animal studies — blog — Anne Benvenuti

This mamma-baby connection is where oxytocin—the trust hormone—flows at peak levels, creating in both animals (the mom and the baby) the feeling of intense warm attachment. It is the way that the desire for warm attachment becomes part of an individual, staying with her for life and creating the desire and willingness that trust between animals might work. It feels really good to be connected in trust, and that's nature's way of making sure it happens. Yes, this is yet another way in which all mammals, ourselves included, are alike.

Unless we're very, very unlucky, we get lots of oxytocin from day one onward.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiOctober 10, 2017mother-baby connection, oxytocin, attachment, trust, regulating emotions, pacific gray whale, Jaak Panksepp, Baja, San Ignacio lagoon, understanding across species, animal family, animal studies, affective brain systemsComment

Rage! When Someone Gets Angry, the Play is Over

Last week, I wrote about the fact that all young mammals play, and that a typical play session ends after about twenty minutes, when someone gets mad or someone gets hurt. That's what happened when I played with this Siberian silver fox—yes, this one, photographed by my nephew Thom. After a careful approach that the fox received happily, and some moments of very gentle communion between me and her, I'd advanced to teasing and flicking my fingers in the "now you see it, now you don't" way. The mood shifted suddenly, and before I could say sorry, my middle finger knuckle had been sliced to the bone by some very sharp little teeth. This is how it goes.

human-animal relations, animal sanctuary, animal family, anthrozoologyAnne BenvenutiSeptember 24, 2017animal play, animal studies, amygdala, fight or flight, jaak panksepp, affective brain systems, understanding across speciesComment

We're All Seekers!

More than 58 million people have watched the video of a turtle chasing a purple ball around a hardwood floor (recently posted to the Animal Family group on Facebook). It fascinates us to see a turtle fascinated by a purple ball. But why not a turtle fascinated by a purple ball? All animals enjoy novel stimulation, all of us like to be engaged by the world. In fact, that connection between being alive at all and being interested in things in the world is so very close that we can't distinguish between them.

animal family, animal studies, human-animal relations, anthrozoologyAnne BenvenutiSeptember 11, 2017turtle, animal play, animal studies, animal family, elephant play, sound and rhythm, jaak panksepp, affective brain systems, understanding across species Comments

Feeding Fido and Fluffy

Yesterday I created a new Facebook group, called Animal Family. Within an hour, the page had 100+ members. Dozens of portraits of fur-family, mostly dogs and cats, were posted within a few hours. Most of these were rescued, picked up off the street in various dire conditions or brought home from shelters. These family members were not purchased with pedigrees from puppy mills but rescued, sometimes with great expense and effort from their humans.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, human-animal relations, ecospiritualityAnne BenvenutiAugust 16, 2017animal studies, animal family, animal rescue, saving the environment, animal companion Comment

The Animal Soul of Life (Beneath the Human Clutter)

“I would say, if you’ve never seen a horse or touched a horse, just touch it. Because if you touch it, then you’ll feel the soul” (Farrah Akbar, age 8). The quotation is from a New York Times article that I read this morning about human-animal relations, Why Close Encounters With Animals Soothe Us, about urban kids in Los Angeles getting horse-fixed.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, ecospirituality, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiAugust 13, 2017animal studies, animal family, animal companion, spirit unleashed, ecospirituality, understanding across species, vox anima, affective brain systems, farm sanctuary, kindred spiritsComment

Steve Wiggins, Religions Editor for Oxford University Press, on Spirit Unleashed

I grew up with pets. In a house with three boys, an aging mother, and no husband, my mother seemed to know instinctively that animals were a way to engage children. She herself had grown up with animals, although not really from a farming family. Living with animals leads to conclusions scientists fear to make. That’s one reason I find Anne Benvenuti’s Spirit Unleashed: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations so important. Not only do animals remind us of who we are, they are who we are.

animal family, animal rescue, animal studies, anthrozoology, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiDecember 15, 2014spirit unleashed, ecospirituality, animal family, animal sentience, animal personhood, animal studies, animal behavior, Steve Wiggins, Oxford University Press, reviewComment