Human-Animal relationships: Perception, Attitudes and Ethics

Abstract

This study investigates the psychology of human-animal relationships and the extent to which our attitude to animals has changed over the latter part of the twentieth century. Empirical investigation and ethical enquiry are used to focus on both practical and moral issues.

The question of animal status has been debated since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers, and Part I looks at changing attitudes in Western society. It focuses on three key debates which have traditionally defined the status of animals compared with that of mankind, whether they have instinct rather than rationality, whether an anthropomorphic understanding of them is unscientific, and whether some can be said to have a sufficiently developed form of communication to merit the term 'language'. It is the arguments underlying these debates that have traditionally defined animal status.

Of all animals, pets have the highest status, often being treated a family members. However claims made by pet owners about their relationships and shared systems of communication have commonly been dismissed as unscientific, anecdotal and anthropomorphic. By the use of video recording, Part II investigates whether these criticisms are justified and examines the extent to which attributes of cognitive and affective states to animals are influenced by personal experience.

Part III addresses the question of how far the experience of living with companion animals affects people's attitudes to non-pet species, and whether there are generational differences in the perception of animals. By means of a three-generational study, it examines changing attitudes to animals over a period of seventy years, and the practical issues of how different species would be treated by each of the generations in particular situations.

Part IV investigates the extent to which two institutions, both largely concerned with moral thinking, are including the ethical treatment of animals in their courses: Christian theological colleges and university departments of philosophy.

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