FYS 120L: Animals & Society

Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) is an international and interdisciplinary scholarly open access journal. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, communications, and short notes that are relevant to any field of study that involves animals, including zoology, ethnozoology, animal science, animal ethics and animal welfare. However, preference will be given to those articles that provide an understanding of animals within a larger context (i.e., the animals' interactions with the outside world, including humans).

Animal Studies Journal (ASJ) provides a forum for current research in the field of animal Studies. ASJ publishes international cross-disciplinary scholarship and practice-led research. The journal, which is published twice yearly, is fully refereed (double-blind peer reviewed) and open access. ISSN: 2201-3008 (Online). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14453/asj.

Anthrozoös is a bi-monthly, peer-reviewed publication whose focus is to report the results of studies, from a wide array of disciplines, on the interactions between people and other animals. Academic disciplines represented include anthropology, archaeozoology, art and literature, education, ethology, history, human medicine, psychology, sociology and veterinary medicine.

Between the Species: A Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals, is a peer-reviewed electronic journal devoted to the philosophical examination of the relationship between human beings and other animals. While most articles are ethical inquiries, others raise issues involving metaphysics, epistemology and other areas of philosophical investigation.

Human—Animal Interactions is an open access interdisciplinary journal devoted to the dissemination of research in all fields related to interactions between non-human animals and their human counterparts. The journal brings together researchers, academicians, clinicians/practitioners, and students working to advance the field of human-animal interactions.

Humanimalia is a biannual journal devoted to the study of human–animal relations. It is interdisciplinary, Diamond open-access, and peer-reviewed, publishing original articles from a wide range of cultural, historical, philosophical, political, and aesthetic perspectives.

The Journal for Critical Animal Studies (JCAS) was designed to develop activist consciousness of animal liberation history, practice, theory, and politics, while also encouraging Critical Animal Studies (CAS) scholarship, one of the most progressive and dynamic modes of theory in the academy today. To this end, JCAS, a free online journal, accepts manuscripts and other materials that promote the fundamental notions of CAS.

The Journal of Animal Ethics is devoted to the exploration of progressive thought about animals. It is multidisciplinary in nature and international in scope. It covers theoretical and applied aspects of animal ethics of interest to academics from the humanities and the sciences, as well as professionals working in the field of animal protection.

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (JAAWS) publishes articles on methods of experimentation, husbandry, and care that demonstrably enhance the welfare of nonhuman animals in various settings. For administrative purposes, manuscripts are categorized into the following four content areas: welfare issues arising in laboratory, farm, companion animal, and wildlife/zoo settings.

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice (PAIJ) is the official, peer-reviewed, open-access publication of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO, www.iahaio.org). PAIJ publishes articles related to research and practice in the fields of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) and human-animal interactions (HAI) where the well-being of humans and animals are concerned.

Politics and Animals is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that explores the human-animal relationship from the vantage point of political science and political theory. It hosts international, multidisciplinary research and debate — conceptual and empirical — on the consequences and possibilities that human-animal relations have for politics and vice versa.

Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism is a peer-refereed journal of trans-anthropocentric ethics and related inquiries. The main aim of the journal is to create a professional interdisciplinary forum in Europe to discuss moral and scientific issues that concern the increasing need of going beyond narrow anthropocentric paradigms in all fields of knowledge.

Publishes studies that describe and analyze our experiences of non-human animals from the perspective of various disciplines within both the social sciences and the humanities. The journal specifically deals with subjects such as human-animal interactions in various settings (animal cruelty, the therapeutic uses of animals), the applied uses of animals (research, education, medicine and agriculture), the use of animals in popular culture (e.g. dog-fighting, circus, animal companion, animal research), attitudes toward animals as affected by different socializing agencies and strategies, representations of animals in literature, the history of the domestication of animals, the politics of animal welfare, and the constitution of the animal rights movement.

Trace — Journal for Human-Animal Studies is a peer-reviewed, fully open access online journal that provides a forum for research and discussion of human-animal relations from social and cultural perspectives. The journal publishes original research articles, lectiones praecursoriae, and conference reports, as well as reviews on books, art exhibitions, films, and other media. Trace accepts submissions in English, Finnish and Swedish.

Opposition to the use of animals in research is based on arguments of two different kinds -- those relying on the alleged rights of animals and those relying on the consequences for animals. The author argues against both kinds of arguments on the grounds that there is an asymmetry between humans and animals.
Cohen, Carl. 1986. “The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research.” The New England Journal of Medicine 315 (14): 865–70. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM198610023151405.

