Understanding the need for an officially recognized Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program, a group of volunteers, consisting of faculty, students, staff and community members, submitted a formal proposal to help the University more quickly reach the goal of fewer cats on campus through this proven humane method. The TNR mission defined in the proposal was to immediately stabilize and ultimately reduce the number of un-owned campus cats by working through the Madison County Humane Society Animal League for Life. The University executed a Memorandum of Understanding in August, 2014, which permitted the Community Cats Volunteer group to conduct TNR work and associated care for the campus cats during non-work hours. In December 2013, the number of community/free-roaming cats on campus was estimated to be 125-150. Per the quarterly TNR report submitted the University on March 1, 2015, the estimated cat population is currently 68. The program appears to be working to reduce the number of community cats, and treating humanely those that survive. Ed Fredrickson1, An Peischel2, Greg Brann3, & Rick Griebenow4 Potential Applications for Targeted Grazing to Enhance Ecosystem Services and Rural Economies in Eastern Kentucky 1 Department of Agriculture, EKU 2 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville 3 National Resource Conservation Service, Nashville, Tennessee 4 Director of Farms, EKU [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] With the exception of companionship, and establishment of social rank, human uses of livestock are generally limited to providing society with recreation, meat, milk, and draft, or as a beast of burden. The use of livestock for vegetation management and restoring vital ecosystem services has received significantly less attention with most research being conducted in the western United States where the costs of machinery and herbicides used to manage vegetation can be greater than the resulting value of improvements in forage or other ecosystem services being managed. Vegetation management using livestock is often termed “targeted grazing”. This system uses knowledge of plant communities along with knowledge of both innate and malleable differences in diet section that exists within and among livestock species. Innate differences among species are widely known: for example, cattle prefer grasses and are less selective than goats known for browsing shrubs and/or trees. It is also known that animals learn dietary preferences in utero, or from examples provided by their parents early in life, and from their peers as they mature. In this paper we examine the potential of targeted grazing to manage vegetation (e.g. reduce invasive species such as kudzu) in eastern Kentucky and compare the costs of targeted grazing with herbicide and mechanical applications currently being employed. We hypothesize that the costs using targeted grazing are similar to other forms of vegetation management yet the additional return in animal products provides income that can support rural communities in Kentucky’s Appalachia region. We also describe existing methods of targeted grazing and how and how they might be altered to meet eastern Kentucky’s unique conditions. Lastly, we discuss the animal-human bond that results when using livestock for targeted grazing and discuss how this bond can be used to improve results. Benjamin Z. Freed Pleistocene Humans and Canids: A View from Studies of Primate Polyspecific Associations Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work, EKU [email protected] Researchers have debated whether recent archaeological finds between 20,000 and 35,000 years ago from Siberia, Belgium, and elsewhere provide the earliest evidence of human domestication of canids. Although the debate focuses on genetic and anatomical changes occurring in canids, relatively little discussion has been devoted to the nature of the interaction between the species. The purpose of this paper is to review and to provide examples of how primates as an order associate with other species in the same habitat, and how these associations can have profound evolutionary consequences. Polyspecific associations involving primates may form by chance, but in most cases, these associations may provide a species increased or enhanced: predator protection; foraging efficiency; childcare, mating, and social opportunities; and niche expansion. Results from a quantitative study of two species of lemurs show that the species regularly interact, recognize each other’s vocalizations, provide each other social benefits, and forage more effectively together during periods of resource scarcity. Overall, polyspecific associations often allow primates to co-evolve in habitats in which they might not have been able to exist outside of association. Likewise, associations between Pleistocene humans and canids may have existed and affected both species’ evolution, whether or not researchers find conclusive evidence of canid domestication. Ellen Furlong1 & Jack Furlong2 Melding Justice and Science: An interdisciplinary course, “Ape Sapiens: Wild Minds and Captive Dignity” 1 Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois; 2 Department of Philosophy, Transylvania University [email protected]; [email protected] "Ape Sapiens: Wild Minds and Captive Dignity" is a team-taught course that we will teach in May of 2015. We believe that the details of the course itself may be of some interest and use to colleagues at this conference, but our main aim in this paper is to examine the underlying rationale; namely, that studying primate cognition shows us what kinds of duties we have toward such intelligent, highly social creatures when it is found necessary to cage them. Team-taught across two campuses, involving students from both -- Illinois Wesleyan University and Transylvania University -- the course takes an evolutionary and comparative approach to non-human primate cognition. Emphasizing how differences in evolutionary pressures across species lead to differences in cognitive capacities allows us to explore the specific psychological needs of each species. We will spend several days at the Louisville Zoo and similarly at a primate sanctuary (the Primate Rescue Center in Nicholasville, Kentucky), working with chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, siamang, several species of monkeys, and lemurs, designing cognitively appropriate enrichment items for some of these species and conducting research to explore their effectiveness. In the process, and especially at the sanctuary, we will underscore the fact that primate minds are shaped for the wild, but those we will study are captive, creating the need for reflection on what we owe them. This dual focus of the scientific and the ethical most powerfully converge at our construction of a termite mound for the chimpanzees at the Primate Rescue Center, leaving us to end the course asking: is there an ethical pressure to create species-typical enrichments for such sapient apes? The rationale behind the course has matured over years of discussions, especially regarding the significance of comparative cognition, but Stephen Ross's important article, "How Cognitive Studies Help Shape Our Obligation for the Ethical Care of Chimpanzees," and Lori Gruen's work on non-human dignity helped us clarify and substantiate our thinking. In our paper, we will elaborate on this analysis and look forward to fruitful dialogue and critique. Ratna Ghosal1, Andre Ganswindt2,3, Polani B Seshagiri4, Raman Sukumara Endocrine and behavioural correlates of musth in the male Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) 1 Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, India 2 Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 002, Republic of South Africa 3 Department of Production Animal Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort 0110, Republic of South Africa 4 Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India The occurrence of musth, a period of elevated levels of androgens and heightened sexual activity, has been well documented for the male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). However, the relationship between androgen-dependent musth and adrenocortical function in this species is unclear. Therefore, our aim was to describe the behavioral characteristics and endocrine correlates of musth in both phenotypes of Asian elephants, through non-invasive monitoring of androgen and glucocorticoid metabolites in elephant feces. The study was carried out on wild male elephants in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. The study was the first assessment of testicular and adrenocortical function in free-ranging male Asian elephants by measuring levels of testosterone (androgen) and cortisol (glucocorticoid - an indicator of stress) metabolites in feces. During musth, males expectedly showed significant elevation in fecal testosterone metabolite levels. Interestingly, glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations remained unchanged between musth and non-musth periods. This observation is unlike that observed with wild and captive African elephant bulls and Asian elephants in captivity. Our results show that musth may not necessarily represent a stressful condition in free-ranging male Asian elephants. Chalotte Glintborg & Tia G. B. Hansen Importance of a Dog for Recovery after Acquired Brain Injury. Two Case Stories. Aalborg University, Centre for Developmental and Applied Psychological Science, Denmark [email protected]; [email protected] WHO advocates development of more bio-psycho-social approaches to rehabilitation. When looking beyond the physiological and cognitive consequences of acquired brain injury (ABI), which are well addressed by traditional rehabilitation practices, survivors often face psychosocial consequences too. These include depression, anxiety and identity crisis. Since animal presence has been shown to have positive effects on health, mood, and quality of life in other circumstances, we wondered whether clients with ABI, who happen to have a family dog, see it as important for their recovery. To investigate this, we examined how two clients with ABI, “Marie” and “Jasper”, constructed their dog as part of their rehabilitation process and identity transitions. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews, and discourse analytic concepts were used to find participants’ self and dog constructions. In particular, concepts of positioning and agency were employed to interpret the data. We found that the dog was constructed and positioned as a family member, a welcoming distraction, and a motivator. Also, it was seen as offering social and emotional support, closeness, and unconditional attention. We conclude that companion animals and Animal Assisted Interventions may offer support that supplements traditional rehabilitation practice in important ways, and that this possibility merits more attention and research. Tia G. B. Hansen, Mai Andreasen, Åsa H. Jansson, & Runa E. Gjellan Belief in profit animal mind predicts attitude to profit animal welfare Center for Developmental and Applied Psychological Science, Aalborg University, Denmark. [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] People may love pets but care little about the welfare of animals used for food. To accommodate the need for such distinctions, the Pest Pest Profit Scale (PPP; Taylor & Signal, 2009) differentiates attitudes to welfare for animals that are precieved as pets, as pests, or as commodities (“profit animals”), respectively. However, the PPP has only been tested in Australia and its remains to be seen whether the scale works in other parts of the world. Moreover, although belief in animal mind (Hills, 1995) is a robust predictor for general attitude to animals (e.g., Apostol et al, 2013), and Taylor & Signal (ibid.) found correlations between general attitude to animals and attitude to welfare for profit animals, it has not been examined directly whether belief in profit animal mind can predict attitude to profit animal welfare. Since it has also been shown that categorisation of animals as “meat” reduces attribution of mind to them (e.g, Bastian et al, 2012), this might not be the case. Thus, the aims of the present study were (1) to replicate the PPP scale structure in a Scandinavian context, and (2) to examine the relationship between belief in profit animal mind and attitude to profit animal welfare. With an internet-based sample (N = 172; 73 % Danes and 25 % other Scandinavians, age 17-67 with mean = 26 years), we (1) replicated the structure of PPP with a few caveats, and (2) found that belief in profit animal mind (questions modified from Hills, 1995) predicted 38.5 % af the variance in attitudes to profit animal welfare. Attribution of emotions and of conscious awareness were significant predictors. We suggest that findings have implications for marketing related to “cruelty-free meat” and profit animal advocacy. References: Apostol, L., Rebega, O. L., & Miclea, M. (2013). Psychological and socio-demographic predictors of attitudes toward animals. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 78, 521-525. Bastian, B., Loughnan, S., Haslam, N., & Radke, H. R. M. (2012). Don’t mind meat? The denial of mind to animals used for human consumption. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(2), 247-256. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211424291 Hills, A. M. (1995). Empathy and belief in the mental experience of animals. Anthrozoös, 8(3), 132-142. DOI: 10.2752/089279395787156347 Taylor, N., & Signal, T. D. (2009). Pet, Pest, Profit: Isolating differences in attitudes towards the treatment of animals. Anthrozoös, 22(2), 129-135. 