Species justice and harm to animals - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 108

- food (for example, mutton birds)
- eco-tourism (for example, birdlife, crocodiles)
- collectables (for example, lizards, exotic fish).
• Wild animals as threat/pest
- to agriculture (for example, kangaroos)
- to pastoral industry (for example, dingos)
- to surfing/recreation (for example, sharks)
- to angling (for example, galaxia fish).
Domestic animals
• Economic animals [humans doing something to them]:
- farm animals (for example, pigs, cows, chickens)
- aquaculture animals (for example, fish, prawns, oysters)
- research animals (for example, rats, mice)
- exhibited animals (for example, lions, tigers, bears).
• Economic animals [them doing something for humans]:
- law enforcement (for example, dogs)
- industrial/transportation animals (for example, oxen, horses)
- recreation/racing/rodeos (for example, horses, dogs)
- performing animals/circuses (for example, lions, monkeys).
• Non-economic animals [other human purposes]:
- companion animals (for example, cats, dogs, exotic fish, rabbits)
- hunting/sport companions (for example, horses, dogs).
Source: White, 2011: 65.
Domesticated animals are a separate category of animal to those
considered wild. This categorisation is based upon historical
relationships between certain species and humans, which have
over time transformed the basic nature of the animals in question.
'Domestication is an evolutionary process that results in animals such
as our companion dogs and cats undergoing substantial behavioral,
anatomical, physiological, and genetic changes during the process'
(Bekoff, 2010: xxxi). Any movement to introduce wild animals into a
domestic environment (such as adopting chimpanzees as household
pets) or domesticated animals into the wild (for example, release of cats)
inevitably carries with it certain risks and problems, from unexpected
episodes of violence against humans through to the creation of feral
predators that threaten endemic species of birds and other animals.
The concepts of 'pests' and 'invasive species' are contested notions
insofar as each reflects human interpretations of value and worth.
The idea of 'pest', for example, reduces the life, energy, activity and
wellbeing of creatures to that of threat, worthlessness and nuisance