The author criticizes what she calls Tom Regan's "strong animal rights" position and defends her own "weak animal rights" view.
Warren, Mary Anne. 1986. “Difficulties With the Strong Animal Rights Position.” Between the Species 2 (4). https://doi.org/10.15368/bts.1986v2n4.2.

The article discusses whether animals feel pain, examining scientific, philosophical, and evolutionary arguments. It critiques behavioral, neurophysiological, and consciousness-based evidence. The author emphasizes that pain is a mental state requiring consciousness, which animals may lack. It concludes that moral treatment of animals should be based on caution and ethical considerations beyond uncertain claims of animal pain.
Harrison, Peter. 1991. “Do Animals Feel Pain?” Philosophy (London) 66 (255): 25–40. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100052827.

"A philosophical response to arguments supporting animal rights, particularly critiquing Singer and Regan's approach. It explores the moral distinctions between humans and animals, emphasizing that our moral concepts about human life—such as respect, recognition of a fellow creature, and the significance of human life—are central to understanding why we do not eat humans or pets"
Diamond, Cora. 1978. “Eating Meat and Eating People.” Philosophy (London) 53 (206): 465–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100026334.

The article explores how radical differences in physical form complicate judgments about animal emotions and questions whether our understanding is influenced by human-centered biases. Ultimately, it examines the philosophical basis for recognizing emotions in animals and other non-human entities.
Cockburn, David. 1994. “Human Beings and Giant Squids.” Philosophy (London) 69 (268): 135–50. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100046805.

The text discusses the moral basis of vegetarianism, focusing on arguments against the rearing and killing of animals for food. It distinguishes between two types of vegetarians: those who object to the pain inflicted on animals and those who object to the killing itself. The essay explores various philosophical perspectives, including utilitarianism and deontological ethics, and examines the implications of animal suffering, the value of animal existence, and the moral significance of human-animal distinctions.
Devine, Philip E. 1978. “The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism.” Philosophy (London) 53 (206): 481–505. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100026346.

Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of people to the existence of "speciesism" our systematic disregard of nonhuman animals inspiring a worldwide movement to transform our attitudes to animals and eliminate the cruelty we inflict on them. In Animal Liberation, author Peter Singer exposes the chilling realities of today's "factory farms" and product-testing procedures destroying the spurious justifications behind them, and offering alternatives to what has become a profound environmental and social as well as moral issue.

Collection of historical, theoretical and applied articles on the ethical considerations in the treatment of animals by human beings.

The study of animals - and the relationship between humans and other animals - is now one of the most fiercely debated topics in contemporary science and culture. The Animals Reader brings together the key classic and contemporary writings from Philosophy, Ethics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Environmental Studies, History, Law and Science. As the first book of its kind, The Animals Reader provides a framework for understanding the current state of the multidisciplinary field of animal studies.

The Case for Animal Rights is an acknowledged classic of moral philosophy, and its author Tom Regan is recognized as the intellectual leader of the animal rights movement. (Also available as an ebook.)

This book is a discussion of the moral and social issues raised by genetically engineering animals, a powerful technology which has major implications for society. Bernard Rollin is both a professor of philosophy, and physiology and biophysics, and writes from a uniquely well-informed perspective on this topic. The style is non-technical and anecdotal and will ensure that the book can be used on a wide range of courses on bioethics, biotechnology, veterinary medicine and public policy. (Submit request for library pickup in Catalyst.)

J.M. Coetzee uses fiction to present a discussion of animal rights in all their complexity; he draws us into his character's own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. The idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. (Also available as an ebook.)

Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice addresses interconnections between speciesism, sexism, racism, and homophobia, clarifying why social justice activists in the twenty-first century must challenge intersecting forms of oppression. This anthology presents bold and gripping--sometimes horrifying--personal narratives from fourteen activists who have personally explored links of oppression between humans and animals, including such exploitative enterprises as cockfighting, factory farming, vivisection, and the bushmeat trade. Sister Species asks readers to rethink how they view "others," how they affect animals with their daily choices, and how they might bring change for all who are abused. (Available as an ebook.)

Bernard Rollin explains why and how scientists have been so cavalier about animal use, animal pain, and the moral questions they raise. He explores the damage caused by this position, both morally and scientifically; for it is not only the animals used in research which have suffered, but science itself, given that failure to take animal feelings into account has been shown to distort experimental results. In this book, the author traces the development of changing attitudes towards animals and shows how growing social concern about the way in which we treat them is forcing science to turn back to the common-sense view.