ABSTRACT
Animals of different types not only outnumber humans in cities, they have always been part of cities and they perform vital functions that are integral to the city itself. Areas inhabited by humans, in fact, are to all intents and purposes a central attraction for many animals, such that they should motivate a serious study of the urban ecosystem, even if many ecologists refuse to consider the city as an ecosystem. In nature a strict relation exists between the number of animals of the same species and the environmental capacity to accommodate them. The city contains zoophiles and zoo intolerants, but precious few humans who with honest humility go beyond their own urge to be the center of attention for the good of the animals. In effect the lion's share of authors who have taken the ethical problem of human–nonhuman animal relations into account regularly focus their attention on a responsibility for custodianship.
