Perceptions of Human-Animal Relationships and their Impacts on Animal Ethics, Law and Research
Abstract
Non-human animals live in ecosystems that are increasingly impacted by the growing human
population, and have now developed relationships that mostly or partly depend on human
societies. Although some of these relationships are positive and enable non-human animals to
enjoy anthropized environments, most relationships with humans are negative and prove to be
disastrous for non-human animals. Individuals are suffering and biodiversity is being lost at
an unprecedented rate. However, human behavior varies, and people from non-industrialized
societies behave differently from those living in WEIRD societies (Henrich et al., 2010). This
includes their attitude toward animals, as shown in different approaches such as totemism or
animism (Descola, 2019). Human perceptions of animal species in terms of their presence and
function, and the potential co-use or sharing of their personal environment, depend on multiple
sociocultural and biological factors. Humans usually make discriminations between animal species
based on these perceptions. Donaldson and Kymlicka (2011) recently classified non-human animals
into three categories according to their proximity with human beings, the role they fulfill and
their distribution range, namely Wild, Domesticated and Liminal. Wild animals form their own
communities and benefit from rights of sovereignty; domesticated animals are fully involved in
human societies and may benefit from citizenship. Indeed, domesticated species have developed
quite remarkable sociocognitive skills over the thousands of years they have coexisted with humans
(Bhattacharjee et al.). Finally, liminal species are wild but live in the midst of human settlements
and may benefit from resident status.
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