The Human/Animal Relationship
As ‘subjects of human activity as well as objects of human curiosity’ (Ritvo, 1987 p.11), animals attract all sorts of people; the old and young, rich and poor, man or woman. In Britain, especially, there appears to be an important socio-historic reasoning for this. With the rapid urbanisation of the 16th Century onwards, people were no longer living alongside animals in the countryside and while animals were still prominent in cities, man had to develop new relationships with them as a result of this new environment. Thomas (1983) asserts that
‘between 1500 and 1800…there occurred…changes in the way men and women…perceived and classified the natural world around them…new sensibilities arose about animals, plants and landscape’ (Thomas, 1983: 15).
While Ritvo (1987) focuses on the human/animal relationship of the Victorian times only, she corroborates this change but in association with the legal status of animals. Prior to the nineteenth century animals were held responsible for their actions and once this was abolished their moral responsibilities were displaced to owners, a reflection of the more scientific mentality that accompanied the Enlightment, Before this change in legal stance, animals were often thought of as representing the power of nature but as technological advancements rendered nature increasingly under the control of humans it became less and less of an adversary until it could be viewed upon with affection and even nostalgia (Ritvo, 1983). Thus, sentimental attachment to those mammals that humans were interacting with most became widespread and is still special today, worldwide as much as in Britain. This emotional bond has also led to an animal-discourse in which humans use animals as an expression of themselves. The fact that mammals are very similar to us and occupy the same space we do infers we identify more readily with them than with fish or birds, for example, and this strengthens our use of animal metaphors to express human concerns. These are, however, commonly derogatory terms of abuse or disdain such as ‘you pig’ (Leach, 1972).