“Deeply reported and vividly instructed, Brookshire’s exploration of our most reviled animal neighbours will ceaselessly change the way you see nature and our relationship to it.”—Riley Black.
By Zazie Todd PhD
This month, the Animal Guide Membership is studying Pests: How People Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire.
From the writer,
“An engrossing and revealing research of why we deem sure animals “pests” and others not—from cats to rats, elephants to pigeons—and what this tells us about our personal perceptions, beliefs, and actions, in addition to our place within the pure world
“A squirrel within the backyard. A rat within the wall. A pigeon on the road. People have spent a lot of our historical past drawing a tough line between human areas and wild locations. When animals pop up the place we don’t anticipate or need them, we reply with concern, rage, or easy annoyance. It’s now not an animal. It’s a pest.
“On the intersection of science, historical past, and narrative journalism, Pests is just not a easy name to look nearer at our city ecosystem. It’s not a pure historical past of the animals we hate. As an alternative, this e book is about us. It’s about what calling an animal a pest says about folks, how we stay, and what we would like. It’s a narrative about human nature, and the way we categorize the animals in our midst, together with bears and coyotes, sparrows and snakes. Pet or pest? In lots of circumstances, it’s fully a query of perspective.”
Pests is accessible from all good bookstores and my Amazon retailer.
The e book membership is open to subscribers to the Companion Animal Psychology publication or substack. Particulars of the right way to be a part of are included in your welcome emails.
Here is the primary sentence of the introduction to whet your urge for food:
“Contemplate the squirrel.”
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