Animal People

Animal People introduces readers to the professionalized world of animal protection from the perspective of those who consider themselves to be "moderate" activists. Adam Reed explores the interrelationships between moral cause and organizational culture, including the ways in which expert roles such as investigator and lobbyist inform the practice and outlook of animal protection. This book examines not only connections between forms of professionalism and everyday advocacy but also how those working to improve the welfare of animals can come to possess an expertise in public or mainstream ethics.

Reed explores these issues through the example of a Scottish-based animal protection organization. Animal People makes a distinctive contribution to anthropological debate and discussion relating to human and nonhuman animal interactions, activism, and the attributions and imperatives of moral action.

Adam Reed is a Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His research explores the intersections between moral and literary imagination and institutional life. He is the author of Literature and Agency in English Fiction Reading and Papua New Guinea's Last Place.

Animal People is a book that does the world-making work of a good ethnography while providing a novel intervention into the anthropology of ethics.

Garry Marvin, University of Roehampton, London:

Animal People is a richly nuanced and thought-provoking work. The book will appeal to those who think of themselves as "animal people" as well as those interested in the fields of multispecies ethics, ethnographies of human-animal relations, and animal activism.