Arnold Arluke

Northeastern University, Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty Member

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Arnie Arluke, (PhD, NYU) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University, Vice President for Research at Forensic Veterinary Investigations, and Senior Scholar at the Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy. His research examines conflicts and contradictions in human-animal relationships, especially those involving mistreatment and visual representation. He has published over 100 articles and chapters, along with twelve books. This work has received awards from the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, the International Association for Human-Animal Interaction Organizations, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

His current research examines human-stray dog relationships in Costa Rica.Goal where he will study the impact of a humane dog management programs on how dogs are regarded and treated there. Humane dog management interventions (e.g., spay-neutering dogs rather than killing them) are increasingly being used in disadvantaged countries to control large and sometimes dangerous stray dog populations. The biggest issue facing these interventions has been to change people’s attitudes and behavior so that responsible pet ownership becomes the norm, especially in the long-term, since many stray dogs are quasi—owned by local people or neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this question has been largely neglected by researchers in favor of studying how these programs affect the population dynamics of dogs as well as their health. Without knowing more about the human side of humane dog activities we cannot truly understand whether these interventions are having an impact at a cultural level such that they can be sustainable.

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The Making of Rehabilitation

Childhood origins of supernurturance: The social context of early humane behavior

Anthrozoos, 2003

... He noted: We had four dogs and two of them died. We got one cremated and we keep him in our ... more

“Bystander Apathy in Animal Abuse Cases,”

Anthrozoos a Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People Animals, 2014

The present study examines how children and adolescents respond when witnessing animal abuse and ... more The present study examines how children and adolescents respond when witnessing animal abuse and why many do not intervene to help animal victims. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with 25 late adolescents who witnessed animal abuse months or years earlier. Results were generally consistent with, but not identical to, findings from previous research on bystander intervention with human victims. On the one hand, the response of bystanders to animal abuse was similar to that of bystanders witnessing violence against humans. Both kinds of bystanders are very troubled by what they witness but often appear to be indifferent to the distress of victims, saying or doing little if anything to stop victims from being harmed or to prevent perpetrators from repeating their violence. On the other hand, while both types of bystanders faced the same general barriers to helping, the nature and salience of these barriers differed when comparing the two groups. Child and adolescent bystanders of animal abuse, unlike bystanders of human violence, were heavily deterred by a definition of animal abuse as a form of play among peers that normalized violence and included bystanders as participants, the fear of being labeled a tattletale or spoilsport if bystanders reported the abuse to others or caused it to stop, and individual attitudes and beliefs that led bystanders to excuse or justify the abuse or to feel as though they had no support for protesting, reporting, or preventing it. Implications of the findings are discussed for educating children and adolescents to intervene on behalf of abused animals.

Arnold Arluke

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