Wild Animals And Leisure

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.

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.

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 critically examines the many ways in which tourism and animals intersect, whether as tourist attractions, wildlife conservation tools, as travel companions or as meat to be eaten. It aims to make a meaningful contribution to the growing body of knowledge concerning the relationships between animals, tourists and the tourism industry. The chapters are organised into three themes: ethics and welfare; conflict, contradiction and contestation; and shifting relationships. Theoretically informed and empirically rich, the chapters examine topics such as whale watching, animal performances, the objectification and commodification of animals and stakeholder conflict among a range of others. It is hoped that the book will help to highlight key research questions and stimulate other researchers and students to reflect critically on the place of animals within tourism spaces, experiences, practices and structures.

This timely book provides a critical account of the role that animals play in the tourism industry, representing an extension of the sustainability imperative and environmental theory. Written by a leading academic and author, this volume explores the rich history of animal ethics research, both inside and outside of tourism studies, for the purpose of providing greater theoretical, empirical, conceptual, and practical guidance. It examines historical and current practices of the use of animals in the tourism industry from both in situ to ex situ consumption and production perspectives, identifying a range of ethical issues associated with such use. This second edition has been updated to reflect contemporary research and thinking around animal welfare, hunting, and consumption with new chapters on animals as food, and policy at the national and international levels. New case studies have been integrated throughout. Offering an interdisciplinary overview of the moral issues related to the use of animals in tourism through cutting-edge research, this book is essential reading for students, academics, and researchers interested in tourism ethics, sustainable tourism, and wildlife tourism.

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.

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.