Domestic Animals Humans And Leisure

Domestic animals are an integral component of human leisure experience and can enhance the physical, social, and mental wellbeing of humans. The interplay of human and animal experiences of justice, wellbeing, rights, and roles within leisure is the central theme of this book. Research explores the position of domesticated animals in human leisure experiences, in a wide array of leisure settings. Chapters question whether domestic animals may have a desire for leisure that is different from human leisure, whether animals have and wish to fulfil needs for meaningful leisure or non-leisure, and whether human leisure needs and desires may coincide or contradict wellbeing interests of animals. This book provides a venue for the dissemination and exploration of research, which champions the welfare and rights of these animals to have their needs and interests in leisure recognised. It moves the debate about animals in leisure beyond the current limits which have seen research mainly confined to the exotic ‘other’ rather than more mundane, everyday domestic animals. This book will be of interest to individuals in the fields of tourism ethics, zoology, animal behaviour, and leisure studies.

This volume offers both an insight into the current state of research on domestic animals in leisure and a lens through which to begin to chart the future of research in this field. All of the contributions to the collection are underpinned by ongoing debates about human-animal relationships and the rights and welfare of the latter.

Wild animals form an integral component of the human leisure experience. They are a significant part of the leisure industry and are economically valuable entities. However, as sentient beings, animals also have rights and welfare needs, and, like humans, may also have their own leisure desires and requirements. This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the rights and welfare of humans and wild animals as the two relate to one another within the sphere of leisure studies. It examines a wide array of animals, such as wolves, elephants, dolphins and apes, in a diverse range of leisure settings in international locations, from captive wild animals in zoos, hunting, swimming with dolphins and animals used as educators and for tourist entertainment. This book provides a forum for future considerations of wild animals and leisure and a voice for animal welfarist agendas that seek to improve the conditions under which wild animals interact with and are engaged with by humans.

This diverse, global, and interdisciplinary volume explores the existing research, practice, and ethical issues pertinent to the field of human-animal interactions (HAIs), interventions, and anthrozoology, focusing on the perceived physical and mental health benefits to humans and the challenges derived from these relationships. The book begins by exploring the basic theoretical principles of anthrozoology and HAI, such as the evolution and history of the field, the importance of language, the economic costs and current perspectives to physical and mental wellbeing, the origins of domestication of animals, anthropomorphism, and how animals fit into human societies. Chapters then move onto practice, covering topics such as how animals help childhood and adulthood development, pet ownership, disability, the roles of pets for people with psychiatric disorders, the links between animal and domestic abuse, and then more widely into the therapeutic roles of animals, animal-assisted therapies, interactions outside the home, working animals, animals in popular culture, and animals in research, for leisure, and food. Including chapters on a wide range of animals, from domesticated pets to wildlife, this collection examines the benefits yet also reveals the complexity, and often dark side, of human-animal relations. Interweaving accessible commentaries with revealing chapters throughout the text, this collection would be of great interest to students and practitioners in the fields of mental health, psychology, veterinary medicine, zoology, biology, social work, history, and sociology.

Multispecies Leisure: Human-Animal Interactions in Leisure Landscapes seeks to ‘bring the animal in’ to the leisure studies domain and contribute to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, interwoven multispecies phenomenon. The emerging multidisciplinary field of human-animal studies encourages researchers to move beyond narrow focus on human-centric practices and ways of being in the world, and to recognise that human and non-human beings are positioned within shared ecological, social, cultural and political spaces. With some exceptions, leisure studies has been slow to embrace the ‘animal turn’ and consider how leisure actions, experiences and landscapes are shaped through multispecies encounters between humans, other animals, birds and insects, plants and environment. This book begins to address this gap by presenting research that considers leisure as more-than-human experiences. The authors consider leisure with nonhuman others (e.g. dogs, horses), affecting those others (e.g. environmental concerns) and affected by the non-human (e.g. landscape, weather), by exploring the ‘contact zones’ between humans and other species. Thus, this work contributes to greater understanding of leisure as a complex, multispecies phenomenon. The chapters in this book were originally published as a Special Issue of the Leisure Studies.

This book examines the social world of the cat fancy, or the leisure activity of breeding and exhibiting pedigree cats. Based on multispecies ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in the United Kingdom, it explores the process and performance of exhibiting cats at shows, the breeding practices and discourses integral to the creation of pedigree breeds, and the relations that these practices generate between human guardians, the pedigree cat population, and non-pedigree cats. Through observation with cat fanciers and their interactions with their cats, the author investigates the social dynamics and relationships that form within the fancy, considering the interconnections between biopower and eugenics in pedigree breeding, the practices of pet keeping and the complexities of more-than-human care, and the implications of involvement for the cats themselves. As such, Cat People: Human–Cat Interrelatedness in the Cat Fancy will appeal to scholars from across the social sciences and humanities interested in human–animal interactions, multispecies leisure, anthrozoology, and more-than-human care.

Critical animal studies is increasingly interfacing with tourism research in an effort to shed light on the various ways animals are incorporated into touristic experience. Exploring non-human work in tourism: From beasts of burden to animal ambassadors builds upon the theoretical connections of animal ethics, agency, and welfare as it foregrounds specifically the work that animals perform in the industry. While some types of animal labor are more readily identified, readers of this volume may be surprised by how many forms of animal labor are overlooked. Taking a widely international perspective, with cases from the Arctic, China, Costa Rica, China, Finland, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, this volume offers readers diverse scenarios of animals working. The book is arranged along three themes of work. Performative work focuses on the animals whose performances are front and center of tourists’ motivations and experiences. Value-added work turns attention to the co-working relationships of animals, while the political work of animals as ambassadors and icons is examined within the chapters on hidden labor. Additionally, the book makes theoretical considerations of the implications of positioning animals as workers and offers reflections on ways this focus on working animals extends current scholarship in the field.

Completely updated and revised, and synthesizing the recent explosion in animal welfare literature, the sixth edition of this best-selling textbook continues to provide a thorough overview of behaviour and welfare of companion and farm animals, including fish. The introductory section has been completely revised, with all following chapters updated, redesigned and improved to reflect our changing understanding. Written by a world-leading expert and key opinion leader in animal behaviour and welfare, this text provides a highly accessible guide to the subject. It is an essential foundation for any veterinary, animal science, animal behaviour or welfare-focused undergraduate or graduate course.