Interesting Literature

10 of the Best Short Stories about Animals

What are some of the best, and best-known, short stories that feature animals? Many classic stories feature other species in prominent roles, whether it’s talking cats, dogs telling us their life stories, or primates giving academic reports at a conference (yes, really).

Below, we select and introduce ten of the most iconic and famous stories about animals of all kinds, from cats to dogs, axolotls to wolves.

Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Black Cat’.

One of Poe’s most unsettling tales, ‘The Black Cat’ actually contains two black cats – although the second may be a ghostly reincarnation of the first. An unstable narrator tells of how alcoholism and an increasing short temper led him to harm his pet black cat – with devastating results for everyone (not least the cat). To say any more than this would be to risk mentioning spoilers…

Mark Twain, ‘A Dog’s Tale’.

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education …

This 1903 tale is one of several stories on this list which are told from the dog’s perspective. The dog in question is sold to a new owner and is sad to leave her mother behind, but the family she goes to live with are kind to her. One day, a fire breaks out in the nursery of the house – and the dog comes to the rescue …

Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’.

One of Kipling’s Just So Stories (1902), and the longest tale in that classic collection of origin stories, ‘The Cat that Walked by Himself’, as the title suggests, describes the cat’s independent spirit and refusal to be fully tamed.

Saki, ‘Tobermory’.

Few short story writers have written so well about children and animals, but Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1914), better known as Saki, could write about both. ‘Tobermory’ is about a man who teaches a cat to talk, with disastrous results: the cat begins to tell the ‘respectable’ people at the party exactly what he thinks of them, and to gossip about everyone. Beware, though: cat-lovers may not like the ending.

Franz Kafka, ‘Investigations of a Dog’.

Kafka is a master of the weird, the unusual, the not-quite-right, his stories and novels haunting us long after we have finished reading them. And although he’s well-known for longer works like The Castle and The Trial , he was also a master of the short story form, including the long short story (witness his masterpiece, ‘The Metamorphosis’).

This 1922 story is another tale narrated by a dog, telling us about its experiences. But Kafka’s canine narrator is a philosophical creature, who is interested in the deeper meaning behind his existence and who seeks rational explanations for the things which have befallen him.

Franz Kafka, ‘A Report to an Academy’.

animal story essay

Formerly an ape in the African jungle, the narrator relates how he was shot and captured by a hunting party which packed him onto a ship bound for Europe. He reflects on this sudden loss of freedom as he found himself imprisoned in a cage on board the ship. He longs to escape, but knows that if he ended up in the sea, he would drown. He begins instinctively to realise that his best chance of escape rests in learning to imitate the behaviour of the crew.

Kafka’s story raises interesting questions about human behaviour, and invites us to reflect on how ‘civilised’ man really is when compared with his ‘wild’ relatives among the primates.

Jorge Luis Borges, ‘The God’s Script’.

Sometimes translated under the title ‘The Writing of the God’, is a 1949 short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). The story concerns a Mayan priest who is imprisoned with a jaguar; the priest comes to realise that his god has hidden magic writing within the jaguar’s skin. ‘The God’s Script’ takes in, among other things, some quintessentially Borgesian themes including the infinite, the power of writing, and the individual who is granted access to arcane knowledge.

Julio Cortázar, ‘Axolotl’.

‘Axolotl’ is a short story by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar (1914-84). The story was published in Cortázar’s 1956 collection End of the Game and Other Stories . ‘Axolotl’ is narrated by a lonely man who regularly visits the local zoo, where he becomes fascinated by the axolotls in the aquarium. In time, he states that he, too, is an axolotl, and feels he has become one of them.

The story is about our ability to identify with other species. Cortázar’s narrator detects something ‘human’ about the pink faces and golden eyes of the axolotl (a larva of a particular kind of salamander) and feels a deep sense of kinship with the animals, to the extent that he hallucinates (if it is a hallucination) that his mind has entered the head of one of the creatures and ‘he’ is now inside the aquarium looking out.

Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘The Wife’s Story’.

‘The Wife’s Story’ is a short story with a twist. Published in 1982, it’s a short tale whose narrator, at the end of the story, turns out to be different from what we have been led to believe. One of Ursula Le Guin’s best-known tales, ‘The Wife’s Story’ is story narrated by a wife, who (spoiler alert!) turns out to be a wolf who is ‘married’ to a werewolf.

Le Guin’s story exploits our assumptions about the characters speaking to us (or being described to us) in order to make a point about how we view both ourselves and other species. Man is othered, defamiliarised, perhaps even dehumanised: viewed through the eyes of the lupine narrator, the man who was her husband in a sense becomes the animal, the outlier, and alien amidst the pack.

Angela Carter, ‘The Company of Wolves’.

Following on neatly from Le Guin’s confusion of man with wolf, here’s a short story by the British writer Angela Carter (1940-92) on the theme of lycanthropy, inspired by the famous Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale .

‘The Company of Wolves’ is one of the most shocking stories in The Bloody Chamber because of the way in which the adolescent girl ‘tames’ the big bad wolf. In order to save her own life, she must give herself to the male by making love to him. Carter prefaces her story with a long introductory section which deals with the history of werewolf folklore.

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How to Write an Expository Essay on an Animal

Last Updated: September 15, 2021

This article was co-authored by Bess Ruff, MA . Bess Ruff is a Geography PhD student at Florida State University. She received her MA in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. She has conducted survey work for marine spatial planning projects in the Caribbean and provided research support as a graduate fellow for the Sustainable Fisheries Group. This article has been viewed 76,311 times.

Expository essays describe a particular topic and provide the reader with relevant information. An expository essay about an animal can take a variety of different directions. Choose a topic that interests you, outline and write your essay, and then proofread your work before turning it in.

Outlining and Researching

Step 1 Think of a topic.

  • An expository essay is an essay that provides the reader information about a particular topic. To write an expository essay on an animal, you'll have to choose an animal and provide a variety of information on that animal. It would likely include things like what that animal looks like, what it eats, where it lives, and so on.
  • Choose an animal that personally interests you. You'll have more fun writing your essay if you are writing about something you enjoy. Pick an animal you like. Your favorite animal could be a good topic for an expository essay on an animal.

Step 2 Understand what format your essay should follow.

  • You can review the assignment sheet given to you or ask your teacher in person. If you speak with your teacher, be sure to take notes so you can refer back to them when researching, outlining, writing, and polishing your essay.

Step 3 Research.

  • Look for sources that are valid. Major newspapers like the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle are a good place to start. You also might want to find some history behind your topic. Go your school's library and ask a librarian to help you use the card catalogue to locate books and magazines on your topic. An encyclopedia could be a good reference for an expository essay. [1] X Research source
  • The Internet is a major source of information and can be extremely helpful when researching. However, you should know how to evaluate sources before relying on the internet for information. Look for current resources so you know the information is up-to-date. Go for websites associated with universities or government organizations, with domains like .edu and .gov, over business or commercial websites.
  • Select pages where the author's name is clearly visible and the page is easy to navigate. Personal blogs are not a good resource. Websites for organizations advocating strongly for a particular political cause may have a strong bias. Avoid sites like Wikipedia, as they are user generated and may not have accurate information.
  • Take notes while researching. Keep a notebook with you and jot down relevant information. Write down which source you got this information from so you can refer to the source later on. If possible, print out your own copies of library texts so you can underline and write notes in the margins.

Step 4 Outline...

  • Outlines are usually formed using a series of numbers and letter. You write down main points as headings and then expand upon these points in subheadings.
  • For example, you can use Roman numerals as headings and then use letters as subheadings. Say you're writing about potbelly pigs. You can start with “I. Introduction.” Then something like “a. Introduce my topic, including a brief description of potbelly pigs” and “b. briefly state the personality traits and appearance of a potbelly pig.”
  • You don't need to use full sentences in an outline. It's just a tool to help you organize your ideas. Don't worry about forming full sentences or thoughts yet. You can get to that during the writing process.

Writing the Essay

Step 1 Begin with an introduction.

  • Begin your introduction with a fun opening sentence that gets the reader's attention. You can open with a question, a quote, a joke, or anything that introduces your topic in a creative manner. For example, let's return to the potbelly pig example. Open with something like, "Did you know that not all pigs are farmyard animals? Some pigs are kept domestically as pets." This invites the reader to think about your topic.
  • From there, briefly state what you'll be discussing in your paper. You can provide a brief description of a potbelly pig, including things like a brief overview of their appearance and personality traits.

Step 2 Write paragraphs focusing on specific topics.

  • For example, one paragraph can describe the appearance of a potbelly pig. Another paragraph can then describe the eating habits of a potbelly pig, and another can talk about how to care for potbelly pigs, health problems they're prone to, and so on.
  • Make sure you stick to one main topic per paragraph.

Step 3 Back up your information with research.

  • Go to your sources for support of the information you're listing. If you're talking about how potbelly pigs are prone to bacterial infections in the ear, you'll need a source that shows that this is true.

Step 4 Write a conclusion.

  • Certain questions can help guide a good conclusion. Did you think of any new ideas about the animal you're researching? Are there any questions or concerns that need further research? What larger significance does your topic have in the bigger world?
  • However, you should not suddenly introduce new information in the conclusion. Instead, you should speculate and reflect on the information provided. Think of a good closing line that will stay in readers' minds. You want to make sure your essay has an impact. [2] X Research source

Reviewing Your Work

Step 1 Revise your first draft.

  • A good way to structure transitions is to make them a bridge between the old paragraph and the new. For example, to connect a paragraph on keeping a potbelly pig as a pet to a previous paragraph about eating habits, you could use something like this: "Although potbelly pigs can eat a variety of things in the wild, if you're keeping a potbelly pig as a pet, you need to be more careful about providing a balanced diet." The word Although sets up a connection between the ideas.
  • Focus on clarity. You want to make sure the information is presented in as straightforward means as possible. If you notice any sentences that seem unclear in your first draft, work on rewording them in revision.

Step 2 Proofread

Community Q&A

Anika Shenoy

  • Pick an animal you would like to know about. This can help you have fun researching and writing. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

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Bess Ruff, MA

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Essay on Animals: How to Write a Persuasive Paper

  • Shelter and Rescue Work
  • spay and neuter

This girl (with help from her two black cats) is writing an essay on animals for school.

When writing a persuasive paper, your purpose is to convince your audience to agree with your idea or accept your recommendation for a course of action. If you’ve decided to write an essay on animals (either for a school assignment or for another purpose), here are the steps to follow.

1. Choose a topic

Some sample topics for an essay on animals include:

  • Everyone should spay or neuter their pets .
  • Adoption is the best option.
  • Dogs should be treated as individuals, not discriminated against because of breed.
  • Microchipping is important to keep pets with their families.

2. Research information on the topic

You can do research online and at the library, plus talk to experts in the field, to get more information. While reviewing the materials, look for interesting facts or tidbits that will hook your readers.

3. Create a flow chart 

4. write the thesis statement for your paper.

Now it's time to fill in the flow chart, first with your thesis statement. For example: "Everyone should spay or neuter their pets." This statement will go in the first box in your flow chart. The flow chart is a visual way to help you create an outline. An outline will help you organize the information in a logical order. Your finished product will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

5. Write the reasons and supporting data

The body will contain the reasons and the supporting data listed on your flow chart. The body not only contains evidence to support your opinion but also addresses one or two opposing views. 

