Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
specifically by members of the group. None belonged to voluntary environmental or
animal rights organisations.
Types of interactions with animals
The two extremes with respect to experience with animals were Georgia, who was
raised in Belize, where her family owned a wide variety of both farm animals and
pets, and Carla, who had never owned or raised an animal. Most participants,
however, had experienced animals in either home or work settings. In addition,
many had encountered animals in the wild. With one exception, participants had
broad experience with pet ownership, either as a result of their own pet-keeping (8)
or membership in a pet-keeping family (7). Over one-third had worked or were
raised on a farm. Most described having parents who fished and/or hunted. Many
recounted vivid experiences with and recollections of animals. One participant's
father had worked in a slaughterhouse; another father once killed a neighbour's
pesky opossum and served him up for supper. A grandmother regularly wrung the
chickens' necks and served the birds up for family dinner. There were tales of summer
camp and horseback riding, and memories of reading nature topics or having
parents who read animal stories aloud. Such recollections were rich and redolent of
the human relationships that surrounded these animal practices.
Differences in the nature of relationships between people and pets, on the one
hand, and people and farm or service animals (such as guard dogs), on the other,
emerged during the discussion. Alice's response to our question about experience
with pets, for example, displayed an interesting change in verb: she began 'my
parents raised', but, as if catching herself, immediately changed course, to 'my parents
had
two dogs and a cat' (emphasis added). The reason for this shift became clear
later when she detailed the deaths of the two dogs, one at the hands of her father,
the other at the hands of her family's neighbour. This change in word use, from
'raised' to 'had', appears to constitute a correction to the
meaning
applied to the two
dogs by her family (especially her father). To 'raise' implies some form of emotional
connection or investment between the dogs and the family, while to 'have'
objectifies the 'animal' as just another material commodity, one easily disposed
with; in this case, violently ('daddy took a two-by-four and hit…the little dog').
Our questions about participants' experiences with marine wildlife drew many
and varied responses, identifying not only animals encountered at the beach but,
furthermore, the context within which they were encountered and the perceptions
that resulted from these experiences. Animals encountered ranged from 'little itty
bitty crabs' (Laura) and jellyfish to more charismatic fauna, including whales,
dolphins, seals and swordfish, the latter group (whales, in particular) being described
with phrases like 'so pretty' or 'so cool'. Remarkably, except for swordfish, nobody
cited 'fish' as being an animal encountered at the beach, despite the fact that four of
the participants had fished at some point in their lives. Of special note was a
conversation between Georgia, Bernadette and Susan on the question of which fish
were best to eat. This dialogue emerged towards the centre of the discussion about
