This thesis explores how wolves, and other animals, are represented in a variety of literary texts. At stake in these explorations is the shifting and problematic border between the human and the animal, culture and nature, civilisation and the wild. Because of its biological proximity to the domestic dog, as well as the ways in which it has been figured as both the ultimate expression of wild savagery and of maternal love, the wolf is an exemplary guide to this border. The wolf traces the ways in which the human/animal border has been constructed, sustained and transgressed. These border crossings take on a special resonance given the widespread sense of a contemporary environmental crisis. In this respect this thesis amounts to a contribution to the field of ecocriticism and pays special attention to the claim that the environmental crisis is also a 'crisis of the imagination', of our ideational and aesthetic relationship to the nonhuman world. With this in mind I look closely at some of the main currents of ecocriticism with a view to showing how certain psychoanalytic and poststructuralust approaches can enhance an overall ecocritical stance. It is an analysis which will also show how the sense of environmental emergency cannot be divorced from other critical and political concerns, including those concerns highlighted by feminist and postcolonial critics. In the words of a much favoured environmentalist slogan, 'everything connects to everything else'. Ultimately this thesis shows that how we imagine the wolf, and nature in general, in literary texts, is inextricably bound up with our relationship to, and treatment of, the natural world and the animals, including human beings, for whom that world is home.

Oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are neuropeptides with diverse effects on social behavior, cognition and stress responses. Recent studies suggest that OT facilitates and responds to affiliative forms of human-animal interaction (HAI). However, previous studies measuring OT and AVP in dogs have been limited to measures from blood or urine, which present concerns related to the invasiveness of sample collection, the potential for matrix interference in immunoassays, and whether samples can be collected at precise time points to assess event-linked endocrine responses. Previous studies from our laboratory validated salivary measures of OT and AVP in dogs, however, it is currently unknown whether these measures respond dynamically to aspects of HAI. Here, we investigated the effects of affiliative forms of HAI on both plasma and salivary OT and AVP in dogs. We employed a within-and between-subjects design with a group of Labrador retrievers and Labrador retriever x golden retriever crosses (23 females, 15 males). Half of the dogs engaged in 10 min of free-form friendly interaction with a human experimenter (HAI condition), and the other half rested quietly in the same environment, without human interaction (control condition). We collected blood and saliva samples before, and immediately following both experimental conditions, and all samples were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) following previously validated protocols. Dogs participating in HAI exhibited a significant increase in both salivary OT (+ 39%) and plasma OT (+ 5.7%) whereas dogs in the control group did not. Salivary AVP showed no change in the HAI group but increased significantly (+ 33%) in the control group. Plasma AVP decreased significantly following HAI (13%) but did not change across time in the control condition. Within the dogs exposed to HAI, increases in salivary OT, and decreases in plasma AVP, were predicted by the extent of affiliative behavior between the dog and human (indexed by scores from a principal components analysis of social behaviors between the dog and human). Collectively our results suggest that measures of salivary OT and AVP provide useful biomarkers in studies of HAI, and afford a flexible and non-invasive toolkit than can be employed in diverse research contexts.

Conflicts between humans and baboons (Papio ursinus) have become a significant management challenge on Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s (NMMUs) George Campus, which is located in peri-urban George in the Garden Route, of the Western Cape of South Africa. Current management policy, although required to be ‘scientifically’ based, largely relies on studies done outside the Garden Route. This study addresses the question of how the management of human-baboon relations could be improved on the campus. A case study was undertaken which aimed at addressing the cohabitation of baboons and humans on the NMMU campus, specifically human-baboon resource selection and interaction. The research methodology and the related analytical tools were primarily quantitative but were supplemented by some qualitative data drawn from interviews. Data collected was used to determine landscape features acting as Keystone Resource Areas (KRAs) for both humans and baboons on the campus. Relationships between the frequency and location of negative interactions, and resident-baboon distribution on the campus were also determined. Two key findings emerged from the research. First, residences, non-residence buildings and waste disposal stations act as KRAs for both humans and baboons. Second, the frequency of negative interaction correlates with the time spent by residents and baboons at residences, where common negative interactions between baboons and humans are known to occur. It is postulated that cohabitation on the NMMU George Campus is causing the habituation of baboons, a loss of fear of humans and association of humans with high energy foods. As a result, present cohabitation contributes to negative human-baboon relations in the George area. To ensure sustainable co-existence between humans and baboons on the George Campus, management should implement zonation and wildlife monitoring to reverse the loss of baboon fear of humans and better limit the availability of human-derived foods. In addition, management should consider giving stakeholders co-management roles to foster and facilitate knowledge and responsibility partnerships, and subsequently correct any misunderstandings related to human-baboon relations on the campus. Recommendations for further research include sampling beyond campus boundaries to compensate for regional variations in baboon behaviour and the biophysical environment.

Constructs of human-animal relational theory (HART) were investigated to determine how those constructs manifested in animal-assisted therapy in counseling (AAT-C) from the perspectives of 6 participants (2 counselors, females, ages 28 and 32, both non-Hispanic and White; 2 clients, male and female, ages 55 and 23, respectively, both non-Hispanic and White; and, 2 therapy animals, canines, Labrador retriever and spaniel mix, ages 4 and 5, respectively). Using constructivist-grounded theory, a research team analyzed qualitative data from observations, interviews, and field notes. From the iterative process of multiphasic coding and constant comparison, these findings emerged: (a) consistency between Chandler's (in press) constructs and participants' experiences of AAT-C, (b) more meaningful therapeutic impacts for clients from client-initiated human-animal relational processes (HARPs) than counselor-initiated HARPs, (c) development of rich definitions and descriptions of Chandler's constructs, and (d) descriptions of interactive experiences of AAT-C and client resistance in the context of HART. Clinicians and educators in the field of AAT can apply the processes, practices, and principles from this study in their work to enhance positive therapeutic impacts for clients. As Chandler's constructs were supported in this study, AAT authors and researchers can solve a glaring problem of inconsistent terminology in the AAT literature by using those constructs in future studies and publications as operationalized nomenclature for standardized AAT interventions.

