IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v12y2023i4p195-d1106778.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Animals Other than Human Animals and Their Claim to Equal Consideration in Coronavirus and Criminological Study: Examining Harm to Domesticated Dogs during COVID-19 in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Rebekah Kim Gregory

    (School of Society and Culture, University of Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK)

Abstract

While the financial and social support afforded to United Kingdon (UK) ‘animals other than human animals’ (AOTHAs) welfare charities, such as the RSPCA and Dogs Trust, could suggest that they are valued intrinsically within Western society criminological texts largely omit them from recognition, with some important exceptions, see non-speciesist criminology. Most human animals likely do not want to directly or indirectly harm AOTHAs and even value relationships with “companion” AOTHAs. Regardless, AOTHAs have been victimized throughout history and continue to be. This article examines harm to AOTHAs in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic to argue that abuse proliferates where harmful subjectivities are generated by society’s acceptance of (1) the anthropocentric culture, and (2) when humanity values their individual advancement within the competitive consumer culture. Companion dogs were specifically focused upon within this article due to their so called close emotional and physical proximity to human animals, with proximity meaning that they were directly impacted by the lockdown measures implemented. The coronavirus pandemic was addressed by governments throughout the world by initiating an array of social restrictions. Because of these social restrictions, millions of individuals within England, and in countries such as the United States of America (USA), decided to adopt or purchase dogs for a variety of reasons, including to help them mitigate feelings of isolation and loneliness and to provide them with an excuse to participate in outdoor exercise. In order to determine the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had upon the plight of domesticated companion dogs within England, semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and observation research were undertaken. The initial analysis of data presented here suggests that the coronavirus pandemic threatened the wellbeing of dogs within England, with their reproductive, physical, medical, and psychological wellbeing being put at risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebekah Kim Gregory, 2023. "Animals Other than Human Animals and Their Claim to Equal Consideration in Coronavirus and Criminological Study: Examining Harm to Domesticated Dogs during COVID-19 in the UK," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:195-:d:1106778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/195/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/4/195/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hirschman, Elizabeth C, 1994. "Consumers and Their Animal Companions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(4), pages 616-632, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Juran & Kang, Seungmook & Bae, Joonheui, 2022. "Human likeness and attachment effect on the perceived interactivity of AI speakers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 797-804.
    2. Samuel Cameron & Mark Fox, 2011. "Half Full or Half Empty: The Economics of Work–Life Balance," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Martin, Drew & Palakshappa, Nitha & Woodside, Arch, 2019. "Consumer metaphoria: Uncovering the automaticity of animal, product/brand, and country meanings," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 113-125.
    4. Downey, Hilary & Ellis, Sarah, 2008. "Tails of animal attraction: Incorporating the feline into the family," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 434-441, May.
    5. Holak, Susan L., 2008. "Ritual blessings with companion animals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 534-541, May.
    6. D’Souza, Clare & Apaolaza, Vanessa & Hartmann, Patrick & Nguyen, Ninh, 2023. "The consequence of possessions: Self-identity, extended self, psychological ownership and probabilities of purchase for pet’s fashion clothing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Coate Stephen & Knight Brian, 2010. "Pet Overpopulation: An Economic Analysis," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-59, December.
    8. Lancendorfer, Karen M. & Atkin, JoAnn L. & Reece, Bonnie B., 2008. "Animals in advertising: Love dogs? Love the ad!," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 384-391, May.
    9. Zeugner-Roth, Katharina Petra & Žabkar, Vesna, 2015. "Bridging the gap between country and destination image: Assessing common facets and their predictive validity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1844-1853.
    10. Brownlie, Douglas, 2008. "Relationship climate canaries: A commentary Mosteller (2007) inspires," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 522-524, May.
    11. Zhenguo Lin & Marcus Allen & Charles Carter, 2013. "Pet Policy and Housing Prices: Evidence from the Condominium Market," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 109-122, July.
    12. Gentry, James W. & Kennedy, Patricia F. & Paul, Catherine & Hill, Ronald Paul, 1995. "Family transitions during grief: Discontinuities in household consumption patterns," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 67-79, September.
    13. Denise DeLorme & George Zinkhan & Scott Hagen, 2004. "The Process of Consumer Reactions to Possession Threats and Losses in a Natural Disaster," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 185-199, December.
    14. McMullen, Cathi, 2008. "Romancing the alpaca: Passionate consumption, collection, and companionship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 502-508, May.
    15. Kirk, Colleen P., 2019. "Dogs have masters, cats have staff: Consumers' psychological ownership and their economic valuation of pets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 306-318.
    16. Miller, Rohan & Howell, Gwyneth V.J., 2008. "Regulating consumption with bite: Building a contemporary framework for urban dog management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 525-531, May.
    17. Syrjälä, Henna, 2016. "Turning point of transformation: Consumer communities, identity projects and becoming a serious dog hobbyist," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 177-190.
    18. Brockman, Beverly K. & Taylor, Valerie A. & Brockman, Christopher M., 2008. "The price of unconditional love: Consumer decision making for high-dollar veterinary care," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 397-405, May.
    19. Mosteller, Jill, 2008. "Animal-companion extremes and underlying consumer themes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 512-521, May.
    20. Corinne Lamour & Catherine de La Robertie & Gérard Cliquet, 2013. "Prescription d'achats complexes: Proposition de définitions et d'un modèle," Post-Print hal-00784362, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:4:p:195-:d:1106778. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.