How do humans live with animals and animals with humans? Why do some humans save the whale, while others eat them? Why are pigs intensively farmed but cats and dogs sleep on/in human beds or are, at least, part of the family? Should animals have rights, be legally regarded as property or be seen as sentient beings with significant similarities to humans? Are zoos prisons and therefore unethical? These questions revolve around the cultural, legal and social mediations between animals and humans. The subject includes an exercise that invites students to undertake an autoethnography on their experiences of living with animals and provides an opportunity to address how we can change the ways in which we live with animals (via laws and social policy).
Why is this subject not on offer this year?!