Be sure to include your counter-argument when stating the opposing view. For example, one opposing view to the above statement might be this: "Many people think that an animal who has been spayed or neutered will become lazy and fat." Your counter-argument could be this: "This is a misconception. The main reason pets become overweight is lack of exercise and overfeeding."

6. Note engaging facts

Keep the flow chart handy as you read through all the information you have gathered. In a separate place, write “Hooks and facts to grab the reader’s attention,” and as you review your material, jot down cool facts that you come across. For example: "Just one female cat and her offspring can produce an estimated 420,000 cats in only seven years."

7. Consider all angles

Be sure to address a wide variety of reasons to support your topic statement. For example: Think about pet overpopulation, overcrowded shelters, the costs to your city or town, the effects on pet health, and pet behavior. What would your audience find most important?

8. Expand each reason individually

Before writing your actual paper, keep your facts straight by writing each reason and the supporting evidence on separate sheets of paper or documents.

9. Write your essay

Write your first draft. Then, revise your outline and draft as needed until you have your final draft. If necessary, include a bibliography.

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Writer Unboxed

A Dog’s-eye view

By Juliet Marillier   |  December 6, 2012  |  37 Comments

animal story essay

I made numerous attempts to write these stories, trying many different approaches to style and structure. That was unusual for me – I generally have a good intuitive feel for what will work. The problem in this instance lay with the voice.

Each of the stories had an animal as the main protagonist, the character whose journey the piece was built around. The obvious way to write the story was to give the animal the point of view. The easier, less effective way would be to write in detached, omniscient third person. I knew that would lessen the impact of the story.

The trouble is, animals don’t think in human words. Dogs respond to a certain number of familiar words and phrases, such as their name and various commands. They are sensitive to tone of voice and body language. But their thought patterns are not those of a human being, and I suspect the workings of a cat’s mind are even more alien. We often interpret the behaviour of our domestic pets through the filter of our human perception, but we can’t really know what is going on inside that feline or canine mind.

Here’s an excerpt from my most recent draft of the dog story. Muffin, a terrier, has sensed that his owner is about to go away. Pooty is a recently adopted, smaller dog. Yes, she does have a silly name – it came with her from the shelter.

His dinner is late. Pack Leader rushes about doing things. Muffin feels hollow inside, hollow and jangly and wrong. Pooty runs around the house. She has a nap. She plays with her squeaky toy until Pack Leader yells at her. Pooty cringes. Pack Leader picks her up and cuddles her, making soothing noises. Muffin watches. Finally, dinner comes. Muffin has a mouthful, but it just doesn’t taste right. He goes under the table. Pooty empties her bowl and licks it clean. She glances at Muffin, then sidles towards his leftovers. Muffin barks, and she retreats. Pack Leader crouches down and speaks to Muffin in her special voice. Muffin is not taken in. He lets her fondle his ears and scratch his belly. Her tone tells him she’s upset. ‘Calm and quiet, Muffin,’ she says. ‘Be nice to Pooty.’  Wretched Pooty! She changed everything. Muffin is not scared of big dogs – well, usually not – or thunderstorms. But when things change, when The Way Things Should Be is forgotten, his belly fills with terror. He feels it now, deep down, like an ant starting to crawl inside him, an ant that may soon become a monster. Pack Leader opens the door and calls them outside. Muffin sulks, but Pack Leader throws the ball, and all else disappears. Run, run, run, snatch! Waaaaait – run, run, run, catch! He forgets the suitcase. Run, run, run, grab! He even forgets Pooty, who’s digging in a corner.

I soon got bogged down with this style. What should have been simple (What name does your dog use for you?) became ridiculously difficult – if I had another go at writing this I wouldn’t use Pack Leader, but I failed to think of anything better. I think the story reflects my understanding of canine behaviour, and the simplicity of Muffin’s thoughts works OK. But I was always aware of how inappropriate human language is to convey animal thoughts and feelings. The story became easier to write once Muffin and Pooty were alone in the kennels and not interacting much with humans.

Knowing there were many successful stories out there with animal protagonists, I looked at a sample to see how the writers approached the problem, starting with a couple of classics.

Animal stories have changed with the times, reflecting changes in society. Fashions in writing have also changed, so a mode of storytelling that worked brilliantly for a 19 th century audience may not be so effective for contemporary readers. I limited my research to stories in which the animal is presented semi-realistically, since if the animal is anthropomorphised or the book has magical/fantasy elements, the writer doesn’t face the same challenges with voice.

Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903) was hugely popular in its time. Buck, a rich family’s pet dog, is stolen and becomes a sled dog in the Alaskan hinterland before going off to run with a wolf pack. The novel contains overwrought language and racist values; it also has a strong message against cruelty to animals. Despite its flaws, it’s a grand and thrilling story. We see Buck through the author’s eyes, complete with philosophical commentary on his actions, so there’s a distance between reader and canine protagonist. However, the dog is a well-drawn character and his thoughts and actions ring true. When we are in Buck’s POV the language is kept simple and appropriate. This passage comes after Buck has seen one of the working dogs lose a fight, then get torn apart by the pack: ‘The scene often came back to Buck to trouble him in his sleep. So that was the way. No fair play. Once down, that was the end of you. Well, he would see to it that he never went down.’

Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877) is told in first person by the horse of the title. The writer used the story to draw public attention to issues of cruelty to animals. Beauty has human perceptions; he understands human speech and motivations and can comment on his own situation. For its period, this is a story told simply and directly – it is a children’s book – and the reader can suspend disbelief quite easily.

A later classic was Richard Adams’ Watership Down (1972) with its cast of rabbits. I prefer Adams’ novel The Plague Dogs (1977), a powerful story about two dogs escaping from an animal testing laboratory. Stalwart Rowf and brain-damaged Snitter talk to each other in English, and have  conversations with a fox who speaks in heavy dialect. The gripping nature of the story compensates for Adams’ wordy and rather selfconscious style.

I recently began reading A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron (a companion book to A Dog’s Purpose.) Cameron makes the dog, Buddy, the first person narrator, but includes human dialogue of which Buddy can only understand his own name and his familiar commands. The combination is illogical – if Buddy thinks in English, why can’t he understand English speech? Despite this, I imagine the book will be immensely popular. Cameron’s understanding of a dog’s natural instincts strengthens the narrative.

Writer friends gave me a long list of successful stories with animal protagonists, many of which are outside the scope of this discussion because the animals in them act or think like humans. Top of my reading list is the wonderfully imagined cat-world fantasy, Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams.

What should you remember when writing a story with an animal protagonist?

  • When in the animal POV, keep the language simple. Tailor the vocabulary to the animal’s perceptions. Short sentences work well.
  • First person is rarely convincing. It requires a high degree of writing expertise.  
  • The better you know animals, the better you will write them. You need a sound understanding of animal behaviour to craft this kind of story.
  • Animal POV is easier to write well when the animal is interacting with others of its kind, not with humans!

The story of Muffin’s terrifying stay in the kennels has been set aside for now and won’t appear in Prickle Moon. I wrote instead a much darker animal story called The Angel of Death, which has a human narrator.

Have you written fiction with animal protagonists? What approach did you take?

Photo credit: © Photodynamx | Dreamstime.com

animal story essay

Juliet Marillier has written twenty-four novels for adults and young adults and two collections of short fiction. Her works of historical fantasy have been published around the world and have won numerous awards. Juliet’s most recent series was Warrior Bards, of which the third and final book, A Song of Flight, was published in 2021. Her collection of reimagined fairy tales, Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, had its trade release in  2022. Mother Thorn is illustrated by Kathleen Jennings and published by Serenity Press. Juliet is currently working on a two-book fantasy series, the first instalment of which will be published by New Dawn in 2025. When not writing, Juliet looks after a small crew of rescue dogs.

37 Comments

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I read a great book (it’s very ‘easy reading’) from the dogs POV called ‘Dog on it’. It’s a detective story, but what really stood out was how the author really captured the essence of dog. It was very smart, witty writing that he made appear simple. I was really impressed. Worth having a browse through. The book should be on my shelf, i could find out the author.

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I never thought about writing a story from an animal’s POV but as a child, I loved Black Beauty. I’d never thought about how difficult it could be. You’re right, finding the perfect tone is a challenge. Making something completely imaginative take on a realistic tone is a fine balance.

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Your example certainly illustrates the difficulty. Now that I think about it, the animal stories I’ve loved as a child and as an adult are all either human POV or anthropomorphized. I liked Watership Down and before that, The Wind in the Willows. My wife read The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, which we’d heard broke new ground in animal POV, but afterward she advised me not to bother. I love animals and they play an important role in my work (mostly horses), but always from a human POV.

Great tips. Good luck with a worthy pursuit, Juliet. I hope others weigh in with feedback.

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I am writing a modern-day myth with a sunglasses-wearing komodo dragon named Rex who speaks through rap music. He is one of two faithful and supportive sidekicks to the princess hero. :)

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Wow, Juliet. What an interesting and insightful post.

I love the reminder that we humans like to impose things (our view of the world, our voice) on animals. But that doesn’t honor the animal . . . gosh, we humans can be so arrogant!

Thank you for sharing this with us. (And I love the photo. Sweet dog.)

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Juliet, I’ve experimented with ideas that center around a shape-shifting protagonist–a man who shifts into animal form–and even that I’ve found hugely challenging to write, to come up with a voice that accurately reflects what human consciousness would sound like when stretched and compressed in equal measures into what an animal’s view of the world might be. The idea keeps nagging at me . . . maybe someday. :)

Michelle Paver’s Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series contains portions that are written from the POV of a wolf (though there are other human POV characters, as well) and IMO she does an EXCELLENT job with them in terms of language choices and thought patterns; truly, her ‘wolf’ voice is probably the most compelling and convincing animal point of view I’ve read.

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Thanks, Anna. I have seen the Michelle Paver books but not yet read them – another thing to add to my massive ‘to be read’ pile!

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Goodness, I would really suck at writing from an animal’s POV. I never know what the heck my dog wants, and I’ve loved her for 11 years.

Kudos to you, Juliet, for being insightful enough to even attempt such a feat.

Denise Willson Author of A Keeper’s Truth

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Another example to consider is the final chapter of Barbara Kingsolver’s “Prodigal Summer,” where she uses third-person-close narration for a coyote. Her choice of vocabulary is rich, but always reflective of the nuance a coyote might actually discern:

“She had reached the place where the trail descended into a field of wild apple trees, and she hesitated there. She wouldn’t have minded nosing through the hummocks of tall grass and briars for a few sweet, sun-softened apples. That whole field and the orchard below it had a welcoming scent, a noticeable absence of chemical burn in the air, that always made it attractive to birds and field mice, just as surely as it was drawing her right now. But she felt restless and distracted to be this far from her sister and the children. She turned uphill, back toward safer ground where she could disappear inside slicks and shadows if she needed to.”

Animals don’t think in language, or stories for that matter, they think in terms of their senses, of their direct experiences. So as a writer, isn’t our job in an animal story to translate that sense of experience? In a way, it’s the same for our human characters, too, because so much of our experience is, well, experiential, rather than linguistic. I do think animals, especially smart animals, have experiences of sufficient complexity to warrant more sophisticated literary techniques, like the kinds of sentences Kingsolver employs above.

