IN-HUMAN BONDAGE: New book examines paradoxical human-animal relationships
IN-HUMAN BONDAGE: New book examines paradoxical human-animal relationships
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY: There is an ever-growing multidisciplinary interest in the nature of human-animal relationships… Professor Laurent Bègue-Shankland’s new award-winning book: ‘The Social Psychology of the Human-Animal Bond’, winner of the 2024 Prix Émile Girardeau, examines humans’ dominance of and affection for animals. It analyzes paradoxical human behavior toward animals and how empathy toward animals can be manipulated. The author explores how our personalities and political beliefs shape the way we relate to animals… Marc Bekoff (MB): Why did you write The Social Psychology of the Human-Animal Bond? Laurent Bègue-Shankland (LBS): My aim was to create a broad overview of our […]
R.I.P. Brigitte Bardot: Legendary actress turned ‘militant’ animal rights activist dies at 91
R.I.P. Brigitte Bardot: Legendary actress turned ‘militant’ animal rights activist dies at 91
Legendary actress Brigitte Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals. She also condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments, and she opposed Muslim slaughter rituals. “Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot said in 2007, “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since ‘it’ has no power, no words to defend ‘itself'”. Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 […]
‘BLIND SPOT’: Why do we ignore the lives of the birds destined for our plates?
‘BLIND SPOT’: Why do we ignore the lives of the birds destined for our plates?
The birders ‘blind spot’ is a side effect of looking at the world through binoculars. We spend so much time focused on distant birds that we don’t always see the birds closest to us. Like the birds on our plates. For instance, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has never officially opposed the eating of chicken, turkeys, or duck, nor has The Audubon Society. A chicken, a duck, a turkey: Each is as much a bird as Flaco the owl. And no less deserving of protection. Birders are precisely the humans birds need as advocates: those who care about them and […]