Please read the abstract in the section, 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Physiology))--University of Pretoria, 1999. / Physiology / unrestricted

Although attention to the effects of child-animal interactions on children's development has increased in the last three decades, developmental psychology has not attended to the importance of the effects of animals on children's development. There is a need to consider the possible impacts of animals as significant social partners for children's socioemotional development. The current study, through survey questionnaires and interview methods, investigated whether interacting with animals, especially when children have responsibilities for the welfare of pets and perhaps have formed strong attachments with pets, will promote children's socio-emotional development, specifically their abilities to take the perspective of others. Sixty-five students who attended the local humane society's summer camp program, and students who participated in a monthly humane education program as part of their after school program were invited to participate in the study. All participants completed seven surveys and one telephone or face-to-face interview that were designed to measure their attitudes toward animals and humans, as well as their abilities to take the perspective of others. A linear regression analysis, Chi-Square test, and correlation coefficient test were conducted to assess the quality of interaction with pets on children's humane attitudes toward animals and humans, empathy, as well as their perspective taking abilities. It was found that students who showed stronger attachment toward their pets showed more humane attitudes toward animals and toward humans than students who showed weaker attachment toward their pets. Additionally, it was found that students who showed stronger attachment with their pets had higher levels of social cognitive development (i.e., perspective taking abilities) than students who showed weaker attachment with their pets. Also, significant correlations among variables, such as students' knowledge of animal care, attitudes toward animals and humans, attachment with pets, perspective taking abilities, were found. Lastly, students whose parents show more effective guidance on pet care have more advanced skills of thinking and solving problems in flexible manner than students who do not receive any or less guidance on pet care at home. Findings from the current study suggest the importance of humane education programs as well as effective parental guidance in pet care at home to promote students' knowledge of animal care and humane attitudes toward animals, which influence students' ability to take perspective of others. Promoting such knowledge and attitudes of children may help to promote their empathy and ability to take perspective of others. Having such abilities will alternately help children to have high interpersonal skills, which is a key to have a more successful life in society.

No description available.

Accredited US zoos aim to support wildlife conservation and educate and influence the public and create a conservation-minded community by curating immersive multispecies experiences. In this case study, I examine how zoos may practice conservation through the frameworks of biopolitics, spectacle, affect, and mainstream conservation paradigms. To conduct this research, I interviewed 10 zoo staff from the animal, education, development, and retail departments of a Midwestern zoo. Their rhetoric about zoos and how they practice conservation suggests that zoo staff aim to generate affective responses from guests by displaying animals in managed care. These affective responses that staff hope to generate have the potential to elicit behavioral changes in the public, such as making responsible consumer choices and donating to the zoo or to other conservation organizations. I conclude that these practices are examples of mainstream (neoliberalized) modes of conservation, which is conservation that is compatible with larger capitalist structures.

No description available.

This dissertation approaches both being and knowledge as functionally no different than storytelling, with stories themselves given life by the various theoretical and narrative frameworks and strategies through which they are shaped and made credible. Storytelling is the foundational methodology of this work, and the work itself takes imagination as central to complicating and disrupting the normative terms (i.e., the stories) of both being and knowledge. Its particular agenda is in making space for imagining futures without both war and the figure of the human, especially the human as Man, as a way through the interminable conflict characteristic of the contemporary historical moment. Situated in the field of human-animal studies, the analysis takes up military working dogs, which I argue are made to sustain the disimagination processes inherent to militarization. The innate dehumanization of war requires narratives that recover the human, and dogs, as companion species and creatures of the home, are especially well positioned for this task. Drawing on Black feminist thought, and anti-colonial insights from Indigenous thinkers, this work also shows how such dogs are used strategically within assemblages of whiteness to reify certain forms of sovereignty at the expense of both racialized people and dogs. Finally, I argue that imagining futures without conflict and war requires asking seemingly unimaginable questions, such as why sacrificing dogs in combat seems an unassailable truth given the alternatives. By asking such questions, I seek to engage a kind of radical imagination unconstrained by the limits of Man as the locus of ethics, especially during times of conflict, and to bring about an appreciation of dogs, whether in combat or otherwise, as beings for whom our responsibility to, and ethical relation with, runs far deeper than most humans willingly acknowledge. / Dissertation / Candidate in Philosophy / This project looks at weaponized and military working dogs within the context of war and conflict to examine the stories we tell about them, and what these stories do. I ask, how do these stories work and who are they for? To answer these questions, I traverse an expansive archive that includes, among other things, popular media representations, military memoir, mainstream journalism, and documentary film. I am especially interested in the ways stories about dogs inform how we understand war, militarization, and race, and how they impact the operation of power and sovereignty. I argue that dogs have been used to teach us who is and isn’t human, but that our obligation and responsibility to the gift that dogs bring is to undo the oppressive story of Man, which institutes untold amounts of suffering and oppression across species, and to tell new stories in its place.