I loved ‘Prodigal Summer’, Jane. You’re right, the sensory description does conjure up for us a wild creature’s way of thinking and feeling. And what beautiful writing.

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Your comments caught my eye Jane and the example of the author’s way of having the coyote communicate is the best I’ve ever read. Thank you for sharing this and I’m definitely going to buy this book. For anyone else interested it is on Amazon Uk at a very cheap price indeed. As Juliet commented….The writing is beautiful.

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Let’s not forget Temple Grandin here when we discuss animal perceptions. I’ve heard the woman interviewed several times. and she lacks the natural sense of story that writers who don’t have to overcome autism possess. Her idea of how an animal thinks in stories is the rapid sequencing of sensory experiences, like running a movie in 3D with smells and other senses heightened in a way that replaces narrative.

I also work as a poet, and sometimes I have struggled with a style called L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, that is, the deliberate obscuring of the conventions of grammar. It’s amazing how hard it is to write that way. I think that both Juliet and Jane have identified the key issues around this POV, especially important in writing for children.

I’ve read some of Temple Grandin’s work and I find her ideas about how animals think convincing.

Interestingly, she differs from Cesar Millan in her view of the way we interact with our domestic pets, dogs in particular. Temple Grandin has said that because we tend to infantilise our pets, our relationship with them is more like adoptive parent/child than pack leader/pack member. This colours the way we write about them.

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Thanks for these insights! While sometimes I get the feeling that writing from a cat’s point of view would be fun (because I live with a cat who has a strong personality), I know it would never work with me. I’d probably anthropomorphize the story and it would go down hill from there. But it is wonderful when writers master this challenge. A difference in species should not divide us from a good story!

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Books from animal POV were some of my favourites as a child and they seem to be making a bit of a comeback. I prefer somewhat more complex language that captures the animal’s experience; anyone who lives with an animal knows their feelings are more subtle than they could possibly explain in the words they know. I tend to enjoy even further anthropomorphosis for the sake of humour or drama.

This story of mine is from dog POV and won Five Stop Story’s August competition (warning: adult themes!) https://www.fivestopstory.com/read/story.php?storyId=3660

By the way, if anyone wants an example of a powerful opening, look at Jack London’s “White Fang” – I re-read it recently and it is gripping!

Thank you Juliet for your interesting thoughts on writing a story from the POV of animals. I have written both poetry spoken from my cat’s POV and confess I have her speaking as a human would. I also wrote a short stoy based on John Clare’s poem about the grasshpper and the ant. Again I used human speech for both creatures, though this was a story for children.

Your thoughts have now got me thinking……. Perhaps stories for children would be acceptable using human language? As I said….You’ve got me thinking!!!

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Another animal POV book that has gotten lots of praise is THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein.

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“Squirrel!” (OK, somebody had to say it.) But seriously, one of the things the writers of the movie Up! captured well in that running gag was how powerful survival-based behaviors are, even after millenia of domestication. That was something you captured in your excerpt too, Juliet.

Your point about living among aliens is on target as well. A long time ago I reminded my writers’ group that we live among aliens: our spouse or significant other, our kids, our in-laws–to say nothing of our pets! Aliens don’t have to come from another country or another planet.

This is something science fiction and fantasy writers have struggled with for centuries. No matter what we do, our aliens end up being humans in rubber suits to some degree. They have to be: they wouldn’t be comprehensible otherwise. The same is true for earthly animals. We will ALWAYS and unavoidably view and understand them through the lens of our humanness. Once we’re aware of that, we can start to peel away those layers and emphasize the characteristics that make that animal who and what it is–IF that’s what we want to do (as opposed to making it a human in disguise for other writerly purposes).

Great point. And human language is the tool we have to set these stories down, so we have to use it even if it’s a blunt instrument at times. I guess there’s no ‘right way’ or ‘wrong way’ to do it – different approaches work for different kinds of narrative and for different readers. A Dog’s Purpose was a New York Times bestseller, proving that what one person finds hard to swallow, others lap up with enthusiasm.

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Ursula K. LeGuin has several brilliant stories in nonhuman POVs. Ants who are artists and dancers; a worried wolf wife; a decrepit Western town of coyotes, bluejays, and rattlesnakes; and Cat Wings, her kids’ books. Always convincing, never condescending, inviting the reader into a magical parallel universe of experience. Hey, that’s why I read.

I remember being quite entranced by Kipling when I was a youngster: The Jungle Book, Just So Stories. I reread them recently and they hold up well, in part because of the storyteller’s tone. Now that I think of it, many fables and fairytales have nonhuman actors, who often show more “humanity” than the people.

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Last month, the 10 minute animated DVD ‘Titanic Dog’ based on my children’s story from the viewpoint of the ‘Newfie’ sea rescue dog from the Titanic, was released. The challenge was to make the story positive, as so many children and dogs died, so an appealing dog perspective was my choice. Earlier I had even considered writing from the viewpoint of a flea on the dog. How to handle issues of smell, counting ( enough or not enough lifeboats) and the survival via legend in story telling had to be solved. Now animator Tobi Jessop has a computer game planned too. http://www.tobop.com.au ‘Titanic Dog’ was his first animation and took six months to research and draw so the dog viewpoint was credible and not scary.

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I find it interesting that you presume to know how an animal “thinks” and I heartily disagree. Empirical evidence suggest far more than you seem to realize. This preconceived idea can do nothing but limit the work. Take a step back, get to know your dog or cat–give them the full voice of which they are capable. It will go better.

Perhaps I should have included my credentials. The two major activities in my life are (a) writing and (b) fostering and rehabilitating shelter dogs. I don’t claim to be Cesar Millan, but I spend a lot of time around dogs and am extremely close to my permanent pack. I’m also a member of a local canine training club and have the opportunity to observe a pretty wide range of other people’s dogs on a regular basis. I would rate my understanding of domesticated dogs as well above average.

I do know the story isn’t working – I said so in the post.

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I never considered this, really interesting.

I don’t see why it should be a problem to let the animal think in English even though it can’t understand English speech because we are reading it in English. So you could think of it as translating from animal language to English language.

To me, writing it the way we believe an animal might think like in the excerpt sounded a bit like a children’s book.

The story is not told entirely in Muffin’s POV. It begins with a section in the POV of his human, and there are other human POV scenes later. However, the significant events in the story happen when no human is present, hence the need to find an authentic voice for Muffin. It does seem that what I did was too simple – I guess I was trying to capture his frame of mind in few words.

There are some very insightful comments above. If I tackle a similar challenge in future I’ll be less hung-up about using rich language, and will remember the very significant point about sensory description.

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Though I haven’t written and animal story myself, I enjoyed Kathryn Davis’s The Thin Place. Now it’s not all from the animals’ points of view, but I think she did a good job. Maybe that’s the key, inserting the dog’s tale into something else that might offer context and give you a break from dog-think :) Break a pencil :) (superstitious writer’s good luck)

Thanks, I agree! See comment above – the story opens with a human POV section.

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What might help is to consider interacting with the environment the way the protagonist might; as dogs tend to favor input from their noses and ears over their eyes (i.e., they go by smell more than sight, and have a more developed hearing range at the expense of their sight), perhaps stressing what the dogs’ smell and hear over what they see might help.

I had some dog stories I worked on (not yet finished) that flowed a lot better when I went with that approach, and this might be of help. I also had a piece that did get published where briefly we get the cat’s POV; because it was a lap cat, the perspective was, well, overly simple, but I assure you that there’s no prejudice involved in the limited motivations the cat had voiced…

A very good point. That’s why the Barbara Kingsolver example someone quoted above is so effective – we’re experiencing everything as the coyote does (and, of course, Kingsolver’s beautiful use of language enhances that.)

I do hope you solve your problems with your story Juliet. Y

Thanks! I think it’s been relegated to the bottom drawer forever, though. :)

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While my novel–The Vampire Kitty-cat Chronicles–is hardly a classic, it is told from a cat’s point of view, and is in first person. If you want to take a look, there’s a sample chapter on http://www.vampirekittycat.com . In fact, the whole website is written “by” my cat character. Good luck!

How could I forget The Vampire Kitty-Cat Chronicles?? Seriously, I did think of it while writing the piece, but had to cut my examples down as it was all getting too long. This website is definitely worth a visit!

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Wonderful and interesting post, Juliet. By giving a brief example of your writing you were able to really clarify the issue. In my book, Pet Sitter’s Diary, some of the animals ‘talk’, but it’s clear that I am interpreting what I THINK they would say in the given situation. In my opinion, the very best example of an author who was able to get inside the heart and mind of a dog was done by Eva Hornung in her novel, Dog Boy. An abandoned four year old Russian boy follows a wild dog pack back to their den and becomes one of them. It is an absolutely riveting tale of dog behavior.

Thanks, Sally! Dog Boy sounds wonderful, I will look it up.

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(Coming to the conversation a bit late, via Elizabeth Craig’s tweeted link)

For my part, I’d say roughly 95% of my stories involve some sort of talking animal character, though I write fantasy and sf, so most of my animal POVs are far more anthropomorphized than what it looks like you’re going for. :)

You mention that you excluded works where the animals in them “act or think like humans,” but as others have already said, I think any time you write from the POV of a nonhuman character (whether it’s an animal, an alien, an inanimate object, etc.), you’re automatically anthropomorphizing that character to some extent. I think it’s just a question of what degree of humanization suits the story and genre. Something like Watership Down is, to my mind, already on the fantastic side of the anthropomorphism scale, because the rabbits, while still being ‘normal’ quadrupedal rabbits, also have gods and myths and societal structures and perform behaviors that normal rabbits probably wouldn’t engage in during the course of their lives. And there’s even a distinction to be made between the stories like Black Beauty, where the animals actually talk to each other in straight-out dialogue, and something like Call of the Wild where (as far as I remember; it’s been years since I read it) the animal characters communicate only as real canines would.

I think part of the problem with writing from the POV of ‘realistic’ animal characters, especially pets, is that it seems there’s a tendency to make the writing too simple and/or too cutesy or self-conscious. I don’t know if this has something to do with the infantilization of pets that you mentioned, but I wonder if it’s just that some writers find it hard to take an animal POV seriously (for whatever reason, whether it’s their own unconscious attitude about animals or the automatic association of animal characters with children’s stories), and then the writing automatically reflects an attitude of “yeah, the dog’s telling this story, I know that’s kind of silly.” So I guess I’d say that, like any aspect of craft, if you’re writing from that POV as a gimmick, it’ll show, and you have to have some conviction that your story really does need to be told by the dog, for whatever reason.

You make some really good points here, Renee. The example someone quoted from Barbara Kingsolver illustrates really well that if the writer takes the animal viewpoint seriously the narrative can be completely believable – this is assisted in Kingsolver’s case by her exquisite use of language of course! I agree with you that animal viewpoint should only be used where it is absolutely necessary for the story.

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Animal Essay

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500 Words Essay on Animal

Animals carry a lot of importance in our lives. They offer humans with food and many other things. For instance, we consume meat, eggs, dairy products. Further, we use animals as a pet too. They are of great help to handicaps. Thus, through the animal essay, we will take a look at these creatures and their importance.

animal essay

Types of Animals

First of all, all kinds of living organisms which are eukaryotes and compose of numerous cells and can sexually reproduce are known as animals. All animals have a unique role to play in maintaining the balance of nature.

