314 | Human Effects on Animal Behavior Sandberg, Lisa 2007 Horse slaughters taking place on the border San Antonio News Express, September 30, 2007 Texas statewide voter survey on horse slaughtering 2003 Mason-Dixon Polling & Research The Humane Society of the United States http:// www.hsus.org USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_ Subject/index.asp VA voters support the stopping of slaughtering horses for human consumption 2004 McLaughlin & Associates Veterinarians for Equine Welfare 2008 Horse slaughter: Its ethical impact and subsequent response of the veterinary profession Chris Heyde and Liz Ross HUMAN EFFECTS ON ANIMAL BEHAVIOR Humans are a unique species, and a very curious and inquisitive group of mammals We’re here, there, and everywhere, and our intrusions, intentional or not, have significant impacts on animals, plants, water, the atmosphere, and inanimate landscapes Thus, we need to consider how we influence the lives of animals, how we must protect them, and what important questions to ask We are the most dominant species the Earth has even known When humans influence the behavior of animals, the effects are referred to as anthropogenic There are many ethical issues surrounding our effects on the lives of animals outside of laboratories and apart from research projects Here we consider some of the issues that center on animal protection Many of the topics discussed are also considered in other essays in this encyclopedia The relationship between humans and animate and inanimate nature is a complex, ambiguous, challenging, and frus- trating affair While we many positive things for animals, we also make the lives of animals more difficult than they would be in our absence, and we make environmental messes that are difficult to fix On the positive side, in October 2006 the German parliament unanimously voted to ban seal products from the country because of the way in which seals are clubbed to death during mass slaughters Whiteface Mountain, located in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, changed the configuration and design of ski trails to eliminate the negative impact on an elusive bird called Bicknell’s thrush that nests there Bicknell’s thrushes are not an endangered or even a threatened species, but rather a species of special concern Scientists are also increasingly concerned about how we affect deep-sea communities that frequently not receive this sort of attention Ecotourism also has many sides to it, and is getting more detailed attention, so that we come to better understand the positive and negative aspects of our intrusions into animals’ lives and the ecosystems in which they live We also influence the behavior of the urban animals with whom we share our homes, and their presence also enriches our lives We must remember that our land is their land too When wild animals become accustomed to the presence of humans it is called habituation, and numerous animals have changed their daily routines because of our intrusions into their homes Often predators and their prey become bolder, and this causes problems for everyone, humans and animals alike Mountain lions, for example, have become very habituated to humans in many communities in the western United States,