14 Jul 18 Anthropomorphism and its Impacts on Our Relationships With Animals, Training, Conservation
Let’s get real crystal clear on what anthropomorphism is: assigning human like qualities to non human things. This can be animals, planets, plants, even computers. Anthropomorphism isn’t all bad, but it’s important to understand how it influences things like our conservation choices (choosing the cute animal over the less cuddly one, regardless of environmental impact) and the videos we share on social media. We all engage in anthropomorphism, yours truly as well, and it’s virtually impossible to avoid. But in this podcast, we identify some very specific examples where it can lead us in a direction where the “easy” or obvious choice doesn’t always lead us to the solutions we want. This includes turning away from uncomfortable nature photos, conservation programs that involve failures to get to successes, and rescuing wild animals. We think an owl is grumpy, a dog is guilty, a parrot is jealous… and we don’t actually know! Information isn’t something that we have an inalienable right to, it’s something we have a responsibility to figure out. The answer isn’t always the same for every problem in front of us, even if the conditions seem to be similar. Herrrre we go! This is a broad topic.
References
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/15/anthropomorphism-danger-humans-animals-science
https://thebark.com/content/real-problem-anthropomorphism
https://ca.audubon.org/conservation/history-audubon-and-condor
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