A lot of animal species exist in both, land and water. As a result, each of them has a purpose for their existence. The animals divide into specific groups in biology. Amphibians are those which can live on both, land and water.

Reptiles are cold-blooded animals which have scales on their body. Further, mammals are ones which give birth to their offspring in the womb and have mammary glands. Birds are animals whose forelimbs evolve into wings and their body is covered with feather.

They lay eggs to give birth. Fishes have fins and not limbs. They breathe through gills in water. Further, insects are mostly six-legged or more. Thus, these are the kinds of animals present on earth.

Importance of Animals

Animals play an essential role in human life and planet earth. Ever since an early time, humans have been using animals for their benefit. Earlier, they came in use for transportation purposes.

Further, they also come in use for food, hunting and protection. Humans use oxen for farming. Animals also come in use as companions to humans. For instance, dogs come in use to guide the physically challenged people as well as old people.

In research laboratories, animals come in use for drug testing. Rats and rabbits are mostly tested upon. These researches are useful in predicting any future diseases outbreaks. Thus, we can protect us from possible harm.

Astronomers also use animals to do their research. They also come in use for other purposes. Animals have use in various sports like racing, polo and more. In addition, they also have use in other fields.

They also come in use in recreational activities. For instance, there are circuses and then people also come door to door to display the tricks by animals to entertain children. Further, they also come in use for police forces like detection dogs.

Similarly, we also ride on them for a joyride. Horses, elephants, camels and more come in use for this purpose. Thus, they have a lot of importance in our lives.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Animal Essay

Thus, animals play an important role on our planet earth and in human lives. Therefore, it is our duty as humans to protect animals for a better future. Otherwise, the human race will not be able to survive without the help of the other animals.

FAQ on Animal Essay

Question 1: Why are animals are important?

Answer 1: All animals play an important role in the ecosystem. Some of them help to bring out the nutrients from the cycle whereas the others help in decomposition, carbon, and nitrogen cycle. In other words, all kinds of animals, insects, and even microorganisms play a role in the ecosystem.

Question 2: How can we protect animals?

Answer 2: We can protect animals by adopting them. Further, one can also volunteer if one does not have the means to help. Moreover, donating to wildlife reserves can help. Most importantly, we must start buying responsibly to avoid companies which harm animals to make their products.

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English Compositions

Short Essay on My Favourite Animal [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Essays on the favourite animal are one of the most important topics you may find relevant for your upcoming English writing comprehension test. In this lesson, you will learn to write essays on your favourite Animals. So, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Short essay on my favourite animal dog in 100 words.

  • Short Essay on My Favourite Animal Cat in 200 Words 
  • Short Essay on My Favourite Animal Lion in 400 Words 

Feature image of Short Essay on My Favourite Animal

All animals are amazing but my favourite animal is the dog. Dogs are very loyal and make great pets. They love their owners and protect them from dangers. Dogs are largely carnivorous and eat meat, bones, organs, and some plant-based food.

Dogs are closely related to wolves, coyotes, and foxes and were domesticated by man thousands of years ago. They served as companions during hunts as well as protectors and guards. Today, dogs are mostly kept as pets at home and are treated as family members. However, there are many dogs who live miserable lives on the streets and are uncared for. We must take care of dogs and be kind to them. 

Short Essay on My Favourite Animal Cat in 200 Words

I love all animals but my favourite animal is the cat. Cats are small and cute. They have tiny paws, sharp claws, and a furry body and tail. They have beautiful bright eyes which glow in the dark. They are commonly found in colours like black, white, brown, ginger, and orange.

There are more than 60 different varieties of cats. Cats are carnivorous mammals and love to eat different types of fish like tuna and salmon. They also eat meats like chicken, turkey, beef, some whole-grain foods, and eggs. In the wild, they are known to catch rats, mice, lizards, snakes, and other small animals for food. 

Cats know how to take care of themselves and don’t demand much attention from their owners. Hence, they make great pets for people who work full time and live in small apartments. Cats love their freedom and space but they also love their owners.

They will always be there to cheer you up when you need them. They love to purr and rub against their owners to show them their affection. Many pet cats bring dead mice, twigs, and other things that they like to their owners as a token of appreciation. Each cat has a unique personality and they always make their humans happy. 

Short Essay on My Favourite Animal Lion in 400 Words

All animals are unique and amazing in their own ways. I love them all but my favourite animal is the lion. Lions are wild animals and their natural habitat includes scrublands, grasslands, savannahs, and rocky hills. They were historically found in many places around the world but now, due to loss of habitat and illegal hunting activities, they are mostly found in zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserves. However, they can still be found in the wild in Africa as well as in the Gir forest in Gujarat, India. 

Lions are majestic animals and are known as the ‘King of the jungle’. There are many different subspecies of lions, like Asiatic lions, Barbary lions, Congo lions, Transvaal lions, and African lions. Male lions have a beautiful signature mane around their neck and are much larger than the females of the same species. Male lions are known to act as the protectors of the pride while the females do all the hunting.

Pride is a family unit of lions that may contain a few lions, a dozen or so lionesses, and their adolescent and young ones. Each pride has its own territory and lions mark and defend these areas by roaring and scent-marking. These territories are fiercely defended against intruding lions and male lions may sometimes get into huge fights over their territories. 

Lions usually prey on medium to large animals like zebras, antelopes, hippopotamuses, and buffaloes but they can also kill and eat smaller or larger animals, depending on the need. They are also known to eat animals killed and left by other predators. Lionesses stalk their prey from nearby cover and then leap and lunge at its neck, biting and strangling it until it is killed. Members of the pride then come forward to feed on the kill. An adult lion can eat about 34 kilograms of meat at once. 

Lions usually breed once every year in captivity but in the wild, they breed once every two or three years. Lion cubs are born with dark spots on their fur coat which fade away as they mature. They can follow their mother after 3 months and can participate in hunting after 11 months.

However, they still need assistance and can not survive on their own before two years of age. The cubs become adults at about three to four years of age and while most female cubs become members of their mother’s pride, male cubs are forced out and become nomads. 

Lions are incredible animals and have always intrigued me. They are truly the ‘kings’. 

In the session above, I have written three essays on three different animals. You can choose any of those according to your requirements. I have also tried to write the essays in a very simple language that every student can easily understand. If you still have any queries regarding this context, please let us know through the comment section below. To read more such essays on several important topics, keep browsing our Website. 

To get the latest updates on our upcoming sessions, kindly join us on Telegram . Thanks for being with us. All the best. 

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Writing Forward

Creative Writing Prompts for Animal Lovers

by Melissa Donovan | Aug 16, 2018 | Creative Writing Prompts | 16 comments

creative writing prompts

Creative writing prompts about animals.

Today’s post includes a selection of prompts from 1200 Creative Writing Prompts . Enjoy!

Animals have played a significant role in literature throughout history.

They appear in poems and stories, and plenty of nonfiction works have been written about animals and humans’ experiences with animals.

From E.B. White’s  Charlotte’s Web to Jane Goodall’s (aff links) books on primatology, authors and readers alike have delighted in writing and reading about animals.

And it’s no wonder. We humans have forged strong bonds with animals. Our pets are like family members. In fact, Americans spend billions a year on their animal companions. Billions more are donated to wildlife preservation, animal welfare advocacy, and conservation efforts.

Naturally, animals fit comfortably into the stories we tell. Today’s creative writing prompts pay homage to our animal friends by inspiring a writing session that features animals.

Creative Writing Prompts About Animals

Below, you’ll find a series of creative writing prompts. Choose one, and turn it into a short story, a poem, a play, or an essay. Write anything you want, and if you can’t decide what to write, then do a freewrite.

  • Children are delighted when a mama cat gives birth to a litter of five orange tabbies and one little gray runt.
  • Write a piece using the following image: a camel walking across the desert.
  • A young man on his first hunting trip has a deer in his sight and suddenly remembers the day his dad took him to see Bambi .
  • Write a piece using the following image: sea life dying in waters that have been poisoned with toxins or littered with dangerous waste.
  • Sunlight dances on the surface of the water. Waves roll gently against the shore. Seagulls soar above, dipping and diving through the sky.
  • A school of dolphins is too trusting and approaches a boat whose crew is intent on capturing the dolphins and bringing them to a theme park for a swim-with-the-dolphins attraction.
  • A bird and squirrel live together in the same tree (like The Odd Couple ).
  • Write about hunting.
  • Two children, a brother and sister, respectively capture a butterfly and a moth, then proceed to argue over which insect is superior.
  • Write a piece using the following image: a bird’s nest full of eggs.

Creative Writing Prompts

If you use any of these creative writing prompts to spark a writing session, come back and tell us how they worked for you. What did you write? Did you learn anything new? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. And keep writing.

For more inspiring prompts, pick up a copy of 1200 Creative Writing Prompts , available at your favorite online bookstore.

Creative Writing Prompts

16 Comments

james

two puppies are seperated at birth. then reunited at the dog pound, when they are taken from their owners

Melissa Donovan

That’s a great one! Thanks, James.

CG

Why would an animal lover want to write about hunting?

Why wouldn’t they? There are animal lovers who hunt, and some animal lovers might have opinions about hunting that they want to express.

ProWriter

Animal lovers who hunt sort of doesn’t make sense because if they love animals, then why do they kill them?

I have known people who love their cats and dogs but go duck hunting. Most people who love animals also eat meat.

Margaret

These look cool! TOTALLY using one!!

That’s awesome! Thanks, Margaret.

Goodjoblove

A person gets bit by a magicall wolf then…

That’s interesting!

I like that one!!! I used it for an assignment!! LOL

That’s great!

tori

This is so helpful please do more of these.

There’s a whole category of prompts here: writing prompts , and you can also check out the books page , where you’ll find even more!

Jason

what about a group of wild animals are slowly being captured and taken to zoos.

James

I’m gonna use this is that’s ok!

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My Favourite Animal – 10 Lines, Short & Long Essay For Kids

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Key Points To Remember: Essay On ‘My Favourite Animal’ For Lower Primary Classes

10 lines: ‘my favourite animal’ in english, a paragraph on ‘my favourite animal’ for children, short essay on ‘my favourite animal: dog’ for kids, essay on ‘my favourite animal: cat’, essay on ‘my favourite animal: elephant’, essay on ‘my favourite animal: horse’, essay on ‘my favourite animal: cow’, essay on ‘my favourite animal: tiger’, what will your child learn from this essay.

Essay writing allows children to develop their creative thinking skills and express themselves better! It also helps them improve their writing skills by teaching them proper grammar and punctuation. This article explains how to write an essay on ‘my favourite animal’ for classes 1, 2, and 3. Children adore animals because they make excellent playmates. They, too, show their affection for children in various ways, making any child love them. You can use the suggestions to write an excellent ‘my favourite animal’ essay in English. Kids can talk about activities they like seeing their favourite animals doing and their physical attributes.

Essay writing is fun, but lack of knowledge of its structure and presentation may confuse the kids. All of us have a favourite animal, but the children may find it difficult to present it in words. If you’re stuck trying to figure out how to write this essay, you can follow the points mentioned below:

  • Start by giving a brief introduction about animals.
  • Mention your favourite animal and describe its features.
  • Give reasons as to why are they your favourite animal.
  • Conclude by giving a summary of the essay.