10.2752/175303709X434158 Ashley Hammond Opt to Adopt: Lexington Humane Society Development Manager Lexington Humane Society [email protected] This past year, the Lexington Humane Society adopted over 4,000 animals into loving homes; provided 3,500 free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries through our Spay’sTheWay program; educated over 2,000 individuals through our camps, tours and school outreach programs; provided 700 animals lifesaving, in-home care through our foster program; and adopted 100 dogs through our Canine Companions training program. Our mission, simply stated, is to Give Love, Teach Love and Adopt Love! It is estimated that less than 30% of owned pets are adopted from animal shelters. This number is astonishingly low. We work hard every day to improve this statistic in our community, but we need YOUR help! Nationally, it’s estimated that 7.3 million dog and cats enter shelters every year and 2.6 million of them are euthanized due to overpopulation, health, and temperament issues. To end pet overpopulation and preventable euthanasia, we work especially hard to educate the public on the importance of spay/neuter and adoption. Knowledge is power, and we are on a mission to educate the public on lifelong, responsible pet ownership and the importance of making the choice to Opt to Adopt. Angela Hofstetter Reel/Real Horses: Animals, Visual Pleasure, and Narrative Cinema Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana [email protected] Can narrative cinema featuring horses represent the animal mind and interspecies relationships in ways that cannot be reduced to images of their exploitation as objects of the human gaze or dismissed as sentimental symbols? Are the powerful emotions expressed by horses merely dramatic effects of acting, mise-en-scène, cinematography, and editing that anthropomorphize a malleable equine tabula rasa for suspect ideological purposes, or could onscreen relationships of reel horses reflect—even possibly affect—those of real horses? In recognition of Marc Bekoff’s assertion that nonhuman animals benefit from responsible representation, I look for traces of the increased concern for horse welfare in recent Hollywood films such as Caroline Thompson’s Black Beauty, Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer, and Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse against classic films such as Clarence Brown’s National Velvet, Harold Schuster’s My Friend Flicka, and Carroll Ballard’s The Black Stallion. Identifying formal features of the moments that suggest the horse is more than an object of our gaze valued solely for visual pleasure offers a glimpse into how portrayals of equine subjectivity might work against as well as reinforce speciesist narrative traditions. Moreover, finding a cinematic grammar which grants a “voice” to the horse creates the possibility to reframe the celluloid horse and human relationship as a conversation between partners with powerful benefits. Scott Hurley The Dog Fancy: A Site for the Intersection of Ableist, Healthist, and Speciesist Ideologies Assistant Professor of Religion, Luther College [email protected] Using personal observations of dog shows, American Kennel Club breed standards, and literature about how to show and breed dogs as my primary source material, I argue in this paper that the “dog fancy” (the promotion, breeding, and showing of dogs) contributes to capitalist agendas which permit the manipulation, modification, and destruction of human and nonhuman animal bodies for financial gain, reifies social and cultural constructions of normalcy (defined as ablebodied, beautiful, and healthy) for both humans and canines, and perpetuates views that marginalize groups of human and nonhuman animals on the basis of their body shape and type as well as their abilities to successfully perform certain mental and physical tasks. In doing so, I demonstrate how the exploitation of canines parallels that experienced by people with disabilities or illness. Employing the concepts of eco-ability explicated in Earth, Animal, and Disability Liberation (2012), critical disability studies, and Harlan Weaver’s “becoming in kind,” I explain the ways that relationships between humans and canines in the dog show world provide the conditions for specific experiences of health, species, and ability that reinforce hierarchical ideologies. Finally, I discuss how the category of “junk dog” is created in juxtaposition to that of “show dog” and argue that humans, living vicariously through dogs, inscribe anthropocentric notions of beauty and able-bodiedness on canine bodies resulting in such deleterious practices as inbreeding and cosmetic alterations. Elena Iokimanskaya (Елена Иокиманская) A brief overview of the stray animal problem in Russia Independent scholar, Pet shelter volunteer [email protected] You become responsible forever, for what you have tamed. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The exact number of stray dogs in Russia remains unknown. Unofficial data suggests there are as many as 26,000 stray dogs live in Moscow alone. Packs of stray dogs several dozen animals large became a widespread phenomenon in Moscow at the beginning of 21st century. Unlike many other metropolises, Moscow has no laws against this. Packs may live in dumps, parks, side streets, subways stations, and abandoned houses, where they are fed by local people. Others inhabit establishments like warehouses, factories, car parking, and open air markets where they are fed by staff and employees. Occasionally these dogs will act as guards, but most will lead a nomadic life, migrating throughout the city. The average lifespan of a stray dog is about 2 years. The tremendous population of stray dogs in Russia is due to two factors: a lack of personal responsibility towards personal pet and incompetent management of the stray situation by the government. These personal and governmental failures include: Avoidance of fixing pets: Most of the nation’s population considers it inhumane to get their pet fixed, as they see it is important to let their pet give birth. The pet owner will attempt to find homes for their pet’s offspring, or hire someone who will look for them, unfortunately most pups and kittens will end up on the street because the supply of new pets dwarfs the demand for new pets. In some cases it is even the norm to simply drown the litter. Choosing pets as fashion items, not companions: Often a pet is acquired as a symbol of prestige, comfort, or own prosperity demonstration and not from a place of compassion or caring. Pets will be chosen because “they match the wallpaper”. Lost animals: Pet microchips are not yet available in Russia. Additionally, you’ll rarely find the owner’s phone number or address on a dog’s collar and Russian cats almost never wear collars. Lost pets are rarely retrieved. If there are rules for keeping dogs muzzled or leashed, they are generally ignored and rarely enforced. There are no limits on breeding: Anyone can breed dogs and cats, no license is required nor are there any taxes levied against breeders. People choose the best of the litter and the rest will up in streets or killed. Lack of government attention: There’s no support from the government in bringing attention to or resolving this issue. Promoting ideas like getting pets fixed and chipped is difficult with only donations and volunteer time. Breeder regulation and taxation is not getting any government attention. There’s no resources available from the government to help control the existing stray population. Wide scale change will need the government’s attention. As a result of the government’s failure to manage the stray dog population Russian cities began seeing dog-hunters appearance in the 2010’s. These vigilantes will kill dogs using bait with fast acting poison. In order to fix the drastic situation of stray dogs and cats in Russia the following measures must be applied by the government: 1. Strict limitations on owners pets population and breeding (high taxes for unneutered pets); 2. Strict limitations on breeding activity (taxes, licenses, etc.); 3. Adopting animals from the shelters encouragement; 4. Active promotion of pet neutering in mass media. Hazuki Kajiwara Strong Bonds, Ambiguous Futures: Responses to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Japan Graduate School of Sociology, Rikkyo University, Japan [email protected] This presentation explores the interaction between human and animals after a nuclear disaster. It reports on the responses of pet owners and their companion animals after the nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011 when the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by tsunami and released large amounts of radiation. Areas near the plant were evacuated and then divided into the three zones according to the level of radioactivity. While some dogs and cats were allowed to live with their owners in temporary housing, many companion animals had to be left behind. Some guardians return to their own house in evacuated areas each day in order to feed their animals. Moreover, many activists concerned with animal welfare also enter these areas to look after animals in spite of the radioactivity. Interviews, observation and fieldwork were used to assemble ethnographic accounts for 15 pet owners aged 30-81 (including 5 male, 2 female, and 4 couples) who were assigned to temporary housing complexes where they still live. Three findings emerged. First, some owners able to live in the temporary housing complexes with pets nevertheless kept their pets at their uninhabited homes in the evacuated areas for three-and-a-half years. Behind their behavior is a rural philosophy for companion animals that is very different from that found amongst urban pet owners. Second, the attachment of elderly guardians to companion animals is particularly pronounced. The approach to evacuation taken by government officials gave priority to human beings. Animal protection group understandably gave top priority to the animals. Each group tended to work independently. As a result, the relationship between the pets being saved and pet owners being saved was overlooked. It might be more fruitful to focus on human-animal relationship as the unit of analysis. Third, the level of radiation has greatly influenced the owner's behavior. Although the government claims it would be possible to return to the evacuated zone someday, many people do not believe those claims. They live in a limbo, stuck in government housing without being able to make a rational decision about their companion animals. It is hoped that the findings will contribute to the small but growing amount of qualitative research on human-animal relationships and interaction during and after nuclear disasters. Laura Keith Creatures of Warfare: the Use, Misuse and Agency of World War I Animals College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia [email protected] Despite the massive advances in military technologies during World War I, animals played a pivotal role in the war effort. Indeed, animals by the thousands served in the war, including horses, pigeons, cats, and even dolphins and camels. One type of animal in particular proved to be especially versatile in its contributions to the war effort: man’s best friend, the dog. Historians, beginning in the immediate aftermath of World War I and later World War II, recognized the importance of animal contributions to the two world wars and began studying the use of animals as forms of technology in their own right. Interestingly, it is this same focus on animals that has persisted into historical discussions today. However, there has been much development in the studies of wartime animals since the 1930s and 1940s: indeed, much of the historiography in this field focuses not only on the myriad uses of animals but also ideas of agency. Agency as a concept emerged in the 1980s among a group of historians who focused on the capacity of an individual to act in the world. Later, this concept would be applied to nonhuman entities as well. This is where the study of wartime animals and the theory of agency converge. Indeed, recent historians have suggested that animals were not merely a simple form of technology. Instead, they argue that animals possessed agency, choosing to dedicate themselves to the cause and serving their human masters to the best of their abilities. This is not to say that all historians agree on this topic. In fact, there are those historians who believe that animals do not have agency no matter how brave or valiant their actions may seem. By tracing the historiography of the uses of canines in World War I and later scholars’ discussions of agency, my paper will examine the limited ways the two historiographies currently intersect and the differing opinions concerning the subject. By focusing on specific examples of military dogs’ work on the Western Front it will show how a more in-depth study of war dogs intertwined with a study of such animals’ agency might enhance our understanding of inter-species interactions in the context of war. Joshua Abram Kercsmar Managing Livestock and Slaves in Barbados, ca. 1650–1816 Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow & Lecturer in History, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana [email protected] This talk argues that English sugar planters in Barbados developed overlapping strategies for managing animals and slaves from the 1650s through 1816. Backed by legal codes that equated Africans with livestock, Barbadian planters subjected human and animal laborers to brutal work regimens with little or no concern for their well-being. Yet this was no mindless endeavor. Planters thought carefully about how to extract maximum profit from the many oxen, horses, mules, and cattle they employeda task that required skills in selection, appraisal of worth, evaluation of personalities, mitigation of conflict when livestock grew testy, and the quick replacement of dead animals with living ones through trade. As plantation records, account books, and reports from observers make clear, planters applied these same skills in their dealings with slaves. In the process, however, planters often encountered the limits of equating humans with animals. Slaves’ sexuality, as well as their capacity to think, imagine, and resistnotably during Bussa’s Rebellion (April 1816)complicated efforts to treat them merely as property. Yet it was precisely slaves’ dual status as chattels and persons that enabled planters to equate them with animals for as long as they did. For livestock, too, had personalitiesand they, too, resisted human attempts to control them. Adapted from my book-in-progress, Animal Husbandry and the Origins of American Slavery, this study answers the call of David Brion Davis, a preeminent historian of slavery, to study human-animal interactions as a model for master-slave relations. Moreover, it probes the larger question of how peoples’ treatment of animals shapes their treatment of each other: a question that lies at the heart of any intersectional approach to animal studies. Kathryn Kirkpatrick "'Every Polar Bear Alive': Representing Animals in the Sixth Extinction” Department of English, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina [email protected] How do poets represent non-human animals, especially those who are seriously endangered, in what scientists now call the sixth mass extinction? Paula Meehan's "The Solace of Artemis" suggests a way. Written for Iggy McGovern's “20/12: Twenty Irish Poets Respond to Science in Twelve Lines," this poem models for its initial audience, delegates to the European Science Open Forum in 2012, an undoing of the human/animal binary by using scientific data to recast myth. Meehan employs the trope of shape-shifting, in this case between narrator and bear, to revision human and nonhuman animal futures, in the process subverting distorted cultural dualisms between science and art. Indeed, in her tenure as Ireland Professor of Poetry, Meehan has so far made human relations