Winner of the Charles Horton Cooley Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 1997

The first edition of Regarding Animals provided insight into the history and practice of how human beings construct animals, and how we construct ourselves and others in relation to them. Considerable progress in how society regards animals has occurred since that time. However, shelters continue to euthanize companion animals, extinction rates climb, and wildlife “management” pits human interests against those of animals. 

This revised and updated edition of Regarding Animals includes four new chapters, examining how relationships with pets help homeless people to construct positive personal identities; how adolescents who engage in or witness animal abuse understand their acts; how veterinary technicians experience both satisfaction and contamination in their jobs; and how animals are represented in mass media—both traditional editorial media and social media platforms.

The authors illustrate how modern society makes it possible for people to shower animals with affection and yet also to abuse or kill them. Although no culture or subculture provides solutions for resolving all moral contradictions, Regarding Animals illuminates how people find ways to live with inconsistent behavior.

Arnold Arluke is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Emeritus at Northeastern University and a Senior Scholar at the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. His books include Underdogs: Pets, People and Poverty (with Andrew Rowan), Just a Dog: Understanding Animal Cruelty and Ourselves (Temple), and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935 (with Robert Bogdan).

Clinton R. Sanders is a Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the author of Understanding Dogs: Living and Working with Canine Companions, Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing (both Temple) and the co-editor (with Jeff Ferrell) of Cultural Criminology.

Leslie Irvine is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Animals and Society Certificate Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her books include If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals and Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters (both Temple).