This paper discusses the discipline of Human-Animals Studies. The subject matter of the discipline is discussed as well as how it can influence and benefit the development of animal related policies.

Excerpts from the Executive Summary:

“Human-Animal Studies (HAS) is a newly emerging field of scholarship that has the potential to provide an important tool for the development of policy related to the status and use of nonhuman animals. Defining this multidisciplinary field by its devotion to the investigation of human- animal relationships, we examine its scope, theoretical base, methodology, and status in post-secondary school curricula.”

“HAS is the only field that directly investigates relationships between human and nonhuman animals and their environment. The forms of bonds, attachments, interactions, and communications under investigation are impressively variable because of (1) the number of species of nonhuman animals, (2) the ingenious (and often exploitative) ways that humans have used other animals, and (3) the ways that humans view other animals. These latter views also have played a critical role in the complex and often contradictory ways that we compare ourselves to them. The different names of the current field reveal these contradictions in their disregard of the fact that humans are also animals.”

“Although scholarly production (articles, books, and journals) in HAS has grown impressively in the past two decades, institutional infrastructure (minors, majors, and programs) has lagged behind. This structure is critical to increasing the presence, prominence, and, therefore, impact on policies related to our treatment of nonhuman animals.”