Animal Publics – serie

Experts in the field of human–animal studies investigate the ways in which humans and other animals interact. While offering different interpretations of the human–non-human interactions, they share a common goal in attempting to find pathways leading to a mutually beneficial and shared co-existence.

Cane Toads is about good intentions, unintended consequences and of simple acts leading to catastrophic outcomes. It is about scientists so committed to solving a problem, serving their country, their leaders and the industry that employed them, that they are blinkered to adverse impacts.

19th-century menageries reflected a human capacity for fighting, aggression and dominance over nature, and echoed a cultural fascination with war and colonial expansion. Their legacy embedded in society a belief in the human right to exploit other animal species – a belief yet to be defeated.

The term Anthropocene is a useful device for drawing attention to the devastations wreaked by anthropocentrism and for advancing a relational model for human and non-human life. As anthropogenic change affects the more-than-human world, we must accept responsibility for the damage we have caused, and the debt we owe to non-human species.

The plight of animals in China has attracted intense interest in recent times. Speculation about the origins of COVID-19 has sparked curiosity about how animals are treated, traded and consumed in China today.

The Flight of Birds is a collection of fictional and ficto-critical stories, presenting encounters with a range of birds. Embedded in the fictional encounters is a philosophical and theoretical investigation into the ways humans engage with birds.

Obaysch: A Hippopotamus in Victorian London is the story of Obaysch the hippopotamus, the first ‘star’ animal to be exhibited in the London Zoo. Uncovering the circumstances of Obaysch's capture and exhibition, this book investigates the notion of a 'star' animal, as well as the cultural value that Obaysch accumulated.

'With the global zoonotic pandemic and biodiversity crisis in our hands, this book is timely and extremely valuable in this era of mass extinction.' * Trace: Journal of Human-Animal Studies *

Dingo Bold Dingo Bold is both a moving memoir of love and loss through Lennox's observations of the natural world and an important contribution to wider conversations about conservation and animal welfare.

Australian Animal Law: Context and Critique provides comprehensive information about the legal and regulatory framework governing the interaction between humans and animals.By relating specific content areas to the discipline’s broader characteristics and themes, researcher Elizabeth Ellis exposes the systemic nature of current problems and the consequent need for significant change. This book also illustrates the role of official animal protection narratives in legitimising the existing system despite the many factual flaws they contain.Ellis covers the major areas of animal law in detail, incorporating accessible contextual material and allowing readers to consolidate their understanding and build upon their knowledge. Key areas include the concept of unnecessary animal suffering, the effective exemption of most animals from the operation of cruelty laws, regulatory conflicts of interest, the hidden nature of animal use and the lack of transparency in animal law.Australian Animal Law is an essential resource, inviting reflection on the way the law helps to construct the relationship between human and non-human animals, including through its silences and omissions.

The lives of non-human animals, their ways of being and seeing, their experiences and knowledge, and their relationships with each other, continue to be ignored, discounted, written over and destroyed by anthropocentric practices and endeavours. Within the vestiges of colonialism, this silence and occlusion co-opts and consumes animals, physically and culturally, into the servitude of human interests, and selective narratives of history and progress.Decolonising Animals brings together critical interrogations, case studies and creative explorations that identify and examine how non-human animals are affected by and respond to colonial structures and processes. This collection includes the perspectives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, artists and activists, detailing the ways in which they question colonial ways of knowing, engaging with and representing animals. Importantly, the book offers suggestions for how we might decolonise our relationships with non-human animals – and with each other.Cover art: Dingo in the bush, courtesy of Peter Waples-Crowe.