Children adore animals, and if they can, they bring them home as their pets. It is always a joy for the kids to write about their favourite animals they love dearly. Following are 10 lines that can act as a guide to writing an essay for classes 1 and 3 on the topic of ‘my favourite animal: dog’:

  • My favourite animal is a dog.
  • Dogs are the most loyal creatures.
  • I have a dog as my pet named Bruno.
  • He is a cute little white Pomeranian.
  • He is 2 years old, and we got him from a pet shop.
  • He is very playful and friendly.
  • After I return home from school, he runs toward me, wagging his tail.
  • He loves going on walks.
  • On Sundays and holidays, we play lots of games together.
  • He makes me happy.
  • I love Bruno a lot.

Many people love cats, so they are the most common pet in today’s household. If your kid has been asked to write a short paragraph on my ‘favourite animal: cat’, this essay will guide you:

For me, my favourite animal is the cat because they are so cute and make adorable pets. Bella is the name of my pet cat, and I love her white and black fur, small paws, tiny claws, and a cute little tail. Bella was a stray cat we adopted when she was just three months old. Bella does not want much attention, but she enjoys being around us. She enjoys all types of fish, and her favourite is tuna. She is either in bed or spends the entire day lying on the couch. Her way of expressing affection is unique.

Dogs are well-known for their loyalty, making them kids’ favourites. This short essay on the topic of my favourite animal dog will help children learn how to write an essay for class 3:

My favourite animal is a dog. Dogs are known for their friendliness and loyalty, and nothing can beat a dog’s devotion to their master. These are furry creatures found in various species, such as German shepherds, Pomeranians, Labradors, and others. Even I have a pet dog whose name is Rocky, and he is a German Shepherd with golden brown fur. He enjoys being around us and is extremely friendly. When I take him for a walk, that is his favourite time of day. He enjoys meeting new people and barks at other dogs he sees in the park. We adopted him when he was five months old and he is now four years old. He tries to keep us safe and never harms us.

Cats are small creatures that humans love. They come in a variety of colours, including white, black, and brown, and their small twinkling eyes make us adore them even more. Cats are known for their dislike of human contact, but they do show affection in other ways. Lucy is the name of my cat. She enjoys eating fish, meat, mashed eggs, and many other foods. When I get home from school, she rushes up to me and starts licking my hands. She recognises my sad mood and continues to sit beside me as if she is offering me support. We play on weekends and holidays, and she has a great time.

Elephants may appear to be enormous, but they are completely harmless. They have a playful nature; I have seen them in movies and videos splashing water from their trunks. The relationship between humans and elephants has been well known for a long time. Films have also been made about them, such as Haathi Mere Saathi. I have often seen the small and adorable baby elephants running around and playing in the zoo. Elephants eat plants, leaves, fruits, etc. Elephants are some of the most intelligent creatures on Earth.

Horses are extremely powerful and swift. Despite their thin legs, they are well-known for their running speed and are frequently used in horse races. Horses are obedient and friendly. Most of us have probably seen a horse in the hilly areas where they transport people from one location to another, and soldiers previously used them to fight in wars. Horses are herbivores that eat mostly grass. They can become extremely loyal to their master if properly trained. A horse’s average lifespan is 25-30 years. However, it may differ depending on their living circumstances. I once went to a horse race and witnessed them galloping with all their might. They are also among the most beautiful animals due to their silky hair and tails.

In an Indian household, the importance of a cow cannot be neglected. Cows have been given the status of mother and are referred to as “Gau Mata” in Hindi. A cow in the house is a common sight in rural areas. Many households rely on cows for a living. Cows produce milk, which is high in calcium and protein. Cow’s milk is used to make various dairy products such as cheese and yoghurt. Cows are herbivores that primarily eat grass, husk, vegetables, and grains. Cow dung is known for its antibacterial properties and is used as plant fertiliser. My grandparents’ house has four cows. I play with and feed them whenever I visit them on vacation. They are gentle creatures. I have fun spending time with them.

India’s national animal is the tiger. They are large cats that are mostly orange with black stripes. They are known for their strength and are associated with the Goddess Durga. They are carnivores that feed on small animals such as deer and antelopes. They are commonly referred to as man-eaters but do not unnecessarily prey on humans. Tigers are often hunted for their skin, nails and bones. During my summer vacations, I went to Sunderbans with my family, which is home to a variety of tigers. The Sundarban National Park and Tiger Reserve India aim to protect endangered species of tigers from extinction. The Indian government is also doing a lot to protect tigers!

Animals are a very important part of our surroundings, and this favourite animal essay will teach the children about them. They are innocent creatures who need love, and this essay might make the children more empathetic towards them. They will also learn about different animals and their features.

1. Which Are The Most Common Pets?

Everyone commonly likes dogs, cats, squirrels, birds, fish, and other animals; some people keep some of them as their home pets.

Essay On Cow for Class 1, 2 and 3 Kids Tiger Essay for Classes 1 to 3 Children How to Write An Essay On Horse for Lower Primary Classes

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — George Orwell — Animal Farm Moral Analysis

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Animal Farm Moral Analysis

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25+ Best Short Animal Stories For Kids With Morals

Wise lessons with furry friends.

Megan Imhoff is the founder and writer at Ish Mom. She possesses a bachelor's degree in psychology from Earlham College, a flair for theatrics, and a “whole lotta nerve”. She lives in the Midwestern US with her wonderful husband and thr... more

Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditin... more

Deepa Rachel Thomas holds a master’s degree in English from the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She has done a certification course in Child Development and worked as a mentor for... more

MomJunction believes in providing reliable, research-backed information to you. As per our strong editorial policy requirements, we base our health articles on references (citations) taken from authority sites, international journals, and research studies. However, if you find any incongruencies, feel free to write to us .

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Animal stories for kids fascinate and intrigue their curious minds. Aesop’s Fables, Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and the Panchatantra are exciting adventure stories on animals that kids may enjoy.

Children can be taught about various aspects of life through storytelling. While some messages from the moral stories in English are simple and easy to follow, others may be intense and cannot be delivered directly. Science has proven that using animals enables authors to tell a powerful story while also maintaining emotional distance (1) .

Here is a compilation of some of the best short stories for kids that they may enjoy hearing.

25+ Short Animal Stories For Children With Morals

1. the hare and the tortoise.

Image: IStock

Tired of the bragging of a speedy hare, a tortoise challenges it to a race. The overconfident hare accepts the competition and runs as fast as it can after the race begins. Soon it gets tired and decides to rest, thinking that there’s plenty of time to relax before the tortoise can catch up with it. Meanwhile, the tortoise continues to walk slowly, until it reaches the finish line. The overslept hare wakes up, only to be shocked that a slow moving tortoise beat it in the race.

Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.

2. The Two Goats

One day, two goats try to cross a weak and narrow bridge across the river. The goats are at either end of the bridge, but neither is ready to make way for the other. They come to the centre of the bridge and begin fighting about who should cross first. As they fight mindlessly, the bridge gives in, taking both the goats down into the river with it.

Moral: It is better to yield than to come to misfortune through stubbornness.

3. The Hare And The Hound

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This is another interesting animal story for kids that brings a valuable moral lesson to motivate them. Enjoy it now! One day, a strong and powerful hound was chasing a hare . After running for a long time, the tired hound gives up the hunt. A herd of goats watching this mocks the hound, saying that the little one is better than the beast. To this, the hound responds: “The rabbit was running for its life, I was only running for dinner. That is the difference between us.”

Moral: Incentive spurs action.

4. The Ugly Duckling

Image: Shutterstock

A farmer had a duck, which laid ten eggs. Soon, they all hatched. Of the ten, nine ducklings looked like the mom. The tenth one was big, gray and ugly. All the other ducklings made fun of the ugly one. Unhappy on the farm, the poor duckling ran away to a river nearby. There he sees white, beautiful swans. Afraid and lost, he wanted to drown in the river. But when he looked at his reflection in the river, he realized that he was not an ugly duckling, but a beautiful swan!

Moral: You are beautiful just the way you are.

5. The Fisherman And The Little Fish

There was once a fisherman whose livelihood depended on his catch. One day, he was able to catch only one small fish. The fish , in its desperation to live, says “Please leave me kind sir. I am small and of no use to you. Let me back into the river and I can grow bigger. You can then catch me and make more money.” The wise fisherman replies, “ I will not give up a certain profit for one that doesn’t exist yet.”

Moral: Do not forgo a certain gain for an uncertain profit.

6. The Fox And The Goat

Walking alone in the forest , an unlucky fox falls into a well one day. Unable to get out, he waits for help. A passing goat sees the fox and asks him why he is in the well. The cunning fox responds, “there is going to be a great drought, and I am here to make sure I have water.” The gullible goat believes this and jumps into the well. The fox swiftly jumps on the goat and uses its horns to reach the top, leaving the goat in the well.

Moral: Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.

7. The Fox And The Grapes

On a hot summer day, a fox comes upon an orchard and sees a bunch of ripened grapes. It thinks: “Just what I need to quench my thirst.” It moves back a few paces, runs, and jumps but falls short of reaching the grapes. It tries in different ways to reach the bunch of grapes, but in vain. It finally gives up, and says to himself “I am sure they are sour anyway.”

Moral: It is easy to despise what you cannot get your hands on.

8. The Lion And The Boar

It was a hot summer day. A lion and a boar reach a small water body for a drink. They begin arguing and fighting about who should drink first. After a while, they are tired and stop for breath, when they notice vultures above. Soon they realize that the vultures are waiting for one or both of them to fall, to feast on them. The lion and the boar then decide that it was best to make up and be friends than fight and become food for vultures. They drink the water together and go their ways after.

Moral: Those who strive are often watched by others to take advantage of their defeat.

9. The Ant And The Grasshopper

It was a pleasant day and the grasshopper was in a gay mood, singing and dancing around. He sees an ant carrying a heavy corn kernel to its nest. The grasshopper asks the ant to join him for some fun, instead of toiling away like that. The ant tells him that it is preparing for winter when food would be scarce. The grasshopper brushes the thought and says why bother when the present is good. Winter soon begins, and the grasshopper has no food to survive, while the ants enjoy the corn in the warmth of their nest.

Moral : It is best to prepare for days of necessity.

10. Two Cats And A Monkey

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After a feast, two cats see a piece of cake and start fighting for it. A monkey sees this as an opportunity for gain and offers to help them. The monkey divides the cake into two parts but shakes its head saying they are unequal. He takes a bite of one piece and then the other, but still finds them unequal. He continues doing so until there is no more cake left, leaving the poor little cats disappointed.

Moral: When you quarrel amongst yourselves, someone else gains from it.

11. An Ass In Lion’s Skin

This is another collection of short stories having animal wildlife characters. One day, an ass chanced upon a lion’s skin that the hunters left to dry. He put it on and walked towards the jungle, giving animals and people a fright on its way. The ass was very proud of itself that day and brayed loudly in delight. Immediately, everyone knew that it was an ass in lion’s skin. They gave it a good beating for frightening them. The fox then walks up to the injured donkey and says: “I knew it was you by your voice.”

