Human beings have always looked for similarities between themselves and other people as to gain common ground. However people also attempt to make connections between themselves and the more primal parts of nature. Animals have been along side people for centuries and them being by our side we’ve assigned them certain traits and meanings as an attempt to connect with them on a deeper level. The Egyptians treated felines as almost gods in their culture because, after domestication, they killed vermin which helped crops grow. That praise evolved into worship, and gave felines new meaning among human beings. In many ways humans change animals to suit their purposes in literature and as to allow us to more finely tune our imagination to the lives of animals. Human beings don’t have any idea what it’s like anymore to be one with their natural surroundings which is why we focus so intently on relating to the lives of animals. The more we try to become kindred with animals, the more definitive the relationship between humans and animals becomes. Our relationship is almost anything we decide it to be on our end of it, but as for the animals they seem to fairly indifferent. We can say whatever we want to say about our own relationships with animals, but they’re not going to ignore their own primal instincts no matter what we say. This is demonstrated through Timothy Treadwell’s experience with the grizzly bears in Alaska. Treadwell truely believed to be a kindred spirit with the
In an article based on an interview published in Time Magazine, “A Change of Heart About Animals”. Jeremy Rifkin expresses his views about the similarity behavior and emotional state between us humans and animals, with the purpose to change the way of how we see and feel about them. “We’re so skewed toward efficiency that we’ve lost our sense of humanity. What we need to do is to bring back a sense of the sacred”, Rifkin, argues. He supports his arguments with the findings of many researchers around the globe. Researchers that come from very prestigious institutions using different species of animals, we’re talking about crows, elephants, geese, etc. Not your ordinary lab rats and monkeys (which they don’t have anything
Jeremy Rifkin had made such impact on readers through his article “A Change of Heart about Animals”. Not only did he inform us the reality that animals do have feelings, he also unbounded the label we had long given to the animals, thus fully altered our perspectives about these fellow creatures. In regard to the influence, I myself am not excluded. As a matter of fact, since I was a kid, I have started raising pets. As long as it seems, I have built myself an assumption about these domestic animals as they don’t differ much from humans’ natural behavior in life. They have feelings, family and awareness of surroundings.
Over the course of history, humans have classified various animals from companions, playmates we will love until the end of the world; to nourishment, meat we look forward to for our next meal. Be that as it may, how ever did we reconcile theses ways of loving some animals while eating or hating others? In Hal Herzog excerpt, “Animals Like Us”, using anecdotal stories Herzog tackles the reasoning behind our contradicting relationships and behaviors regarding this 'trouble middle' for different animals. In order to resolve the murkiness of the trouble middle we must reshape our ethics on why we treat certain animals differently by eliminating our misconceptions of each animal and understanding that every animal should be treated equally.
Human beings are considered to be the greatest creations that were given knowledge, skills and power to rule over the entire planet. However, at the same time, their relationship with other animals and its implications in human civilization cannot be denied. Historically, it is proven that for thousands of years, human beings have developed close contact with animals who were their means of living and at the same time often, great companions. Considering the great significance of animals in the lives of human beings, often their relationships were portrayed in literature by authors. It was meant to help the global community to have a clear understanding of the impact that animals have in the lives of human beings which is very much significant.
“It’s starting to look as if the most shameful tradition of Western civilization is our need to deny we are animals” (Barbara Kingsolver 10). In “High Tide In Tucson”, the author Kingsolver proposes a counter-narrative that human should recognize themselves as animals. In “
Foer raises the question why people are so loving to companion animals while being indifferent to other
Reading "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat" by Hal Herzog and watching TED Talks by guest speakers, I noticed that the main idea that these sources focus on are the several different types of animal-human relationships. Here is where I came to a conclusion. I have always wondered how a relationship between humans and animals forms. If a pet is a private and homely animal that is kept for companionship and the pleasure of one 's family, then what holds such a strong bond between animals and human when we are so different from each other?
ear Editor, In the article published “A Change of Heart About Animals.” In there, the author Jeremy Rifkin states that “ [Animals] they feel pain, suffer and experience stress, affection, excitement, and even love- these findings are changing how we view animals.” I agree with this pretty bold statement and I feel like many parts of society are very neglecting towards animals and how they are treated, there needs to be a change. Like Rifkin said, many animals in our daily lives are like people in more ways than one.
