ABSTRACT
The US psychologist Harold Herzog notes, a belief in the causal link is “so well established that the term ‘The Link’ is a registered trademark owned by the American Humane Association”. Moved by the story of suffering inflicted upon its protagonist by callous humans, its nineteenth-century readers wrote angry letters of protest to newspapers, joined humane societies, and urged their political representatives to implement legal measures banning widespread forms of cruelty toward horses. Think of the stories about bad wolves, faithful dogs or, as in Richard Scarry’s bestselling children’s books, about happy little pigs who want to become butchers and who are fed bacon by their happy pig mamas. While it should by be clear why the impact of animal stories is an attractive subject for disciplines concerned with human–animal relations, there are also other fields in which it might be of considerable interest. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