Moral: Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words disclose a fool.

12. The Fox And The Stork

There was once a fox, which was very friendly with a stork. It invited the stork to dinner one day and decided to play a prank. So he set the table with a shallow dish, with little soup in it. The fox had a good meal, while the stork had a tough time drinking the soup with its long beak. The stork decided to return the kindness and invited the fox over for dinner and served soup in a long-necked, narrow-mouthed jar. This time the stork ate well, and the fox starved.

Moral: One bad turn deserves another.

13. Who Will Bell The Cat?

A horde of mice gathered one night to discuss the problems created by their common enemy, the cat. A lot of ideas were shared, but none seemed good enough to beat the cat. Then a young mouse suggested that they should tie a bell around the cat’s neck to know when it is approaching and escape the sly cat’s attacks. To this, an old, wise mouse asked, “That’s fine. But who will bell the cat?”

Moral: It is easy to propose impossible remedies.

14. The Dog And The Shadow

A dog found a piece of meat one day. As it walked home, it had to cross a bridge over a stream. As it walked, it saw its reflection in the water and thought it was another dog with a piece of meat. The dog got greedy and decided to have that piece as well. He snapped at the reflection, and as soon as he opened his mouth, his piece of meat fell into the water and disappeared.

Moral: Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

15. The Lion And The Mouse

A lion was fast asleep in the jungle when a mouse started running all over him. The lion was angry that the mouse disturbed its sleep and was about to kill it with its paw. The mouse begged the lion to pardon it, saying it could be of help to it one day. The lion laughed at that thought and walked away. Soon after that, the lion was trapped in a hunter’s net. The little mouse was passing by and saw the lion. It immediately tore the net with its sharp teeth and rescued the lion.

Moral: Little friends may prove to be great friends.

16. The Crow And The Pitcher

One day, a crow was very thirsty and found a pitcher with little water in it. It couldn’t reach the water with its beak. After a little thought, the crow came up with an idea. It picked up a few stones one at a time and put them in the pitcher, until the water came up. He happily drank the water and flew away.

Moral: Little-by-little does the trick.

17. The Eagle And The Arrow

Sitting on a lofty rock, an eagle was watching its prey move on the ground. A hunter, watching the eagle from behind a tree, shoots it with an arrow. As the eagle falls to the ground, with blood oozing from its wound, it sees that the arrow is made of its own plumage and thinks: “Alas, I am destroyed by an arrow made from my own feathers”.

Moral: We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

18. The Town Mouse And The Country Mouse

One day, the stylish town mouse visits his cousin in the country. The country mouse welcomes his cousin warmly and gives him beans and bacon to eat. Unimpressed with the food served, the town mouse boasts of a high life in the city and asks his cousin to go with him. They reach the town and go to a dining room to eat jelly and cake, where they are chased off by two huge dogs and run for their lives.

Moral: Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.

19. The Clever Monkey

Once upon a time, a clever monkey lived on an apple tree. It was friends with a foolish crocodile that lived in the river. The mokey shared the fruits of the tree with the crocodile everyday. The crocodile’s wife learns about this friendship and asks the crocodile to bring the monkey’s heart, which could be sweeter than the fruits of the tree. The couple invite the monkey for dinner and plan to eat his heart. The crocodile offers to take the monkey on its back, so that it can cross the river to reach home.

On their way, the foolish crocodile mentions his wife’s desire to taste the monkey’s heart. The monkey is quick to understand its friend’s intentions and tricks it by saying: “Oh, but I forgot my heart at home. Take me back so we can get it.” As soon as they reach the river bank, the monkey jumps off the crocodile’s back, and vows never to trust it again.

Moral: Remain calm and use presence of mind to get out of adverse situations.

20. The Ass, The Fox, And The Lion

Two partners, the ass and the fox, go to a forest to find food. On their way, they meet a lion. The cunning fox promises the lion that he can have the ass for dinner, but asks that his life be spared. Together, they trick the ass to fall into a pit. As soon as the ass was secured, the lion jumps at the fox, killing it for its meat and ends up having both.

Moral: Traitors must expect treachery.

21. The Fox Without A Tail

One day, a fox has its tail caught in a hunter’s trap. It panics and tries to release itself by pulling as hard as possible. In the attempt, it loses its tail completely. Without a tail, it feels ashamed to meet its fellow foxes. Afraid that the others will laugh at it for not having a tail, the fox comes up with a plan. It calls for a meeting and tells the other foxes that they should cut their tails, which are useless and they also make make it easier for the enemy to catch them. To this, the chief fox responds, “I don’t think you would ask us to get rid of our graceful tails if you hadn’t lost yours.”

Moral: Do not listen to the advice of him who seeks to lower you to his own level.

22. The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

A wolf was having a tough time getting hold of sheep for meal. It decides to attack them discreetly by dressing itself in sheepskin. Soon, it starts leading the sheep one-by-one to a corner and eats them all.

Moral: Appearances are deceptive.

23. The Fox And The Crow

A fox sees a crow carrying a piece of cheese to a tree top. It decides to get the cheese for himself. It goes to the tree and starts praising the crow that it can sing better than a cuckoo. Hearing this, the crow beams with pride, and tries to sing. The piece of cheese falls to the ground as it opens its mouth to sing. The fox picks up the piece and runs away.

Moral: Do not trust flatterers.

24. The Foolish Rabbit

When a nut falls on its head, a foolish rabbit thinks that the sky is falling and runs as fast as it can. On its way, it tells all the other animals that the sky is falling and spreads fear in the jungle. The lion, the king of the jungle, sees the chaos. On inspection, the lion finds out that it was just a nut and the rabbit was indeed foolish.

Moral: Be careful who you trust, or you could be fooled.

25. The Peacock And The Juno

The peacock was jealous of the nightingale and wanted to sing as well as the latter. When it tries to sing, everyone laughs at it. Disappointed, the peacock approaches Roman goddess Juno and asks for a voice as beautiful as the nightingale’s. Juno refuses and tells the peacock that just like it is bestowed with beauty, the nightingale is given a beautiful voice, the eagle, strength and so on. Juno says: “Everyone is unique in their own way.”

Moral: Be content with your strengths; one cannot excel in everything.

26. The Cow’s Bell

Henry, a young boy, watched over a herd of cows in the woods. Each cow had a bell, and the prettiest cow had the nicest bell. One day, a stranger came by and asked Henry for a bell. Henry agreed and got forty bucks in return. But then the stranger tried to steal the cow. The cow went into the woods, and the stranger led it away. When Henry realized the cow was gone, he couldn’t find it. He went home crying and told his father the story. His father explained that just like the thief tricked him, doing wrong things can trick us, too. Henry learned about greed and promised not to make the same mistake again.

Moral: Make new friends but keep the old. The one is silver, and the other is gold.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What can animals in stories teach us?

Animals teach us about various positive character traits, such as staying focused, enjoying the moment, pausing and unwinding, and being tolerant. Encouraging these positive traits through animal stories with morals can help us grow into better individuals.

2. Why are animal characters used in children’s stories?

Many children prefer animal stories as they find them an engaging source of entertainment and education. It is easy for children to strike up an imagination and delve into fantasy land with these enjoyable and quirky animal characters and wildlife creatures. Also, the animal stories for children cover various topics, both fun and learning, that fascinate and teach valuable lessons simultaneously.

3. How does the animal story teach about the importance of kindness and compassion?

Stories like ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ teach us to be kind and never underestimate less capable others. ‘The Ugly Duckling’ shows us that everyone is unique and beautiful in their own way; we must be kind to others who are different. ‘The Lion and the Mouse’ reveals that you will always be valuable no matter your size, which is why kindness towards others is important. ‘The Fox and the Stork’ shows us what goes around comes around, which is why we must always treat others with kindness and compassion if we want to be treated the same.

4. What makes the animal story memorable for kids?

Animal stories for kids are memorable because the characters can be relatable; they allow children to use their imagination with a visual appeal. The moral lessons at the end of each story also appeal to their emotional sides.

5. Can you imagine any real-life examples of animals showing kindness or bravery?

If you want to show your children real-life examples of animals displaying kindness or bravery, you can find animal documentaries on Youtube videos or channels documenting wildlife.

Animal stories are a great way to teach children moral values such as honesty, compassion, and respectfulness. They also spur their creativity and introduce them to the magic of fantastical stories. If your child enjoys listening to stories as a part of their bedtime routine, try switching their fairy tale or bedtime story with these animal stories and pick one with a picture book to engage kids. In addition, you could make it more interesting by using different voices for each animal as you narrate the story. Your children will be hooked to these stories and keep returning to them.

Key Pointers

  • Animal stories are an excellent way to keep children entertained.
  • The simple sentences and interesting characters keep children engaged when traveling or before bedtime.
  • From Panchatantra and Aesop’s Fables to the books of Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling, there are several animal stories for children with meaningful lessons.
  • These stories revolve around the themes of patience, friendship, kindness, and other essential life lessons.
  • Benefits of Reading to Children, Archway Communities https://www.archwaycommunities.org/5-benefits-of-reading-to-children/

Megan Imhoff BA

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Essay On Animals

The quote by Anatole France, “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened”, sums it all about animals. Planet Earth is home to humans as well as animals. According to the survey, it is estimated that over 8 million species of animals exist on Earth, living on land and water. Each species has a unique place in the environment and balances the ecosystem. These species play a significant role in the stability of the ecosystem, environment, and our lives.

100 Words Essay On Animals

200 words essay on animals, 500 words essay on animals.

Essay On Animals

Since the beginning of human civilisation, humans have interacted with wildlife. Before the era of industrialisation and urbanisation, human life was dependent on animals. The big animals were a threat to our ancestors who once lived in caves and were nomads. Eventually, they learned to survive, fight and use the animal's skin for clothing, the meat for food or bait, and ivory elements as utensils or ornaments. Even as humans evolved, animals have contributed to various aspects like transportation, the economy, social life etc. The increased dependence of humans on animals has caused threats to their existence. Hence, their preservation and protection against any abuse is our responsibility.

Animals are the most adorable and loving creatures existing on Earth. They might not be able to speak, but they can understand. They have a unique mode of interaction which is beyond human understanding. There are two types of animals: domestic and wild animals.

Domestic Animals | Domestic animals such as dogs, cows, cats, donkeys, mules and elephants are the ones which are used for the purpose of domestication. Wild animals refer to animals that are not normally domesticated and generally live in forests. They are important for their economic, survival, beauty, and scientific value.

Wild Animals | Wild animals provide various useful substances and animal products such as honey, leather, ivory, tusk, etc. They are of cultural asset and aesthetic value to humankind. Human life largely depends on wild animals for elementary requirements like the medicines we consume and the clothes we wear daily.

Nature and wildlife are largely associated with humans for several reasons, such as emotional and social issues. The balanced functioning of the biosphere depends on endless interactions among microorganisms, plants and animals. This has led to countless efforts by humans for the conservation of animals and to protect them from extinction. Animals have occupied a special place of preservation and veneration in various cultures worldwide.

Animals are made up of numerous cells that can move, sense and reproduce. They play a vital role in maintaining nature’s balance. Numerous animal species exist in the land as well as water, and each has a purpose for their existence.