I think every single day we are personally connected with animals. We eat animals for food, wear animal skins for clothes, own animals as pets, use animals for recreation, and experiment on animals to test drugs and consumer products. We are aware of this, yet we naturally give little thought to the overwhelming number of animals that we use in these ways, and what the animals themselves might be suffering as we use them for our purposes. While no non-human animal on this planet has the cultured rational abilities that we do, many, however, have mental capacities that enable them to experience pain, suffering, and anxiety
Because of this, humans view animals as lesser beings which can be controlled, eaten, and abused at our discretion. Singer argues against this way of thinking by acknowledging the similarities between humans and other “lesser
The last decade of the twentieth century in America saw a rise in programs for human’s “self betterment.” A popular form of betterment is that of the inner animal. Interest in Native American animal mysticism, vision quests, and totem animals have increased dramatically in the past few years. No forms of media have been spared; Calvin Klein’s supermodels come on during sitcom commercials to tell viewers they need to be a beast, or to get in touch with their animal within. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, animalism was viewed not as a method of self-improvement but as the reprehensible side of humanity that lingered beneath the surface, waiting for an
John Muir, an American naturalist and writer said “Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” People can improve their lives through observing and interacting with animals. People's lives are improved when they interact with animals by making them healthier, csreing , and happier. People are healthier when they own pets. " He taught me to appreciate the simple things—a walk in the woods,'' quoted in the story by John Grogan in "Marly and Me".
Humans have always had a complicated relationship with non-human animals. This relationship has always benefitted the needs of humans, with little consideration for animals’ needs. Some animals are tortured for entertainment, some are butchered for food and others are taken from their habitat and family, and forced to be pets for humans. These are all examples of the ways humans have exploited animals for their own satisfaction. Hal Herzog’s essay “Animals Like Us” describes the complicated relationship that humans and animals have, and how difficult it is to determine what is ethical when dealing with animals. Jonathan Safran Foer makes a similar observation in his essay “The Fruits of Family Trees” of the ethical issues in the
In David Pierson's article discusses the representations of the animal world, focusing on anthropomorphism, in the nature programming of the cable television network, Discovery Channel. The channel has established a perceived authority in educational and nonfictional documentary programming for its shows. The line between anthropomorphizing animals and the majority is portrayed that drive human moral behavior can be useful, harmful or both – depending on whom you ask. People have and continue to portray the natural world as reflections of us in film, social media, literature and even with personal pets. As an ABEC, I understand that animals do not share the same emotions or physiology as humans but anthropomorphizing leads us off the scent
Human-animal interaction (HAI) is a concept that has been around since the beginning; ever since man knew what animals were. We have interacted in so many ways with animals - ranging from hunting as a resource to observing in the wild, and from holding in captivity as a means of labor to domesticating for companionship. Throughout these centuries of interactions, it's become abundantly clear as to what these encounters do for us as far as productivity/research/ entertainment/companionship, but it's never been completely clear as to what our presence and encounters do to them - more specifically, what does it do to them psychologically and behaviorally? The word interaction is key, and it's important to note what an interaction means: both individuals affect each other- “... both human and animal are active and reactive during an interaction, independent of who is the initiator” (Eddie A.M. Bokkers, 31). So, what does this mean for animal development? An animal’s psychological development (just like humans) is most influenced at a very young age, but behavioral development (though still very impressionable at a young age) can be influenced at virtually any point in their life. This, in regards to the influence of human interaction, means that it influences these two branches of development through positive and negative stimulants that allow a psychological learning adaptation to take place, prompting a behavioral action.