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40 A Arluke and L Irvine Not everyone responds sympathetically to animal cruelty, however Some people consider the victims ‘just’ animals and the investigations a diversion of law enforcement’s limited resources Moreover, judging from common references to cruelty in popular culture, many people accept or selectively ignore it They talk about ‘killing two birds with one stone’ and ‘being a guinea pig’, unaware of the suffering implied by the language of these sayings In addition, people often find depictions of animal suffering humorous Over a million websites offer jokes about animal abuse or cruelty In the film There’s Something about Mary, Matt Dillon’s character gives Puffy—a dog—sedatives He gives him too much, however, and Puffy passes out In trying to revive the dog, Dillon’s character takes the wires from a lamp and administers an electric shock that causes Puffy to catch fire Many—if not all—of director Wes Anderson’s films involve the killing of companion animals In The Royal Tenenbaums, grandfather Royal runs over a dog while taking his grandchildren on an excursion In The Grand Budapest Hotel, a character throws a cat out a window The camera pans over the window ledge and down to the street to show the cat, dead on the cobblestones below As Arluke (2002, p 427) writes, ‘humorous slants on cruelty are plentiful and can be seen in children’s stories, cartoons, and comics, as well as in adult advertising, movies, and even occasional talk-radio programs, that have long been known to make light of animals being harmed or even killed.’ These examples point out the ambiguity surrounding the meaning and significance of animal cruelty and the ambivalence that characterises our treatment of animals (Arluke 2006; Arluke and Sanders 1996) The contradictions in how we regard animals seem greatest when we look at our varied relationships with companion animals, ranging from complete devotion to indifference Animal cruelty can constitute a crime against innocence and a sign of psychopathology It can prompt collective sympathy and anger—or indifference It can function as a marketing strategy, a metaphor, a joke or a cinematic device Treatment considered abhorrent in one situation can become acceptable in another An act intended to make a point in a movie or a cartoon takes on an entirely different meaning if inflicted on a living dog or cat In this chapter, we reveal how the ambiguous, conflicting nature of cruelty has shaped attempts to explain it, document its prevalence and determine appropriate ways of responding to it Focusing on animals typically considered companions allows us to sift through some of the distortions and projections that surround dominant interpretations of cruelty Using a symbolic interactionist perspective, we question the belief that cruelty has an objective definition, independent of context (Blumer 1986; Mead 1934) We also challenge the assumption that harming companion animals as well as