Different Types Of Animals

Biologists have divided into particular groups for better understanding at the species level, for instance – amphibians - animals which live on land as well as water, reptiles – which are scaled bodies and cold-blooded animals, mammals – animals which give birth to the offspring in the womb and have mammary glands, birds – animals with forelimbs evolved to wings and feather-covered body, and also lays eggs for giving birth, fishes – aquatic animals having fins in place of limbs, and gills for the respiration, insects – they are mostly six-legged or more, and mostly having a head, abdomen, and thorax.

How Animals Help Humans

Since the time of existence and evolution of human beings, we have established ourselves as the greater and more superior species because of sophisticated and advanced ways of thinking and applying. With time, humans have learned to use animals to their benefit and have also realised how to incorporate animals into our social lives:-

Animal husbandry has been in existence for a very long period of time.

Animals have been used for numerous purposes like clothing, food, entertainment, and transportation.

Animals have also been used to discover new things from tests and research. Several vaccines and medicines obtained from animals have turned out to be benison.

Animals have also been used for outer-space explorations, leading to milestone achievements in scientific discoveries.

Humans have used animals for good (sustain livelihood) and evil purposes (acts of torture to poor animals). Even as the world modernised, people have started thinking about animals and working for their rights, creating awareness among humans.

The bond between humans and animals has evolved as a strong bond, and now both coexist with a mutual understanding of nature. Humans have strived to preserve those endangered and rare species via modern conservation modes, including national parks, sanctuaries, etc.

My Experience With Animals

As a child raised in a city, I never had first-hand experience with animals. Though people domesticate animals, I was always afraid of them. Due to the fear of getting infected and being bitten, I never went near them. One fine day, I saw finches in the pet shop near my house. At first glance, I loved them for a long time, but then one of my friends asked me to reach out to them and observe them. To my astonishment, the finches drew near me and were looking at me. I thought to take them with me, and when I took them – I was amazed by their understanding, love and interactions. This led me to love the animals and look at them from a different perspective, not with a fearful heart. They are the most loving creatures existing on Earth.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

  • Construction
  • Entertainment
  • Manufacturing
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Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Opinion Dogs are our greatest creation. And we might be theirs.

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of “ Dogland .” He lives in Charlotte with his wife, her mother and a cat named Jack Reacher.

The dog is humankind’s greatest invention. The wheel, the lightbulb, concrete — all amazing. Top of the line. But nothing in human creation has been as essential and adaptable as the countless descendants of the ancient gray wolf.

How did we do it? I spent three years following the traveling carnival of American dog shows — like a Grateful Dead tour with Milk-Bones — in search of the answer. My journey culminated in the dog world’s most prestigious event: the Westminster Dog Show. Show dogs are bred from the purest stock, culled from litters at just a few weeks old, trained with the dedication of Olympic gymnasts — and groomed like supermodels. They’d be unrecognizable to their ancient kin — and to ours.

The American Kennel Club, arbiter of bloodlines, now recognizes about 200 breeds, while tracking crossbreeds like goldendoodles, and even mutts. From the most massive mastiff to the tiniest teacup chihuahua, all dogs trace back to the same common ancestors.

Scientists think this weird and powerful companionship of humans and dogs might have started somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. Humans of that era were mainly hunters traveling in camps. They ate meat by the fire. The cooking meat attracted wolves who were drawn to the aroma but stayed safely out of range of the flames. Every so often, a human would fling a bone into the darkness. The wolves gnawed on the bones. They trailed the humans to the next campsite, still keeping their distance. There was an unspoken arrangement. The wolves alerted the humans to intruders, and the humans fed the wolves well.

Over time the wolves crept closer. One fateful night a curious wolf came all the way into the firelight. The humans didn’t chase it off.

Slowly, the humans mingled with the wolves. After days or months or generations or centuries, a wolf curled up at a human’s feet. Maybe got its belly rubbed. That was the first dog.

As far as we can tell, dogs are the first animals that humans ever tamed. The wolves that hung out with humans found themselves changing inside and out. They developed shorter muzzles and smaller teeth. Their instinct to run became a desire to stay close. With time, dogs were manufactured through breeding to meet different human needs. We made huskies to pull sleds and Newfoundlands to pull fish nets and dachshunds to catch badgers.

Dogs taught humans the early science of designer genes. In the mid-19th century, as we moved off the farm and into the factory, we created dogs we could bring indoors at the end of a workday. And we created dogs we could bring to work: French bulldogs (now the most popular breed in America ) started out as literal lap dogs for lace-makers in France. We molded dogs to be friends, companions, playmates and unofficial therapists.

So dogs are not just humanity’s greatest invention but also its longest-running experiment.

That’s one way to look at it.

Now switch out the frame. Swap the subject and the object. Change the verbs.

Here’s another view:

Around the time early humans evolved, Neanderthals also walked the planet. At some point — roughly 40,000 years ago — humans started to thrive while Neanderthals died off. And this is about the time when those first curious wolves began to evolve into dogs. Some scientists believe the timing is not a coincidence. Maybe the dog was the key advantage in the triumph of humankind.

Dogs enabled humans to settle down and stop their endless wandering. Dogs protected humans at this vulnerable transition from nomadic to settled life. Dogs did work that humans did not have the strength or stamina to do: guarding, herding, hunting, pulling sleds. They created time for humans to build and think and create without having to focus every moment on the next meal or the next threat.

We domesticated dogs, and they domesticated us.

Today, dogs provide not just companionship but also an uncomplicated kind of love in an ever more complicated world. And for those restless souls wandering from town to town, chasing job after job — nomads again — a dog can be an anchor, something to hold on to on a lonely night.

From the gray wolf by the ancient fire to a coifed Pomeranian prancing around the show ring, dogs have been with us nearly as long as we have been human.

They might be our greatest creation. And we might be theirs.

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animal story essay

Animal Testing: History and Arguments Essay

In general, animal testing is allowed all over the world. Some countries impose certain restrictions on that matter, some – do not introduce any restrictions at all. However, even those countries that have certain laws prohibiting tests on animals do not take into account the fact that animals are living creatures and must not suffer for the sake of an experiment. Moreover, in most facilities and laboratories, animals are kept in cages, thereby having absolutely no freedom. Most of the experiments performed on animals bring them suffering, lead to disability, and even death. This inhumane treatment of animals does not justify any cause (Haugen, 2000). Thus, the main reason why these experiments must be stopped is that, according to the statistics, the majority of them are ineffective and inaccurate.

History of Animal Testing

Animal testing has a long history. Considering the fact that animals are living creatures, medical experiments on them were already conducted at least three thousand years ago. The first records mentioning the experiments on animals date back to the fourth century BCE in Ancient Greece (Murnaghan, 2017). Thus, in ancient times, it was a widely adopted practice to perform dissections of animals in order to understand how to make surgical operations on humans.

Since the 18 th century, with the development of medicine, the frequency of animal testing has significantly increased. Moreover, if a couple of centuries ago, there were only single experiments that were performed by separate scientists, now, it has developed into the large industry that catches animals in the wild and uses them as guinea pigs (Scutti, 2013). Thus, although there are many innovative technologies that can serve as better alternatives to animal testing, people are still reluctant to change the current state of affairs.

Despite animal testing being rather an old practice, ethical considerations on that matter also occurred quite a long time ago (Scutti, 2013). For example, in the 17 th century, a psychologist Edmund O’Meara stated that animal testing was unnecessary, as it often gave inaccurate results. In this respect, he provided an example regarding vivisection that, as he claimed, placed the body of an animal in an unnatural state, in which it endured a lot of pain that was both cruel and gave false results.

The first animal protection law was established in Great Britain in 1822. A significant milestone in the history of animal protection legislation was the introduction of the Cruelty to Animals Act in 1876 in Great Britain. This law was promoted by Charles Darwin who, despite being a biologist and a scientist, was against vivisection. In the 1860s, the movements against animal testing occurred in the USA. As a result, Henry Bergh established the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in 1866. After that, the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) was founded in 1883 (Haugen, 2000). Thus, the end of the 19 th century was the time when many articles were written, and campaigns were started calling for terminating the experiments on animals.

However, at the beginning of the 20 th century, the tendency of releasing laws about animal protection changed. Unfortunately, the efforts of antivivisectionists to promote their campaigns to make the US government to ban animal testing failed due to the overall support of such experiments by the public, which was assured by the organizations who performed these experiments that animals were kept in good conditions, bred well, and injected with anaesthetics in those operations that could cause them much pain. Therefore, only in the 1960s, the efforts of antivivisectionists were partially justified, with the release of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act in 1966 (Haugen, 2000). Nevertheless, that law was more focused on the welfare of animals in laboratories rather than on the prohibition of animal testing.

Nowadays, there are a great number of organizations that advocate for stopping using animals in the experiments. Although the overall effectiveness of their campaigns is quite low, they have managed to achieve some positive results concerning the problem of animal testing (Murnaghan, 2017). Additionally, considering the current tendency of the active development of various technologies that can easily substitute experiments on animals, there is hope that soon the animal testing industry will cease to exist.

Animal Testing Is Cruel

The first argument against animal testing is that it is simply cruel. People must understand that animals are the same living creature as them and can feel both psychological and physical pain in the same way as humans. Thus, in the case of experimenting on animals, the ethical and humane aspects of the issue must prevail and give people a stimulus to seek for other ways of studying diseases that can be much better.

Animal Testing and Its Types

First of all, it is necessary to describe the types of animal testing in order to understand the degree of the cruelty of these experiments. In general, animal testing is the process of experimenting on animals where they usually undergo various medical procedures which cause them suffering or even death. These experiments are usually aimed at finding a cure to some disease that humans and certain animals have in common or at exploring how a biological organism works. During the experiments, scientists usually keep animals in cages and use them in laboratories where they harm them on purpose (“What is animal testing,” 2016). Moreover, there are certain kinds of experiments that cause animals a lot of pain, and, in many of them, animals die.

The most common type of an experiment on animals is feeding them with certain substances and injecting them with experimental medications. After the procedure is completed, scientists observe the effects that these substances have caused. In fact, the result is often unpredictable, and animals can die a horrible death with much pain. Another type of experiments is exposing animals to toxic substances and radiation. These experiments are primarily aimed at discovering the effects that radiation and certain chemicals can have on a biological body. Similarly, such experiments make animals suffer (“What is animal testing,” 2016). Moreover, if animals survive after such experiments, the damage that radiation and chemicals have caused to them is often permanent, and they will live the rest of their lives suffering.

One more type of experiments on animals is dissecting animals while they are still alive. Certainly, during this operation, they are under anesthetics, but it does not justify the result that they get after the procedure is completed. The main reason for these experiments is to find out how the internal parts of the biological body work. This operation usually involves removing internal organs, pumping out blood, and excising parts of tissues, which makes animals cripples afterwards. Additionally, there is one more type of an experiment that is usually practiced in laboratories. This is a psychological experiment that involves placing animals in situations and conditions which cause them to feel fear, anxiety, or depression. Such experiments are usually aimed at identifying the principles of animals’ behavior and comparing it to that of humans (“The five worst animal experiments,” 2014). Nevertheless, after these experiments, animals usually become very aggressive and cannot normally function in their animal “society”.