with non-human animals central to her first two lectures, first in Belfast in November 2013 with "Imaginary Bonnets with Real Bees in Them" and later in Dublin in November 2014 with "The Solace of Artemis.” Moving beyond the binaries of poetry and prose, art and science, intuition and logic, literature and politics, among others, Meehan offers powerful correctives to the Cartesian dualisms that stymie our relations with the larger than human world. Jessica Kraut, Stephanie AuBuchon, Connor Hughes & Ellen Furlong Self-Control in Dogs Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Each year 6 to 8 million pet dogs enter dog shelters, approximately 60% of which are euthanized. Unfortunately, many dogs are taken to shelters, returned to shelters, or euthanized, due to behavioral problems such as fear, aggression, or separation anxiety. If we can identify dogs early who may be prone to these behaviors we could help place them in homes that are prepared for dogs with behavioral problems, reducing the rate at which they get returned to shelters. In humans one strong predictor of negative outcomes is self-control. Four-year old children who exhibit little self control are at higher risk of negative outcomes as adolescents and adults than four-year old children who exhibit more self control (Eigsti et al., 2006). Thus, finding a reliable measure of self-control in dogs may have real applications in placing dogs in appropriate homes that are prepared to deal with potential behavioral problems. We constructed a plexiglass covered wheel with an opening available for food that was rotated in front of dog subjects after Bramlett and colleagues 2012. The dog had the choice to eat plain food (kibble) that reached the window first, or to wait an additional period for good food (jerky treat). Most dogs successfully wait for food, and most importantly, demonstrate variation in how long they wait. Follow up studies will explore how long dogs can wait and whether this variation in self-control can predict behavioral problems. Shane Locker The Effects of Human Interaction and other Enrichments on Captive Tiger Stereotypy and Exploration Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary, Punta Gorda, Florida; and Animal Studies, EKU [email protected] This research took place over the summer of 2014 at the Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary in Punta Gorda, Florida. The purpose was to observe the effects of enrichment, including human interaction, on captive tiger behavior. I examined whether human interaction was stressful or beneficial (stress-reducing) for the tigers by looking for changes in stereotypy; whether or not hiding flavorful meat induced exploratory behavior; and whether or not enrichment was followed by rest. The subjects of the study were two male and four female tigers ranging from 2 to 14 years of age. Observation periods for each animal lasted a total of six hours and were separated into three periods: pre-enrichment, enrichment, and post-enrichment. Pre- and post-enrichment periods were observations that took place with no human contact with the large felids (i.e. observations were taken from a hidden position where human presence was undetected). The enrichment period consisted of two phases: in the first, spiced meat was hidden to entice exploratory behavior; in the second, training routines and displays of affection by humans were used. I used instantaneous scan sampling over five-minute intervals. The behaviors I examined were exploration, stereotypy, and resting. The results provided evidence that human interaction and other enrichment affected the tigers’ behavioral patterns by reducing stereotypic behavior and increasing exploratory behavior: stereotypic behavior declined, and exploratory behavior increased, for all tigers during the enrichment period, compared to the pre- and post-enrichment periods. Tigers also rested more after the post-enrichment periods than during earlier periods. By engaging in this study, I hoped to discover what works as enrichment for captive big cats. Elizabeth A. Lorenzen Let’s Strike While the Iron is Hot! Using the Cause of Equine Welfare as a Vehicle for Teaching Information Literacy at Peacefield Equine Sanctuary Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana [email protected] Throughout time, the innate connection between horses and humans has remained indisputable. Horses have been a part of every stage of human history and have been a helper to man for centuries. However, it seems that in spite of this, sectors of the human race have taken the horse’s giving nature for granted, and instead of horses being rewarded for their labor, they have been punished for it. Listen while this speaker tells the story of how her passion for the cause of equine welfare inspired her to reframe her career, drawing upon her lifelong experiences with horses, and to use this inspiration to inform her work with students and other constituencies at her university campus and local community. At an educational institution that places an emphasis on community engagement and experiential learning, she has been able to take the concept of embedded librarianship to a whole new level and engage the students in work with the equines at her sanctuary in eastern Vigo County, Indiana. In doing so, the volunteers at Peacefield Equine Sanctuary have been able to help the horses and learn the concepts of information literacy simultaneously. In addition, new services to other non-profit organizations have been conceived of and provided that emphasize information retrieval and dissemination. During this process, a new teaching model has evolved that emphasizes the use of mobile technologies and social media tools to create and share new types of information to participants. For Further Reference: Making Hay While the Sun Shines: Using the Cause of Equine Welfare as a Platform for Teaching the Skills of Information Literacy. Special Issue of Indiana Libraries: Innovation in Library Outreach and Instruction, Vol. 33 No 2 (2014). https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/IndianaLibraries/index Radhika N. Makecha Paper Mache Giraffes and Puzzle Box Feeders, These are a Few of my Favorite Things: Teaching Animal Enrichment Using Traditional and Applied Avenues Animal Studies, Department of Psychology, EKU [email protected] This poster will be an overview on the methods used to teach a special topics in psychology class on animal enrichment at Eastern Kentucky University. Students in the course were assigned to teams of two and assigned a species to design enrichment for from one of four facilities: The Louisville Zoo (Louisville, Kentucky), the Primate Rescue Center (Nicholasville, Kentucky), The Kentucky Equine Humane Center (Nicholasville, Kentucky), and Meadowbrook Farms (Richmond, Kentucky). The first four weeks of the course involved students reading literature on animal enrichment as well as researching the behavior, cognition, and enrichment of the species assigned to them for a review paper on these topics. Additionally, after familiarizing themselves with the literature on their respective species, each team had to submit an enrichment design for their species as well as the rationale behind the design (using the literature they had researched). The fifth and six weeks of the class involved each team obtaining materials for and constructing their enrichment design. Additionally, each team had to create an ethogram and data sheet for data collection on their species. During the final two weeks of the course, the entire class traveled to each facility and watched each team implement their enrichment design as well as used each team’s data sheet to practice collecting data on each species’ behavior. An additional trip to the Cincinnati Zoo (Cincinnati, Ohio) was included in the course for educational purposes, where students learned the differences in enrichment design for collection animals versus animals set to be re-released. Finally, students had to submit a paper describing how their assigned species reacted to their enrichment object as well as suggestions for future improvements to their object. The course was offered to both undergraduate and graduate students. Radhika N. Makecha1, Kathleen M. Dudzinski2, Stan A. Kuczaj II3, Otto Fad4, John Anderson2 Animals in Captive Settings: What Can We Learn From Them? 1 Department of Psychology, EKU 2 Dolphin Communication Project, Port Saint Lucie, Florida 3 Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg 4 Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] The presence of animals in enclosed facilities is widespread. This talk considers what can be learned from animals in such facilities that can be used to improve animal welfare and conservation. We begin with a brief history of animals in captivity and then address the shifts over time in how these animals are/were treated, including an increased focus on animal wellbeing and welfare. Additionally, we address how studies of captive animals have contributed to educational, conservation, rehabilitation, research, and welfare programs. Though animal captivity may have a checkered past, current focus is on what we (both humans and animals) gain from having animals in our care. Example benefits include the opportunity to conduct cognitive, behavioral, and biological research to learn more about individual and group behavior (etc.) of these species as well as how to use this information for welfare, conservation, management, and educational purposes. For example, the National Zoo in Washington D.C. has created the National Elephant Herpesvirus Laboratory in order to better understand diseases that affect elephants, including the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). The results of this research, much of which comes from studies on captive elephants, are then used to understand the virus in both captive and wild populations in hopes of improving treatment of the disease. One goal of this talk is to present the perspective that the subject of animals in captivity is multifaceted and complex; increased understanding might help to dispel some of the negative connotations that come with the topic. Erin McKenna Loving Pets Means Caring for Livestock Department of Philosophy, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington [email protected] In my book Pets, People, and Pragmatism I sketched an approach of living with horses, dogs, and cats that entails respecting the evolutionary history of these animal beings, the species specific behaviors, the breed tendencies, and the individual variation. This approach, rooted in the theory of American Pragmatism, stresses an experimental approach that accounts for pluralistic and changing circumstances. Rather than seek absolute moral stands on issues pertaining to the relations between human and other animal beings, this approach seeks to make actual relations better and seeks to create dialogue and cooperation among currently opposed groups (e.g. PETA and the AKC). One place where such dialogue rarely occurs is around the issue of livestock. People who live with pets are involved in the livestock industry, whether they themselves eat meat or not. Those who live with horses are buying feed from the same system that provides feed for cattle, pigs, and poultry. Those who live with dogs and cats usually feed some amount of meat products to these animal beings. Often this is done without much thought for the lives of the livestock animals. While pets are loved and pampered, most livestock currently living in the U.S. have few stable social relationships (with humans or others of their species), live in cramped and unhealthy confinement, and are transported and killed under stressful conditions. The irony of sacrificing one group of animal beings who are now generally kept at a distance from most humans, in order to feed (and often overfeed) another group of animal beings who live in close contact with humans, will be explored here. I will show that the animals we commonly see as livestock have the same rich evolutionary histories, species specific behaviors, breed tendencies, and individual variation that I argue need to be respected in pets. So, if one loves and respects those animal beings commonly seen as pets, one should also love and respect those animal beings commonly seen as livestock. This entails working to change the current condition of most livestock in the U.S. Claudia Medina Animal Blessings: Rituals of Appreciation as Pathways to Ecological Reconnection Independent Filmmaker [email protected] In this era of profound ecological and societal crisis, the language of reconnection to place, to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the complexities and interrelationships within our immediate environments is becoming increasingly compelling and resonant. The concept of local resilience, and of finding ones way back to our place in our immediate eco cultural landscapes is highlighted by how distant most of us have become from the basic processes of sustenance required to survive and thrive. It is this disconnection that lends itself to a commodification of every aspect of life, and to the profoundly disturbing nature of modern food production, which configures animals as machines, to exploit seemingly without limits. The existence of factory farming and all of it attendant consequences, to the land base, water systems, human health and inherent cruelty to the animal and workers within this system, does nothing to inspire acknowledgement and appreciation for the food that we eat. Conversely, when systems of food and culture were localized, an appreciation of the land, animal, and water systems was inherent in the ritualized aspects of life. One of the most compelling rituals found in rural traditions throughout the world is some form of the animal blessing—a time when the animals that lived alongside a family and community were brought together in an act of public appreciation. Within these rituals, often framed within the dominant socio spiritual context, a deep appreciation of the role of life, death, the animal as collaborator, and the understanding of ecological relationships flourished. The animal became exalted, a source of life and a reminder of the cyclical nature of our reality. The working or slaughter of an animal was understood within a system of interrelationships that required an appreciation and gratitude for their role in the survival of a community. In my presentation, I begin with an exploration of these rituals then and now throughout the world, beginning with my own personal exploration of this theme in my short film "Animal Blessings". This film was intended to re create this ritual within the context of my grandmother's life, a ritual that has disappeared with the post war industrialization of rural Italy. I explore the origins of animal blessing rituals and the ways in which this practice has