How Americans Think About Animals
Using the Google tool Ngram to examine the number of times the word “pet” appeared in published books in the United States between the years 1800 and 2000, Dr. Herzog finds that a considerable increase in interest in companion animals began about 30 years ago and is still on the rise.
A similar examination of usage of the words “chicken” and “beef” results in a graph which accurately depicts the major dietary shift over the last century from consumption of beef to chicken; over this time period the number of cattle slaughtered each year in the United States decreased by 20% while the number of chickens killed increased by 200%.
Finally, Dr. Herzog examines the relative popularity of “gay rights” to “animal rights” between 1965 to 2005. The graph here shows the parallel visibility of these two movements in American culture, and the greater concern of Americans with gay and lesbian rights over animal rights.