42 | Animal Studies See also Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights; Law and Animals; Utilitarianism Further Reading Francione, Gary L 1996 Rain without thunder: The ideology of the animal rights movement Philadelphia: Temple University Press Francione, Gary L 2008 Animals as persons: Essays on the abolition of animal exploitation New York: Columbia University Press Gary L Francione ANIMAL SHELTERS See Shelters, No-Kill; Rescue Groups ANIMAL STUDIES Animal studies is the interdisciplinary study of human-animal relations At times referred to as anthrozoology, animal humanities, critical animal studies, or human-animal studies, it examines the complex interactions between the worlds of humans and other animals Several features of animal studies are emphasized in this entry First, animal studies is an emerging discipline and one of the fastest growing fields in the academy The human relationship to other animals is of obvious interest and concern to a great many people The popularity of companion animals, nature videos, animal-focused ecotourism, bird-watching, animal art, and social movements to protect wild and domestic animals are but a few examples Animal studies is both root and fruit of this interest and concern Overall, the field seeks to understand, and in some instance critique and revise, how humans relate to nonhumans in a morethan-human world The growth to date of animal studies is akin to that of other forms of social problems research that, because of the complexity of the issues and the need for interdisciplinary collaboration, evolve from subfields of others disciplines into a discipline of their own The emergence and institutionalization of environmental studies and women’s studies are models that animal studies scholars point to when describing this process Currently animal studies is in a predisciplinary phase One can find it as an official or de facto subfield represented through courses, research and /or special interest groups in a variety of disciplines These included interdisciplinary fields (e.g environmental studies and geography), the social sciences (e.g anthropology, political science, psychology, and sociology), as well as the arts and humanities (e.g history, literature, philosophy and religious studies) There are an increasing number of journals (e.g Anthrozoos; Humanimalia, Society and Animals), book series (e.g Brill, Temple University Press, Columbia University Press), international societies, and online networks (e.g., the International Society of Anthrozoology; H-Animal, Animal Inventory), as well as policy institutes that make use of the fruits of this scholarship (e.g., the Institute for Society and Animals, Humane Society University) Out of this nexus, graduate degrees and undergraduate majors/minors are beginning to appear Of particular note is the Graduate Specialization in Animal Studies at Michigan State University Second, animal studies emerged in response to three problematic ways of understanding animals The first is the failure of the natural and behavioral sciences to adequately address the sentience, sapience, and agency of many animals The second is the recognition of anthropocentrism and speciesism as prejudicial