evolved in communities that seek to continue or revive a deep connection the land and animals that sustain them. To view Animal Blessings film go to: https://vimeo.com/32122825 password "animal". Fabienne Meiers The Urban Horse: Equestrian Traffic and Horse Husbandry in Late Medieval Cities University of Luxembourg Research Unit: IPSE Research Project: Villux 9 – Histoire des villes luxembourgeoises Campus Walferdange Route de Diekirch L-7220 Walferdange, Luxembourg [email protected] Just like cattle, sheep and pigs, horses were part of the still agrarian influenced late medieval townscapes. Written and iconographic sources as well as archaeological evidence give proof of the extensive presence of horses inside and outside the city walls and their indispensability for urban and interurban communication and mobility. Since the thriving of European cities in the High Middle Ages, there was an increasing demand for faster and more reliable exchange services comparable with those in the Roman Empire: after the decline of the well-developed and regularly maintained Roman road network, circulation of people, goods and services had become less effective, particularly given that carriage traffic was virtually impossible on deteriorated roads. Consequently, equestrian traffic gained more importance in the medieval period, as much in long-distance travels as in shorter day’s journeys. In order to facilitate urban mobility and communication between cities, traffic policies were developed, which consisted of road works, institutionally controlled mounted courier services and provision of courier horses, as well as travel allowances and travel horses for hire. In addition, the authorities adopted decrees that regulated animal waste disposal and corpse removal to guarantee a hygienic living environment for both humans and animals. At the same time specialized systems and structures for urban horse husbandry arose, e. g. stables for mounts of the city authorities and distinguished guests; on the other side, horse rental stations for the middle class emerged in the late 15th century. The paper displays the characteristics, capacities and limitations of urban equestrian traffic and horse husbandry in the Late Middle Ages and presents the importance and impact of the human-horse relationship in the urban environment. Pragmatic documents such as (travel) account books and legal texts were used as primary source base alongside municipal chronicles; they were analyzed using a comparative and quantitative methodology. In addition, reflections of the urban horse in material culture are also considered in order to emphasize a more dynamic dimension of the phenomenon. To conclude, the value of the urban horse either as a daily companion or as a mere commodity in medieval townscapes is discussed. Michele Merritt Depressed Dogs, Heartbroken Humans, and a new Philosophy of Emotions Department of English and Philosophy, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas [email protected] In this paper, I defend three claims: first, the standard view of emotions, namely, that they play little to no significant role in cognition, is flawed. Related to this first claim, I further argue that the way the term ‘emotion’ is defined and deployed across several disciplines belies some very compelling findings about what emotions might actually be and how they function. Last, I argue that rethinking emotions in the ways I suggest is a project already underway in many ethological studies of human-animal interactions, but in particular, those interactions taking place between humans and dogs. To support these claims, I begin by briefly examining recent discussions of emotions in humans and why it is likely misguided conceive of them as entirely distinct from rational thought. Next, I explicate and defend an even more contentious claim, that emotions are not simply internally experienced phenomena, but are often, instead, highly interactive – they can be genuinely shared. Background emotions, in particular, create a sort of atmosphere that is best described as being generated and maintained in groups of two or more. Further, it is well documented that the synchronicity resulting from long-term interactions, if disrupted, such as in the case of a long-term partner dying, can be both physiologically and cognitively damaging. Finally, I argue that these sorts of interactive emotions exist among the relationships we share with animals, as well as in the relationships animals share with one another. I explore several examples from Braitman’s (2014) recent work, wherein she discusses a wide variety of nonhuman animal emotions and how they are implicated. Of all the cases she discusses, however, the dog-human pairings most resemble human-human interactions in terms of experiencing, decoding, and responding to emotions. This claim is bolstered by some of the recent neuroscientific findings (cf. Berns, 2013) regarding the way dogs’ brains process emotional information. All of these studies taken together allow me to argue that when we interact with other animals, especially dogs, the emotional resonance that emerges is not just a fleeting feeling, but is a genuinely thoughtful interaction in which meanings are made and shared. Berns, G. (2013). How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain. New Harvest Press. Braitman, L. (2014). Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves. Simon and Schuster. H. Lyn White Miles & Ross van der Harst The Art, The Artist: The Orangutan Chantek’s Paintings and Found Art Assemblages Project Chantek, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga [email protected]; [email protected] Chantek is a 30 year old enculturated orangutan raised in a human setting at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and taught to use gestural signs based on the American Sign Language for the deaf. Using a participant observation ethnographic approach, Chantek was raised with a small group of caregivers in a family setting on the University campus. Research with Chantek focused on gestural sign acquisition and conversational ability; cognitive processes such as selfawareness, deception, and imitation, and on cultural and contextual processes and the acquisition of cultural memes (units of cultural understanding, behavior, and interaction with the environment). The latter included Chantek’s use of material culture, including everyday artifacts such as tools, computers, vending machines, as well as visual media such as painting, and arts and crafts. Chantek was encouraged to explore the affordances of the medium provided but was not directly instructed to paint and construct, much in the manner of a parent who urges creativity but does not directly provide lessons. Chantek began to finger paint around two years of age and exhibited patterns and techniques similar to young children. He learned to use brushes and nontoxic tempera paint and exhibited a dramatic style with simple fluid mandala-like images. He reached at least the stage of borderline representational art of human three and a half year old children, with a circular image evoking a face with two dots for eyes. In later years his paintings came to resemble Asian calligraphy. His craft projects included stringing macaroni and beads, tying knots, and weaving feathers and string onto sticks in wall hangings, mobiles, and other found art assemblage. He also made necklaces, armbands, and bracelets out of rawhide, wire, twine, silk cord, and stone, jade, crystal, wood, and glass beads and objects. Interestingly, he created complex knots, some with a double loop allowing a necklace to be adjustable. Chantek also learned to draw simple geometric shapes and a few letters to spell his name, as well as X and O shapes for tac ac toe game. Art studies with great apes show that individuals develop distinctive styles and like human art an observer can recognize the style and attribute it to the animal artist. Although conducted in a human setting, the art research with Chantek supports recent claims for cultural capacity of great apes in natural settings. Robert W. Mitchell1, Anne Perkins2, & Erica Feuerbacher2 Developing the Animal Studies/Anthrozoology Curriculum 1 Animal Studies Program, Department of Psychology, EKU 2 Department of Anthrozoology, Carroll College, Helena, Montana [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] In 2012, Richard Timmins and others organized, under the auspices of the International Society for AnthroZoology (ISAZ) a post-ISAZ-conference meeting to discuss the development of a curriculum for the Anthrozoology major. This meeting derived from a growing interest in such a major, initiated by Carroll College’s Human-Animal Bond Program started in 2011 by Dr. Anne Perkins, which offered students an Anthrozoology Major focusing on developing skills for understanding and working with animals, with specialized training in working with either dogs or horses. Independently, Robert Mitchell and others at EKU initiated an Animal Studies major in 2010, which includes in the curriculum courses in applied fields (agriculture, animal training, co-op, law, conservation) as well as sciences (biology, physical anthropology, psychology) and humanities (cultural anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, sociology). The Animal Studies major also requires elective courses for students to develop specialized training in their area of interest. Both programs offer unique opportunities for students to gain exposure with, and learn about, animals and animal-human interaction. Representatives from each program will discuss their program, and open a discussion as to the kinds of courses and experiences each program offers, and if it is useful to develop a common curriculum across both majors to further develop student involvement in the interdisciplinary field of study supported by ISAZ. Brett Mizelle Mary Griffith’s Odd Future: Real and Imagined Human-Animal Relationships in Antebellum America American Studies Program, California State University, Long Beach [email protected] Mary Griffith’s utopian novel “Three Hundred Years Hence” (included in Camperdown; or News from Our Neighborhood, 1836), posits an odd future. Her time traveller, Hastings, learns that in this future where machines provide labor and “brutal pastimes, thank heaven, have been entirely abandoned,” that “the races of horses, asses and mules are almost extinct” and “so great a curiosity now to the rising generation, that they are carried about with wild beasts as part of the show.” Because of an epidemic of hydrophobia that killed “upward of one hundred thousand people,” all dogs have been exterminated and “the breed will never be encouraged again.” Cattle are pastured within moveable wire fences, but hogs and sheep are no longer allowed “to run loose in the streets or on the road.” At the butcher’s market there were “no sights of blood, or stained hands, or greasy knives, or slaughter-house smells.” Furthermore, “The meats were not hung up to view in the open air, as in times of old; but you only had to ask for a particular joint, and lo! A small door, two feet square, opened in the wall and there hung the identical part.” This paper uses Griffith’s vision of a progressive future as an index to human-animal relationships in antebellum America, arguing that her twenty-second century world engaged real concerns expressed by nineteenth-century Americans about public health, animal welfare, popular entertainment, and market culture. The mass killing of dogs, disappearance of horses and mules, and the distribution of meat free of the traces of killing and processing in Camperdown reflects debates in the public sphere about the usefulness and visibility of non-human animals. After tracing the contestation over animals and meat in nineteenth-century America, one that produced greater separation between human and nonhuman animals, I conclude by asking whether our own visions of living with animals might similarly produce a world with fewer animals in it and greater distance and concealment in the human-animal relationships that remain. Robert Michael Morrissey Tall-Grass Ethnohistory: Indians, Europeans, and Other Animals in the Prairie Borderlands Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL, 61801 [email protected] Recently, ethnohistorians have developed new insights about Native societies in the pre-contact and colonial eras by focusing on the relationship between human cultures and the specific places where they took form. Meanwhile, scholars of anthrozoology or human-animal studies have developed new insights into human cultures by focusing on the relationship between people and non-human species with whom they made their lives. This essay tries to bring people, place, and animals together to imagine a new history of the Illinois Indians, who migrated to the tall-grass prairies of the Illinois Valley in the 1500s precisely because of animals, building an entire lifeway as pedestrian bison hunters in a distinctive landscape. They put bison at the center of their cultural and spiritual lives, as revealed through archaeology, abundant contact-era linguistic evidence, and often-ignored material culture. And yet their human-animal relations were not static. European colonists brought not only new species to the tall-grass prairies, but also wholly new ideas about the relationship between people and non-human nature. From 1500 forward, the Illinois’ interactions with wild animals, game, and newly arriving livestock changed more in a few centuries than they had for millennia. Animals' social, cultural, and economic functions were reshaped by commodification and the market. As this happened, humans remade the communities they had built around intimate and cooperative interactions between species. In this paper, I consider how animals acted as ontological subjects in Illinois culture, playing roles as other-than-human persons in myth and ritual, as well as material actors in everyday life. I also sketch ethnohistorical techniques for recovering these relationships, and for understanding change-over-time in human-animal relational ontologies in indigenous cultures like the Illinois. Pegah Naghib Effect of Music on Horses Veterinary School, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran [email protected] Horses have played an important role in human life in different situations like industry, transportation, agriculture, and sports for centuries. Researchers have studied the effect of resting qualities on psychological stresses in horses. Most of this research concerns the evaluation of the effect of horse fatigue on stress and physical behavior. In this study, I examined the effect of housing condition on psychological stresses and the effect of music on abrasion wound healing in horses. Three 4-years-old horses which were sent to Shahriyar veterinary hospital had been driven for 72 hours with abrasion