Acknowledgments This Handbook has been quite a while in the making Its origins can be traced to the UK International Symposium on Situating Animal Abuse in Criminology held in July 2010, in Cardiff, Wales We are indebted to the generosity of the University of South Wales (formerly the University of Glamorgan) for funding the event Many of the chapters in this book were written by symposium attendees As editors, our debts are legion To all those who share our pro-animal passion for the advancement of animal abuse studies and who helped us complete the Handbook: thank you! We thank the many authors who contributed chapters and who in so doing helped advance this important field of enquiry Your commitment has been invaluable We also wish to acknowledge the contribution both of our immediate colleagues and of those further afield (our many colleagues and their networks, especially in green criminology); in different and important ways you have made this project possible Our gratitude must also be extended to the fine staff at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Julia Willan, Josephine Taylor, Dominic Walker and Stephanie Carey Your enthusiasm and constructive engagement have been crucial The focus of the Handbook is the situation of animals who suffer death and other harms and abuses at the hands of humans Because much animal abuse is intentionally and routinely rendered invisible, criminology, sociology and related disciplines have tended to ignore our fellow creatures We wish to recognise and acknowledge these animals and the people and organisations who work so tirelessly on their behalf As a small token of our support in this regard, our royalties from this v