wounds on their fetlocks. Long distance, warm weather, and wound’s pain have made them invasive. Their wounds were washed with Ringer lactate, debridemented and bandage by the usage of Silver sulfadiazine. Two of the horses were sent to stalls covered by straw and fed well. For the first horse, classical music, and for the second one the Jazz music, were played for 12 hours a day during the research, while the third horse was kept in stall with a concrete surface but was fed well, and classical music was played. The horse that was kept in a straw stall with classical music became calm and its wounds recovered after thirty days while the horse in concrete stall with same music recovered completely after eighty days. The horse kept in a straw stall with jazz music had not recovered by the end of the trial, and its wound was more invasive than before. It can be inferred from this research that the Jazz and classical music effects the psyche of horses in that it had an effective result on their both action and the period of treatment. People can influence the mental and physical healthiness of horses, and psychological curing is an important part in speeding up the healing of horse’s body. Amy Nelson, Canine Agency in the Soviet Manned Spaceflight Program Department of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia [email protected] Sparked by geo-political rivalry and fueled by a faith in progress, a veneration of science and technology, and a determination to harness nature to human ends, the space race might be considered a quintessentially human drama. Yet in the years before Yuri Gagarin ushered in the era of human space travel, many of the milestones in this unique Cold War contest were claimed by dogs. Indeed from the initial clandestine launches of “rocket dogs” in 1951, to the highly publicized, doomed voyage of “Laika” in 1957 and the celebrated journey of “Belka” and “Strelka” in 1960, the prospects for human space flight were measured against the fates of the stray dogs Soviet researchers used to test life support systems and investigate the effects of space flight on living organisms. Like other experimental subjects, the space dogs functioned as “boundary objects” providing a critical node of translation across different social worlds. Taking the multivalent resonances of the “boundary object” as a starting point, this paper examines the relationships between humans, dogs and a set of historically conditioned scientific practices to contextualize the agency of the soviet space dogs. Extending recent research on “companion species” and animal agency it shows how interactions between people and dogs in the laboratory both reinforced and ran counter to the evolving celebrity of the space dogs, and suggests that these animals’ significance as historical subjects involves what they did and their relationships with human researchers, as well as how their contributions to the space race were perceived. Jopi Nyman Rereading Sentimentalism in Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty: Affect, Performativity, and Hybrid Spaces Department of English, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu Campus [email protected] Anna Sewell’s 1877 horse novel Black Beauty is a classic work displaying human cruelty and the insignificance of equine life in Victorian Britain. Through its portrayal of the life story of Black Beauty from idyllic childhood to old life, narrated, as its original subtitle put it, as an “autobiography” told by the horse himself, the novel criticizes contemporary animal-keeping practices and ideologies. What is particularly significant is that the episodic and chronicle-like narrative puts forwards its message of humane treatment by using sentimentalist discourse. In Black Beauty, this emphasis on affect is, however, more than a mere strategy seeking to support the ideological thesis of the novel as it is based on both historical and cultural ways of relating to animal Others. The paper proposes a critical re-reading of Black Beauty that aims to read its sentimentalism as a form of renegotiating the human–animal relationship amidst Victorian modernity. What is at stake here is that the animals represented in Black Beauty, and the discourse making them accessible, appear to enter a space conventionally defined as human and dominated by human values and seek to redefine its preferred roles and identities. This means that the novel’s animal representation is involved in the redefinition of the dichotomies such as the human and the animal as discussed traditionally in Western philosophy since Descartes. As a sign of this, the act of providing the “dumb beast” with a voice and history in the novel is not a mere act of anthropomorphizing the animal. Rather, the representation of Black Beauty as a speaking animal capable of story-telling aims to challenge the alleged human monopoly over reason, and human identity as the natural way of being in the world, as the novel promotes hybridized spaces of animal performance reconstructing conventional human–animal relations and producing new sites of interconnections. Reiko Ohnuma Animal Doubles of the Buddha Department of Religion, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire [email protected] Two centuries’ worth of work on the rich narrative traditions surrounding the life of the historical Buddha have thus far failed to pay any attention to the episodes in his life involving close interactions with animals. This paper will focus on three such episodes, taken from Pali and Sanskrit sources from premodern India. In interpreting these episodes, I will argue that the animals featured within them constitute “doubles” or shadows of the Buddha—illuminating his character through identification, contrast, or parallelism with an animal “other.” The Buddha’s horse, Kanthaka, serves as a scapegoat for the Buddha, mutely bearing the brunt of the criticism and grief brought about when he first renounces the world—and suffering death as a result. An elephant named Parileyyaka serves as a mirror for the Buddha, paralleling and thus validating his questionable actions in an episode in which the Buddha becomes annoyed by his own followers and abandons them, retreating into the forest without telling anyone and spending three months in the company of this elephant. Finally, another elephant named Nalagiri serves as a billboard for the Buddha’s power: Enraged with toddy and set loose against the Buddha in order to assassinate him, he is immediately tamed by the Buddha’s charisma and power in a public spectacle that converts millions of living beings to Buddhism—all through the force of the Buddha’s person itself and without a drop of the Buddhist teaching. Yet even while these “doubles” of the Buddha are made to serve their functions as scapegoat, mirror, and billboard, the episodes in question also engage in several strategies of asserting human superiority to animals and human dominance over the animal world. The Buddha, too, thus shares with the rest of humanity a contradictory desire to both dominate and find oneself reflected in the animal “other.” Michał Piotr Pręgowski Dog training as taming, dogs as wild beasts. Whispering versus canine science. Department of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland; Fulbright Scholar-in Residence, Animal Studies Program, Department of Psychology, EKU [email protected]; [email protected] The human bond with dogs is multidimensional and unique. Dogs work with humans, train with them, serve (some of) them, and provide them with psychological and emotional support. They routinely leave human homes and are present in the public space, becoming unintentional actors of the contemporary social life; many Western societies are preoccupied with topics such as dog parks, dog waste or dog-friendly premises. Many people in the West describe dogs as members of their families (Beck and Katcher 1983; Sanders 1999), play with them like they do with children (Smith 1983; Serpell 1989), and communicate with them as with conspecifics (Mitchell and Edmonson 1999; Sanders 1999). In the well known nature-culture divide, dogs stand out from other animals (Nature) and can be seen as a part of the human domain (Culture). At the very least dogs maintain a special status of a borderline species, one that resides in both entities at the same time (Haraway 2003). This presentation discusses how dogs, as well as their relationship with humans, are constructed in the field of dog training in the 21st century. Canis lupus familiaris is nowadays a very well-known species; canine science shed light at its behavior, evolution and cognition, particularly in the last 25 years, and facilitated a better understanding of the species. The dog ceased to be a “beast”, an unpredictable wildling of Nature subject to “taming”, something visibly reflected in contemporary dog training philosophies grounded in academic findings. At the same time, some dog trainers, including TV celebrities Cesar Millan and Jan Fennell, disregard the academic findings and replace them with own founding myths. Their quasimystical approach offers alternative, unfounded in science, or simply outdated, explanations of dogs and the rules of human-canine relationship. In such programs the metaphorical “beast”, a fictional creature laid down to rest by science, is revived. Helena Pycior Collective Memory of the “First Dogs”: Privilege and Power of the “First Families” of the United States Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee [email protected] The “first families” of the United States have used their privilege and power to embed their dogs in the American collective memory. This paper analyzes three major stages in the promotion of the memory of the “first dogs.” Focusing on Laddie Boy (Harding), Rob Roy (Coolidge), Fala (Franklin D. Roosevelt), and Barney (George W. Bush), the paper traces the evolution of first dogs from family pets to memorable historical figures through first families’ production of or support for archives, books, statues, paintings, photographs, and film/video that gave voice to their dogs. Moving through the three stages (each associated with a period of high respect for dogs), the paper documents increasing incorporation of first dogs into the American memory as comforting companions to presidents and individuals in their own right. During the first stage Florence Harding and Grace Coolidge—supporters of their period’s humane movement—pioneered the incorporation of first dogs into the American memory. Although she destroyed many of her husband’s papers following his death, Harding pointedly preserved documents relating to Laddie Boy. Concerned that Rob Roy be remembered, Coolidge insisted that she and the dog pose together for her official portrait as first lady. In the second stage, as thousands of dogs served in World War II, Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley—a member of Roosevelt’s extended family—raised the memory of first dogs to a new level encompassing documentary heritage and museum exhibition. They assured that the library and museum set up by Roosevelt included eight boxes of “Fala papers” and a “Fala exhibit.” Coinciding with increasing public appreciation of the human-animal bond, the paper’s third (and present) stage has been one of even higher visibility of first dogs in the American memory. Thus the FDR Memorial unveiled statues of Fala and Roosevelt sitting close to one another. The stage has also been marked by the opening of the Presidential Pet Museum and George W. Bush’s popularization and memorialization of Barney in creative and personal ways. The Bush White House produced six “Barney Cam” videos. More significantly, Bush publicly memorialized Barney. After leaving the White House he painted Barney’s portrait and, upon the Scottie’s death, released the portrait with a personal tribute to the dog. The American public has generally interpreted such exercises of the first families’ power as “memory makers” for their dogs as a welcomed affirmation of close bonds shared by dogs and people across the nation. Ziba Rashidian Epistemological Artifacts, or Death and the Specimen: Nabokov’s Butterflies, for Example Department of English, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana [email protected] My talk is part of a larger project on “the Death of the Animal” (a title I borrow from Paola Cavalieri). Why the death of the animal? “Death” serves as a three-part diagnostic: 1. It points to our present location within the unfolding of the sixth great extinction, where the diversity of life on the planet is shrinking, precipitating, for those who accept the fact, a kind of existential loneliness and, culturally, a host of productions aimed at reasserting the presence of animals, even as they (and their habitats) disappear. 2. It points to our accelerating biotechnological and genetic manipulation of animal bodies and reproduction, challenging our understanding of what an animal is, and 3. It points to the fact that as a society our most common interaction with animal beings involves their deaths—whether it be the production of meat, animal experimentation for medical or other purposes, or the gathering of “specimens” in order to learn more about newly discovered and/or dying species and varieties. It is this last issue—the gathering of specimens, the “killing” in order to know and/or to preserve—that my paper will investigate. A fundamental assumption of my project is that the transformation of our relationship to the animal kingdom is an outgrowth of what Foucault analyzed in The History of Sexuality and his seminars as biopower and its biopolitical instantiation. Animal Studies scholars have assumed that the birth of biopolitics governing human populations is coextensive with the increasing subjection of animal bodies and lives to biotechnological and other interventions. My paper will use biopower as a lens to focus on the scientific work on Lepidoptera by the novelist Vladimir Nabokov, a self-taught researcher in the field who served as curator of lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He spent years collecting, dissecting, and writing about hundreds of species of butterflies and developed theories about the migration and evolution of the species he devoted great energy to understanding: Polyommatus blues. His scientific labors—only belatedly appreciated by professional scientists—reveal the strange mixture of devotion and destruction that underwrites the epistemology of the specimen. While Nabokov may differ from other scientists in that his engagement with the field came as an amateur enthusiast, his work registers the way in which biopower structures the modes, methods, and measures of scientific inquiry into animal being. Martha Robinson Avian Encounters: Connecting with Bird Lives through Live Streaming and Contemporary Art Art History, Concordia University [email protected] Posthumanist thinking about the animal is often detailed through examples pulled from contemporary art. Contemporary art practices combined with mediated observations of bird life offer an unprecedented opportunity for interconnectivity between species beyond historic practices of understanding birds that encompassed collecting, cataloguing and labelling. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology hosts a number of bird (nest) cameras, offering close observation of several avian species including Osprey, Red-tailed Hawks and Barn Owls. Each species resists and deploys a human-centred understanding of bird life to varying degrees, from the very accessible models of hawk family life to the almost incomprehensible (for humans) solitude of the Laysan Albatross. Live streaming, chat moderators, and in some cases local birders on the ground (BOGS), assist viewers in negotiating an understanding of what it is like to be a bird, confronting bird behaviours that sit in anthropomorphic registers, and those which bear little resemblance to a human understanding of family life. The Cornell bird cams offer an opportunity to recognize the worlding of each species, a term coined by Ron Broglio (2011)—and related to Jakob von Uexküll’s Umwelt, or enveloping world—to describe an environment specific to each animal which includes all that it needs to flourish, as well as a sense of how the environment appears for the animal. It is this concept of animal worlding which confronts the limits of posthumanist scholarship, and interrogates the possibility of understanding the animal’s perspective without reducing it to our own. Connectivity with the remote and almost inaccessible world of the Albatross through the bird cams, twinned with the poignant documentation of photographer Chris Jordan’s series of photographs of dead albatross young: Midway: Message from the Gyre, double the points of contact between species. This surface contact, as Broglio describes it, offers a productive reading of the experience of viewers of both works: a possibility of representation for the species within its worlding. Kari Weil (2012) argues that without this possibility of offering animals selfrepresentation, there is no promise of overcoming the speciesism and perfectionist hierarchies that are antithetical to the posthumanist turn. This paper argues that these works establish liminal zones where an understanding of a species— through representation which does not privilege human language, and is rooted in the real world of the animal—is possible. Susan Rustick Transforming Human Identity: Encounters in the Classroom through Animal Eyes English Department, Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin [email protected] How can we humans ever know our authentic selves while holding unexamined assumptions about our separation from other sentient beings? Western traditions assume a utilitarian dualism in which humans are the subjects and other-than human animals are the objects. This presentation proposes that we humans should question our assumed superiority through the collapse of subject-object dualism and an engagement with all sentient beings as a communion of subjects. To quote from the PBS documentary, My Year as a Turkey, “[Humans] do not have privileged access to reality.” To demonstrate, this presentation will examine data from a first year college seminar course, developed and taught by the presenter, which encourages students to look through the lenses of the other-than-human. Such a change in perception has the potential to transform human identity from a subject-object consciousness into a realization of humanity’s interdependence. Further, this transformation, if it occurs, might frame the students’ investigation of the course goals of self-knowledge and their role in building a just and compassionate world. Initially, a student’s assumption might be that who eats what or whom rightfully forms the basis of an intrinsic value hierarchy. If this is critically questioned, the student might also consider what eats humans, from bacteria and viruses to well-equipped larger predators. In addition to philosophical questions, course content includes animal capacities and qualities, and the human-animal bond. Final papers delineate student development through the semester, from their initial selfreport of their awareness, proceeding through pivotal learning experiences and reflections, and culminating in the answers to the three course questions through the lens of their knowledge of themselves as an animal among animals: “Who am I? Who could I become? What is my role in building a just and compassionate world?” Bob Sandmeyer "The Value of a Varmint" Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky, Lexington [email protected] The title of this talk is taken from an early essay by Aldo Leopold titled "The Varmint Question (1915)." In this short piece, Leopold expresses strong hostility towards predatory animals in the policy of game protection. In my presentation, I will trace the development of Leopold's views on animals from his work with the Forest Service in early years of the last century to his last years as Professor Emeritus of Game Management in Wisconsin. Leopold is an important figure for animal theorists to study precisely because of his pioneering role in game, or what today we call, wildlife management. In my presentation, I will show how, as his views matured, he gained a deep appreciation for the role of predatory populations in the stable and integral functioning of the land ecology. I will thus highlight the functional value of animals in his conception of the land ethic. Perhaps Leopold's most well-known writing is his succinct articulation of his own revelation on this matter in the essay called "Thinking Like a Mountain." To think objectively like a mountain is to think ecologically and thus to recognize the central role of the predator, that is, the wolf, in the mountain ecology of the Southwest. I will argue that the central question for any Leopold scholar interested in animal studies, however, concerns the precise valuation of the animal in his ethical theory. Do animals have value merely insofar as they preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the land? Or is there a place for the intrinsic valuation of animals in Leopold's land ethic? This is an important question, since if the answer is yea to the former but nay to the latter then the land ethic not only allows for but commands the culling of destabilizing "varmint" populations for the benefit of land health. This would by extension, it has been argued, include theoretically the application of such a policy to human populations. I will present evidence both from his writings and from anecdotes in his personal life that speak against this fascistic interpretation of the land ethic. I will argue, in other words, that there is a place for the intrinsic valuation of animals in Leopold's philosophy, however weakly expressed this may be in his extant corpus. Julia Schlosser Walking the Dog: An Exploration of Recent Lens-Based Images of Companion Animals California State University, Northridge [email protected] Traditionally, photographic images of pet or companion animals have existed on the periphery of the contemporary fine art field, maligned for their assumed sentimental or nostalgic qualities. However in the last twenty years, mirroring the rise of the animal studies discipline, a new and significant aesthetic has emerged in the production of fine art images of pets. These images are produced by contemporary artists using lens-based media, photography and video, in which an “indexical” or one-to-one correlation exists between the animal and its image. This new aesthetic acts in opposition to an older, more modernist use of images of pet animals in which pet animals are considered anthropomorphically, and are denied a presence as individuals. In this talk, I will trace the development of my own photographic and video-based works over the last fifteen years, beginning with my early Spectra Polaroid images and ending with my most recent series of photographic work entitled “Tether” (images from this series will be on view in the Crabbe Library on the EKU campus during the course of the conference). In tandem, I will examine the work of key artists who have influenced my work, as well as the major theoretical ideas, which ground the work of these artists. Over the last fifteen years, I have lived with and cared for eleven cats, one dog and one rabbit. In my personal artwork, I primarily explore the lived experience of cohabitating with this group of companion animals. I have investigated our mundane, daily interactions, employing visual strategies designed to shift or subvert my persistent position of power in the group as both sole human animal and image-maker. I often photograph without looking through the viewfinder, using the camera’s self-timer to take sequential timed exposures. The resulting photographs examine issues relating to domesticity, tending and care taking, negotiation of the needs of various members of the household, the changing requirements of aging pet animals, my own aging body, domestic hygiene and finally the mourning process which occurs as various members of the household have died. I capture intimate views of the many, varied relationships formed among and between the members of this interspecies community. As I investigate my own work, I will also consider the artwork of John Divola, Martha Casanave, Keith Arnatt, Carolee Schneemann, and Steve Baker among others. Martha Sherrill Animal Assisted Therapy for Adults with Communication Disorders: an Ethnographic Approach to Therapeutic Human/Animal Interactions. Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [email protected] Animal Assisted Therapy is the addition of a trained animal (usually a dog) as an element of the intervention provided by a professional, designed to meet specific criteria and goals in the process of treatment. It is widely used at this time in the fields of mental and behavioral health, education, and rehabilitation therapies (occupational, physical, recreational, etc.). AAT is sporadically implemented in the field of communication disorders for pediatrics with developmental or behavioral delays, as well as with adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders (traumatic brain injury, stroke, and dementia) without specific pedagogical guidelines for clinicians. Despite its popularity in other fields, questions remain regarding the ethical treatment and use of animals to address speech/language disorders, as well as the potential for setting specific and realistic goals for treatment. Current research in communication disorders has focused largely on pediatric interactions with therapy animals (Severson 2014, Solomon 2010, Hurley 2014), and the social/motivational impact of therapy animals in group settings such as skilled nursing facilities (Richeson 2003, Berry et al 2012, Steed 2002). While clinical and anecdotal evidence abounds regarding the positive social, motivational, and communicative impact of animals on adult patients, limited research has been completed to establish methodological practices and recommendations for Animal Assisted Therapy and adults with brain injury. To begin to answer these questions, a connection between therapy animals and improved communication in adults with communication disorders must be clearly established. In my presentation I will present the preliminary findings of my research that targets specifically the question of the relationship between the physiological and psychological foundations of AAT and improved communication in adults with acquired communication disorders. Results suggest that patients with a strong connection to animals prior to their injury view animals as a communication partner, and therefore participate and communicate in AAT sessions with greater success. These findings are based on observation and participation in individual AAT sessions with a therapy dog at a rehabilitation hospital, and interviews with patients and caregivers following intervention/interaction with therapy dogs. Suggestions for future research include exploring the purposeful methodological treatments that meet both the therapeutic goals of the patient and the ethical treatment and participation needs of the animal. Jennifer Blevins Sinski “A cat-sized hole in my heart”: Public Perceptions of the Companion Animal Adoption Process Department of Sociology, University of Louisville, Kentucky [email protected] The companion animal adoption process differs between public shelter, non-profit all breed shelter, non-profit all breed rescue and non-profit breed specific rescue organizations. While some organizations require an application and fee, others require telephone interviews, vet interviews and home visits. Little research has been done to date examining the difference in organizational process and the impact on the potential adopter. This presentation provides the results from a survey of 360 Bark magazine readers and 36 in-depth interviews. Adopters viewed the adoption of companion animals as an ethical or moral obligation and their insights on the experience are contained within. The researcher utilizes New Social Movement and Frames theory to position adoption as social activism. Gillian Squirrell Working Dogs Working Lives: Cost-effectively Frustrating Human and Animal Disposability Working Dog LLC, USA; Working Dog (UK) Ltd, U.K; Forget-Me-Not Farm, Sonoma, CA, USA; & Humane Society University, Washington D.C., USA [email protected]; [email protected] This paper outlines the development of a multi-agency animal based intervention working with adults sentenced to drug rehabilitation post incarceration and populations of shelter animals. Working Dogs Working Lives works with the powerful human-canine bond to help clients towards transformative learning and change. Over several years of field testing Working Dog LLC has devised three novel programs helping clients with interpersonal skills, selfmanagement and employability. All three dog- based programs are grounded in the meta principles of reward-based learning for the dogs and the clients and the modeling of pro-social behaviors between species and within species. Through these program principles participants are encouraged to think about motivation, encouragement, expectations and communications with others, other species and with themselves. The content detail of the various modules depends on the assessed learning needs of the clients. The paper briefly outlines the context and content of the variations in the animal assisted intervention. This includes discussion of an outreach program where dogs and activities travel to clients; an immersive supervised work-placement at a humane society or shelter and a mentoring program, requiring weekly volunteering to sustain pro-social commitment combined with the opportunity to check-in with a mentor. The work placement, WorkOut, has three possible different sets of learning goals depending on the learner’s needs. The content is shaped towards either, a focus on basic and interpersonal skills, the development of pre-employability expectations and skills or thirdly, a vocational module geared towards entry to pet or animal industries. The paper briefly offers some findings from these interventions. The paper explores the some of the architecture of Working Dogs Working Lives and explicitly foregrounds: the theory of change underpinning and driving the intervention; the espoused model of change adopted within the intervention the assumptions about why the animal is integral to this animal assisted intervention the adoption of metrics for the consideration of the well-being and welfare of the animals involved the nature of the assessment of what may be of service to the animals in the quest for them to be adopted the way in which evaluative data may be collected from program participants It is argued that this architecture is essential for an ethical and mutually beneficial animal assisted intervention. Finally the paper argues for the replication of Working Dogs Working Lives, a cost effective, effective and manageable intervention. KiriLi N. Stauch, Stephanie AuBuchon & Ellen Furlong Domestic Dogs’ Understanding of Intentional and Goal Oriented Action Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Human infants understand social cues such as goals and intentions. This sensitivity to social cues is not uniquely human, as non-human primates share similar abilities (Call, Hare, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2004; Phillips, Barnes, Mahajan, Yamaguchi, & Santos, 2009). Is this complex social reasoning uniquely primate? To explore this question we turned to the domestic dog. Dogs possess some social cognitive skills, but do they also understand intentions and goals? In Study 1 we explored dogs’ understanding of intentions by presenting dogs with a researcher either unable (i.e. she dropped a treat) or unwilling (i.e. she offered a treat and then pulled the treat away) to provide the dog with a treat. Just like nonhuman primates, dogs spent significantly more time close to the researcher when she was unable to provide the treat and significantly more time away from when she was unwilling to provide a treat. These findings suggest that domestic dogs understand human intentional action at least as well as non-human primates (Call, et al., 2004; Phillips, et. al, 2009). In Study 2 we turned to dogs’ understanding of goals. Here we used a violation of expectations paradigm (Woodward, 1996) in which dogs watched a researcher reach for a ball on the right side of a stage and ignore a duck on the left. Next, the ball and the duck switched sides – the ball was now on the left and the duck on the right. If dogs, like human infants, treat the reaching as a goal to acquire the duck, they will spend more time looking (an indication of surprise) when she reaches for the duck on the right (new goal, same movement) than when she reaches for the ball on the left (same goal, new movement). If, however, the dogs simply track movement, ignoring goals, they will look longer when the researcher reaches for the ball on the left (old goal, new movement) than when she reaches for the duck on the right (new goal, same movement). Dogs, like human infants, looked longer when the researcher appeared to violate her goal suggesting that dogs encode the researcher’s goal much like nine-month-old infants. Together, the findings from these studies suggest that domestic dogs share the ability to understand intentional and goal oriented behaviors and that therefore these abilities are not uniquely primate. Linda J. Sumption “The tiniest glance”: Narrative, Wildlife, and the Recognition of Intimacy Department of English, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico [email protected] Researchers and writers devoted to the study and narration of wild creatures have, on the surface, been viewed as extreme adventurers. The published work of Jane Goodall, Farley Mowat, and Alexandra Morton – among many others – have intrigued a general readership for decades. Their far wanderings, their committed solitude for months and years, and their willingness to forego the comforts of home, have seemingly set them apart from the armchair travelers who have so enthusiastically devoured their narratives of far-flung study. However, as theorist Timothy Morton has suggested in The Ecological Thought, those devoted chroniclers, the house-bound readers, and the subject wild creatures of those narratives are part of “the mesh” of our existence, in which no actual centers or boundaries exist. He writes that “really thinking the mesh means letting go of an idea that it has a center. There is no being in the “middle” – what would the “middle” mean anyway? The most important? How can one being be more important than another?” This paper will investigate how the narratives of such writers as Goodall, Mowat and Morton have collapsed that binary of the familiar and the extreme. I will investigate their narrative “moves” which, in effect, bring the adventure home and destroy the artificial boundaries that have previously denied our intimate experience of wildlife. There has been a quiet revolution as a result of such narrative successes. Jane Goodall is as recognizable to us on elite lecture stages, in fine clothes, as she is in photos from wild hillside homes of the chimpanzees of Gombe. Alexandra Morton’s tales of orcas in Blackfish Sound and Echo Bay, British Columbia now instantly connect to images of the troubled entertainment park SeaWorld and the widely circulated documentary film, Blackfish. As Lawrence Anthony notes in his narrative of life with an African elephant herd, “I had finally grasped the essence of communicating with any animal, from a pet dog to a wild elephant.” Here, months and years of patient, solitary interaction are delivered to thousands of general readers. Anthony’s narrative expands the scene and slows the moment, through the delivery of minute details and complex focalization. He reveals to us the significance of the “the tiniest glance” between an enormous African elephant named Nana and a human being willing to engage, and, in turn, wise enough to tell the tale. Gwyneth Talley Of Stallions and Men: Moroccan Masculinity in Traditional Horseback-riding Department of Anthropology, University of California–Los Angeles [email protected] This paper presentation is based on my Master’s thesis that describes and analyzes the interpretation of the Moroccan traditional horseback display known as fantasia or tbourida, as a way to show masculinity through a traditional outlet. The fantasia consists of a group of horse riders in traditional clothes armed with gunpowder rifles charging their horses about 200 meters before simultaneously firing their rifles in the air. The beauty and difficulty of fantasia is the synchronization–the charge of all the horses together and the simultaneous firing of the rifles, so that only one shot is heard. The Arabic word for gunpowder is “baroud” and the display is often referred to as tbourida, meaning “to release the powder” or “the powder games.” Riders are mounted on Barb or Arab-Barb horses native to the region, typically all stallions as gelding is seen as undesirable and useless horses. Men of all ages participate in the fantasia and have various responsibilities within the group as well as the performance of the fantasia at local festivals. Using Geertzian interpretive anthropology, through the care of horses and using stallions for their warrior display we can understand the interconnectedness of horses and Moroccan masculinity. Through historic and modern participation in the fantasia we can understand how Moroccan men express their masculinity via their horses, in their fantasia group, and their skills at the sport and how it relates to the broader modern Arab masculine expectations. Mary Trachsel Ecological Consciousness Raising: Animal Studies in the Anthropocene Department of Rhetoric, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa [email protected] Iowa governor Terry Branstad’s recent mandate that computer science be a required component of Iowa high school science education illustrates the evolution of the competing forces American historian Leo Marx described half a century ago as “the machine” and “the garden.” Branstad’s suggestion that computer science courses can take the place of math or foreign language instruction reveals the economic rationale behind the national emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. As humans rely more and more on computerized memory, digital communication, and data management, a computer-savvy workforce becomes economically imperative, and computer science becomes an increasingly promising field of employment. Meanwhile, environmental scientists like Edward O. Wilson stress the need for an entirely different kind of science education—one that cultivates intimate, experiential knowledge of the natural world—one in which humans recognize themselves as one species among many in “the garden.” Wilson’s approach to science education derives from the “biophilia hypothesis,” the notion that scientific knowledge must combine with humanity’s innate aesthetic and emotional inclination toward the natural world. If we don’t care about the natural world, Wilson and other Biophilia-based science educators assert, we will not be motivated to take care of it, despite our rational understanding of ominous changes in the biosphere. In a STEM-dominated educational environment that stresses human communication with machines, the interdisciplinary curriculum of Animal Studies can take the lead in modeling this holistic, biophilic approach to science education. While embracing the scientific studies of animal life and ecological systems, Animal Studies also employs the methods of the humanities, including narrative, empathy, moral reasoning, aesthetic appreciation, interpretation and imagination. My presentation argues that in the geologic era scientists are coming to call the Anthropocene, holistic instruction in life science is more urgently needed than computer science in isolation, and that Animal Studies is ideally positioned to lead the way. Sarah Tsiang Breeds for Needs: Type and Breed Names as a Reflection of the Horse-Human Relationship Department of Languages and Literature, EKU [email protected] A language reflects the culture of its speakers. Horses have been a part of human history for millennia, and since their domestication, horses have been bred to meet a variety of cultural needs. Thus an examination of type and breed names may be revealing about the roles of the horse in history and details of their cultural context. So, ‘Pit Pony’ recalls the little ponies who used to work in the mines, while the ‘Tinker horse’ once pulled Gypsy wagons. The breed names American Saddlebred and Tennessee Walking Horse evoke the image of a gentleman’s riding horse, while the names Standardbred and American Quarter Horse recognize the racing abilities of these breeds. The designation Thoroughbred highlights the strict attention to bloodlines that typifies this breed. The importance of good breeding carries over into popular speech, where “She’s a thoroughbred” is a compliment about having class. Assertion of geographical and ethnic identities may be seen as new breeds in the New World include ‘American’ in their names, while ‘Gypsy Horse’ contrasts with ‘Romany Horse’. The small hobby horse of pre-Christian Ireland is recalled in the children’s toy hobby-horse, the source of the modern word hobby, used to describe pastimes pursued for enjoyment. The Irish Hobby is a related breed that is an ancestor of the Thoroughbred, and we can find “Irish hobby” as slang for racing. Of course a breed name book is not a historical record but it is an interesting source of information about how horses and humans have interacted over time and how this interaction is preserved in language. Joseph Tuminello Teaching with Foer's Eating Animals Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas; Program Coordinator for Farm Forward [email protected] In this presentation, I provide an overview of the incorporation of Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals in college and high school courses, including a discussion of its place in Animal Studies curricula. While working with the nonprofit organization Farm Forward, I have spearheaded a number of initiatives to promote the use of the book in educational settings. Eating Animals has proven to be an accurate, accessible, and inspiring way to get students to start thinking about relationships between human and nonhuman animals, as well as the nature of food production and the exploitation of animals in industrial agriculture. I chronicle the myriad ways that Eating Animals can and has been used by college and high school educators in a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. I am in the process of compiling an educational database which includes course materials, assignments, discussion questions, and other activities centered around the book, as well as testimonials from educators that have successfully incorporated it into their own courses. Since 2012, I have organized and promoted an annual webinar series called the "Jonathan Safran Foer Virtual Classroom Visits," where Foer has met with over 8000 students from college and high school classes around the world to discuss ethical issues in food production, as well as many of the other themes of Eating Animals. I provide an overview of this event, including a brief clip of one of the 2014 sessions. Jeannette Vaught Animal Infiltrations: Teaching Animal Studies in Traditional Courses Department of American Studies, University of Texas at Austin [email protected] While EKU has been successful in creating an animal studies major, and many institutions across the US and internationally have approved animal studies courses in various disciplinary homes, many of us spend most of our pedagogical time teaching core requirement courses. By infiltrating core syllabi, animal studies scholars can extend the reach of animal studies ideas into the undergraduate curriculum and work to normalize analysis of human-animal relations across various disciplines. At the University of Texas, I’ve taught two lower-level undergraduate seminars in American Studies that do not focus on animals, but nevertheless incorporate animal studies methodologies, texts, and topics. In this talk/workshop, I will share my strategies for bringing animals into a syllabus that might be largely predetermined by departmental topic guidelines or core course learning objectives. My first course, “The Scientific American,” provided a history of modern scientific experimentation in the United States and lent itself well to animal topics. The second, “The Cowboy Mystique in American Culture,” was a more straightforward history course, yet animals enlightened the material in ways my students did not expect. It’s no news to this audience that animal studies methodologies are excellent pedagogical tools for teaching race, labor, and gender in broader historical contexts, and that students find scholarly work with animals engaging. So as a major part of the talk/workshop, I wish to invite open discussion for participants to share their own animal infiltrations in syllabi, exercises, and pedagogical interventions in core courses from various disciplines across the humanities and the sciences. Theo Verheggen Embodied Cognition and Affect Attunement in Anthrozoological Research Department of Anthrozoology & Cultural Psychology, Faculty of Psychology & Educational Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL), Heerlen, Netherlands [email protected] From cultural psychology and from the biology of cognition, I take the claim that the basic orientation in human relations is an embodied one, not a purely intellectual one. Psychological concepts like “ meaning”, “sense”, “identity” and even “mind” can only arise in interactions between embodied agents, as I shall try to show. It is not required that these agents are all human. Indeed, the elementary forms of meaning making can also be observed in human-animal interactions, and even in animal-animal interactions such as in dogs or wolves. Most pet owners know this of course; most psychologists and cognitive scientists tend to forget it. I will argue that an embodied perspective on the origins of human cognition can be seamlessly applied to the study of human-animal interactions. It may help us understand better how these relations take shape, how they become meaningful, how they become persistent, and –also important– how they may be operationalized in scientific research. On this latter point, I intend to briefly address the work of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, Antonio Damasio, and Daniel Stern. These authors provide the theoretical building blocks for an embodied view on cognition in which behavioral and affective attunement are the key mechanisms. Stern’s theory has led to a few empirical studies within the field of human-animal interactions. I will address how these studies have inspired our current research at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the Open University of the Netherlands, in which we develop further techniques to study behavioral and affective attunement, as important constitutive elements for the human-animal bond as well as for human and animal cognition. Debra A. Vey Voda-Hamilton When People are in Conflict About Animals. Attorney, Hamilton Law and Mediation, Armonk, New York [email protected] Conflicts arise, among people over the animals they love and care for, in animal welfare, human animal bond studies, divorce, residential living arrangements, law enforcement, rescue and veterinary malpractice to name only a few. These disagreements can be based on righteous indignation, emotional misunderstandings, strong disagreements, hurt feelings or the need for revenge. After the war of words has started, it is difficult to engage in a civil discourse toward resolution. Disagreements like these often end up in court where the emotional part of the argument, which is most important to the parties, is left unheard and therefore unappreciated. After all, animals are still considered property under the law. My discussion explores how a more ‘human and non human’ centered alternative dispute resolution process, mediation, can be used to respectfully and confidentially support a conversation on a disputed subject. Mediation provides the platform for healthy discussions while also saving time, money and future relationships. Mediation is the means by which waring parties can reach a peaceful end for the benefit of the animal(s). Mediation assists parties in the exploration of many solutions to problems. The parties can then self-determine an outcome that is the best for all. The mediator listens, understands, appreciates and respects each parties position. Mediators hold a safe space for each party to speak fully after which a possible shift in position to occur. The recent successful application of mediation in divorce, medical malpractice and labor relation disputes shows promising results in those venues and potential for it’s application in conflicts between people involving animals. Courts are not equipped or allowed to respond to emotional arguments raised in support of disputes involving animals. Animals are still seen as property in the eyes of the law. Mediation encourages for party driven solutions to be explored from inception of a conversation to agreement. Mediation is more responsive to the needs of the animal(s) as well as the people involved in the disagreement. It provides a platform from which more party centered solutions can be reached. When living with animals, conflicts involving those animals arise and cannot always be avoided. When they do arise, no one wants to stand by and watch as a bitter fight ensues which can end in a less than responsive court order. My presentation explores how mediation can be used effectively to find a more peaceful and efficient means to solution. Mediation is an animal and people centric process. It can better handle conflicts between people involving animals enabling everyone, human and non-human animal alike, to survive and thrive. Brenden Wall, Anthony Bohner, Jeffrey Toraason, & Ellen Furlong Good Dog! APPlications of Dog Science Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Each year 6 to 8 million pet dogs enter dog shelters, approximately 60% of which are euthanized. Unfortunately, many dogs are taken to shelters, returned to shelters, or euthanized, due to behavioral problems such as fear, aggression, or separation anxiety. Many such behavioral problems can be alleviated if dogs are afforded sufficient exercise; however, some owners are unwilling or unable to provide dogs the exercise they need. Further, some dogs may be unable to exercise due to physical limitations or other health concerns. One possible solution is, rather than providing physical exercise, to provide dogs with mental exercise. We have developed a cognitive “game” that could provide dogs this mental stimulation via interactive cognitive tasks that owners could easily use to mentally engage their dogs. We are currently developing a series of touchscreen computer tasks (such as object recognition and number discrimination tasks), with the hope that, if dogs find them challenging and engaging, we can make them available to owners broadly via an iPad app. Several dogs in our lab have learned to effectively use the touch screen and have begun engaging with various cognitive games. In the near future, we hope such touch screen task will transfer over into an app that will serve as an effective program to minimize the amount of behavioral problems, and hence, the number of dogs sent to, returned to, and euthanized in shelters. Sara Waller1, Christopher Kloth2, & Mariana Olsen1 Cats Talk Back: Feral & Socialized 1 Department of Philosophy, Montana State University, Bozeman 2 Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada at Reno [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Little is known about feral cat vocalizations. Beyond the aversive response they elicit in humans, the function of non-mating-based calls is unknown. Felis Catus in the feral state will congregate into highly social, matrilineal colonies. Though usually solitary predators, cats cooperate in young-rearing, with colonies often having “nursemaids” who feed many unrelated litters of kittens, allowing mothers to hunt. While cats do not necessarily form male-female pair-bonds, incidents of male cats hunting and sharing kills with colony kittens have been reported, suggesting affiliative and even (possibly) altruistic responses among males. This study contains both an empirical and a philosophical component. The empirical study recorded the vocalizations of 12 feral cats in June, July, August and September of 2014, with subjects ranging in age from 3.5 weeks to 14 months, as they were exposed to humans in a foster home. Using Ramirez methods of friendly non-approach, strict association of food with people, 11 cats were fully socialized and adopted into homes within 3 months, 1 was semi-socialized and became a barn cat. We discuss types of vocalizations produced by the animals as they moved from shelter standards of feral to shelter standards of socialized and adoptable. The philosophical aspect of the work focuses on the nature of meaning and mental representation in feline communication, honing notions of meaningfulness, intentionality, theory of mind, and self-referentiality in response to the call categories the data suggests. We conclude that studying human language alone fails to provide an accurate portrait of mental content as it is revealed in communicative systems, and raise questions of possible infinite generativity in feline call types and sequencing strategies. Magdalen J. Walton Killer Whales or Whale Killers? A Routine Activities Analysis Introducing Agency Among Orca Whales During the Capture of Orca Calves Department of Sociology, University of Tennessee at Knoxville [email protected] Animals in Human Society has become a topic of growing interest among many disciplines including criminology. This field not only includes human interaction with pets and other domesticated animals, but also wildlife. Orca whales have been animals of great interest to human beings for many reasons: they are large, majestic, beautiful, and interesting creatures that have become a focus of the entertainment and tourism industries for over a half of a century. Despite these animals’ innocence and beauty they have become targets of poaching, capture, and confinement. Routine activities theory, introduced by Cohen and Felson in 1979 was developed as a criminological theory intended to explain the basic elements of time, place, objects and persons in the development of crime and “routine activities.” In the past this theory has been exclusively applied to crime and victimization of human beings. This paper seeks to explain how it can be appropriately applied to the practice of hunting and capture of orca whale calves. In addition to explaining criminal behavior and victimization of the human beings in this process, I argue that adult orca whales can also serve as “guardians” of their offspring. With this I suggest that orca whales not only possess feeling and emotions, but also agency to be involved in their own policing within their pods. Lucinda Woodward Research and Development of the Pet Attribute Work Sheet (PAWS—for dogs) Department of Psychology, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana [email protected] An online survey of 1,345 dog owners nationwide presented 119 items from previous dog behavioral rating forms to assess eight primary personality traits consistent with the interpersonal circumplex theory of personality. Exploratory factor analysis (using a maximum likelihood model with equimax rotation and Kaiser criterion, selecting only factors with Eigen value of 2.0 or higher ) identified recognizable octants aligned along the axes dominance and submission, as well as one additional factor deemed “intelligence.” The final selection resulted in a 56-item measure with four reverse scored items that demonstrated good psychometric properties including internal consistency, and construct and predictive validity. Miranda K. Workman Euthanasia Decisions in the Sheltering Industry - A Critical Inquiry, Canisius College, [email protected] Euthanasia decisions occur every day in animal shelters. In order to understand how those decisions are made, this study investigated euthanasia decision making processes in shelters across the United States. Respondents (n=62) to an online survey answered questions about shelter demographics, euthanasia policies, variables for euthanasia candidacy, and specific case studies. Only two-thirds (66%) of shelters were identified by respondents to have a written euthanasia policy. Fifty percent (50%) of respondents indicate that medically-based euthanasia decisions are not made by veterinary professionals. Medically based euthanasia decisions are most likely to be due to terminal medical conditions, not treatable ones. Eighty-three percent (83%) of respondents indicate that behavior-based euthanasia decisions are not made by animal behavior professionals. Behavior-based euthanasia decisions are based primarily on risk assessments and predicting likelihood of future behavior. The tools used to gather the information are neither scientifically validated nor reliably predictive. The ethical perspectives required to contemplate a medically-based euthanasia (Ethic of Care) are very different from that necessary to make a behavior-based euthanasia decision (Utilitarianism/Deontology). In order to improve euthanasia decision-making, each shelter should have a written euthanasia policy, employ medical and behavior professionals to make those decisions, collaborate with researchers to improve data collection leading to creation of better tools for behavioral assessment, and build bridges with other organizations to help save lives. Miranda K. Workman & Christy L. Hoffman An Evaluation of the Role the Internet Site Petfinder Plays in Cat Adoptions Canisius College [email protected]; [email protected] To better understand factors contributing to a cat’s adoption success, this study explored whether there was an association between an adoptable cat’s popularity on the website Petfinder and the cat’s length of availability on the adoption floor of a managed intake animal shelter. This study also examined factors that contributed to a cat’s popularity on Petfinder and the percentage of adopters who visited Petfinder prior to making adoption decisions. One-third of adopters surveyed reported visiting Petfinder before adopting, and half of those had viewed their adopted cat’s Petfinder profile. The number of clicks per day cats received on the site was negatively correlated with length of availability. Age at adoption was positively correlated with length of availability and negatively correlated with number of clicks per day. Primary coat color was a strong predictor of number of clicks per day and length of availability. The only variable within the photographer’s control significantly associated with number of clicks per day was whether there was a toy in the photo. Although cats’ physical characteristics are strong predictors of their popularity, strategic use of toys in cats’ photographs may promote adoptions of cats typically overlooked.
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