Laws and Animal Testing

According to most religious laws, animal testing is forbidden, as they are defined as the same creatures as humans. Certainly, animals are not as smart as humans, and their perception of reality is different, but they have similar bodies and experience similar feelings. Therefore, before making horrible experiments on animals, humans must think what it would be like if they were experimented on (“The Muslim view on animal,” 2017). Thus, animals have the same right to live their full lives as humans.

Although human laws impose a certain restriction regarding the experiments on animals, they are not enough, as they still allow people to torture them in the experiments. According to European legislation, all vertebrate animals including reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals and only some invertebrates such as octopuses are considered “animals”, on which it is prohibited to experiment (“Treatment of animals,” 2016). In the USA, the situation is worse and such creatures as mice, amphibians, birds, fish, and rats are not defined as “animals”, and scientists can freely perform any experiments on them that they want.

The system of experimenting on animals has grown into a multi-million dollar industry that has many facilities and laboratories around the world. They also have special facilities aimed at breeding animals specifically for testing. In these facilities, animals usually live in bad conditions being imprisoned and forcibly fed. Using wild-caught animals is prohibited in Europe and in some other countries, but it is allowed in other countries of the world. It is usually forbidden to use such domestic animals as dogs and cats in experiments, but, unfortunately, not in all countries (McKay, 2016). Even monkeys that resemble humans the most are often used in experiments.

In terms of animal suffering, The EU even introduced a scale which measures the degree of suffering experienced by animals in a particular experiment. Thus, they distinguish between “minor”, “moderate”, and “severe” suffering inflicted on animals. For example, in 2012, in the UK, more than 60% of permissions were granted by the British government allowing animals to be undergone from moderate to severe suffering. Reportedly, approximately 75% of the experiments were performed without injecting the animals with anesthetics. Moreover, quite a big percentage of those experiments required animals to die (Scheler, 2017). For instance, the tests for various vaccines and chemicals resulted in the death of more than 50% of the animals involved in these experiments.

Animal Testing Is Ineffective

The second argument against animal testing is that it is often ineffective, as the results received from the experiments can be inaccurate. There are many reasons for this, but, the most important point is that in such science as medicine, the information must be reliable; otherwise, there is always a risk that a particular medicine will cause unpleasant effects in humans or even be life-threatening.

Examples of the Ineffectiveness of Animal Testing

In addition to being cruel and inhumane, the experiments on animals often turn out to be ineffective. The main reason for this is that the animal organism either responds differently to many life-threatening diseases that humans suffer from or is completely immune to them. For example, animals do not suffer from most heart diseases, some types of cancer and HIV, they do not have Parkinson’s disease and the majority of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia. However, some of these diseases can be artificially induced in them for the sake of an experiment that allegedly shows how these diseases can be cured in humans. Thus, the most important argument is that in these experiments, people usually do not take into consideration other factors that are inherent only in humans and affect the behavior of diseases (“Cruelty to animals,” 2017). These factors include socio-economic conditions, genetics, psychological issues, and personal experience.

Indeed, according to the statistics, quite a great number of experiments on animals, that were promising in terms of finding a cure to some diseases, turned out to be ineffective for humans. In this respect, the end does not justify the means, as animals suffered for nothing. As a result, animals’ lives along with the time and money were wasted, and no effective treatment was developed (“Arguments against animal,” 2016). In addition, as it can be seen, after the decades of animal testing aimed at finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and cancer, there is still no reliable cure and effective treatment for them.

Thus, according to the statistics, the majority of experiments on animals that show promising results, turn out to be ineffective when it comes to humans. Moreover, the experimenting on smaller animals such as rabbits, mice, and rats showed an even lower rate of success, primarily because their organisms differ from that of a human (Scheler, 2017). Additionally, statistics show that only 20% of experimental drugs used on animals are effective in humans. In terms of testing the safety of drugs, only 45% of experiments work for humans.

According to the overall results of the experiments on animals conducted all over the world, approximately 120 million animals are used in them, and only about 30 new medications are approved every year, which is far from being efficient. The investment of the U.S. drug industry in the experiments equals $50 billion each year, but the approval rate has not changed since the 1960s. Among those drugs that are approved, not all of them are completely effective for everyone due to different individual reactions (McKay, 2016). Overall, for the last 20 years, only five percent of experiments performed on animals resulted in a successful approval of treatments.

Sometimes, animal testing can be dangerous even for humans. A vivid example is a drug called Vioxx that was used for arthritis. After successful experiments on monkeys and on some other mammals, this drug was approved for human usage. However, Vioxx turned out to be dangerous for humans causing more than 300,000 heart attacks all over the world, almost half of which resulted in the lethal outcome. Another example is fialuridine, a Hepatitis B drug that was prohibited for having caused liver damage resulting in five deaths. However, this drug had been several times tested on animals before. One more illustrative example is a monoclonal antibody treatment (TGN1412) that was tested on human volunteers. As a result, it caused an allergic reaction, after which the volunteers were hospitalized (Haugen, 2000). However, this drug had been used on monkeys several hundred times before, and no side effects were identified.

Alternatives to Animal Testing

Banning animal testing does not necessarily mean that the development of medications that can provide treatment for incurable diseases will stop, as there are always alternatives, which can improve progress in medicine and add humaneness to the science. Thus, with technological developments in the sphere of science, the number of alternatives to animal testing is increasing. In this respect, the main problem is that most people are reluctant to use new technologies (“Animal testing 101,” 2016). Instead, they tend to stick to more conservative and traditional methods that certainly involve animal testing.

Another obstacle in the process of adoption of these new methods is bureaucracy. There are a lot of organizations and charities that advocate for the prohibition of animal testing, and they can accelerate the process of implementation of these innovations.

In terms of the alternatives, there are several of them that are very effective. The first alternative is growing cells and other organic material in laboratories. Nowadays, almost any type of a human cell can be created in a laboratory. These cells are used in the creation of special devices that are called “organs-on-chips”. These devices can be used for experiments instead of animals. There were already several successful experiments conducted on these devices that involved observing the behavior of diseases and the effects of drugs (“Alternatives to animal,” 2016). Additionally, cell cultures are now the primary focus regarding the development of treatment to such diseases as cancer, AIDS, kidney diseases, and sepsis.

Another alternative to animal testing, which is not new though, is human tissues. Human tissues that can be provided by volunteers or extracted from dead bodies can be used in some kinds of experiments. Moreover, there are many operations such as cosmetic surgery, biopsy, and transplants that can serve as a reliable source of human tissues. Using brain tissues from dead bodies has also lead to a better understanding of such diseases as Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis.

One more alternative to animal testing, the importance of which has been increasingly growing for the past several decades, is computer models. Indeed, the most powerful contemporary computers in the world are able to simulate many processes that would occur in a human body after taking a particular experimental medication. These virtual experiments are primarily based on the already existing data about a particular disease and its behavior in the human body and on mathematical, chemical, and physical laws integrated into this program of simulation (“Alternatives to animal,” 2016). Certainly, now, computer sphere is not powerful enough for complex virtual experiments, but taking into account the rate of its growth, it will be soon.

Arguments for Animal Testing

Despite all the evidence listed above and showing that animal testing is both a cruel and ineffective practice, it still has its defenders. For example, the IQ Consortium DruSafe argues that nonclinical animal testing is crucial when it comes to assessing the risks of developing new drugs (Mangipudy, 2014). They believe that there are no in vitro or in silico systems developed enough to accurately emulate all of the complexities of the human organism (Mangipudy, 2014). Further, even with the eventual development of these surrogate systems, their ability to predict all of the negative effects from unique toxicities is still under question. In general, many people, while denouncing animal testing for cosmetic purposes, still insist that it is an unavoidable necessity for improving human health. Just as well, many people consider animal testing to be a necessary evil – they agree about it being cruel while saying that without it there would be no treatments like insulin, vaccines, HIV drugs and so on and that it helped us get better understanding of diseases like malaria or hemophilia (Murnaghan, 2017).

While it is true that animal testing has proven to be useful in the past, it does not mean that we need to stop developing new methods of testing and keep it around animals. If we consider ourselves to be a truly evolved species, we need to abandon any sort of animal cruelty completely and find ways to benefit ourselves without causing harm to anyone or anything. Furthermore, the effectiveness of alternative methods of testing is not to be underestimated, considering that more and more of them are being researched and improved with each passing year. These alternatives, both with their quantity and their quality, clearly highlight the obsolescence of animal testing and the need for replacing it with more humane and harmless methods.

Thus, as it can be seen from the statistics, animal testing is cruel and in most cases, not effective. Therefore, it must be banned, especially now, when there are many innovative technologies that can be used as alternatives. Moreover, these alternatives have already shown great promises in being much more efficient than animal testing. Fortunately, the current tendency shows that these alternatives will be adopted in the near future, thereby bringing the end to violent experiments on animals.

Alternatives to animal testing . (2016). Web.

Animal testing 101 . (2016). Web.

Arguments against animal testing . (2016). Web.

Cruelty to animals in laboratories . (2017). Web.

The five worst animal experiments happening right now . (2014). Web.

Harm and suffering . (2017). Web.

Haugen, D. M. (2000). Animal experimentation . San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.

McKay, M. (2016). The cruelty of lab animal testing. Web.

Murnaghan, I. (2017). Background and history of animal testing. Web.

The Muslim view on animal testing . (2017). Web.

Scheler, S. (2017). Everything you need to know about animal testing. Web.

Scutti, S. (2013). Animal testing: A long, unpretty history. Web.

Treatment of animals . (2016). Web.

What is animal testing? (2016). Web.

Mangipudy, R., Burkhardt, J., & Kadambi, V. J. (2014). Use of animals for toxicology testing is necessary to ensure patient safety in pharmaceutical development. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology , 70 (2), 439-441.

Murnaghan, I. (2017). Using Animals for Testing: Pros Versus Cons. Web.

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A photo illustration of a bison smiling.

How Do We Know What Animals Are Really Feeling?

Animal-welfare science tries to get inside the minds of a huge range of species — in order to help improve their lives.

Credit... Photo Illustration by Zachary Scott

Supported by

By Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

Bill Wasik is the magazine’s editorial director and Monica Murphy is a veterinarian and writer.

  • April 23, 2024

What makes a desert tortoise happy? Before you answer, we should be more specific: We’re talking about a Sonoran desert tortoise, one of a few species of drab, stocky tortoises native to North America’s most arid landscapes. Adapted to the rocky crevices that striate the hills from western Arizona to northern Mexico, this long-lived reptile impassively plods its range, browsing wildflowers, scrub grasses and cactus paddles during the hours when it’s not sheltering from the brutal heat or bitter cold. Sonoran desert tortoises evolved to thrive in an environment so different from what humans find comfortable that we can rarely hope to encounter one during our necessarily short forays — under brimmed hats and layers of sunblock, carrying liters of water and guided by GPS — into their native habitat.

Listen to this article, read by Gabra Zackman

This past November, in a large, carpeted banquet room on the University of Wisconsin’s River Falls campus, hundreds of undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students silently considered the lived experience of a Sonoran desert tortoise. Perhaps nine in 10 of the participants were women, reflecting the current demographics of students drawn to veterinary medicine and other animal-related fields. From 23 universities in the United States and Canada, and one in the Netherlands, they had traveled here to compete in an unusual test of empathy with a wide range of creatures: the Animal Welfare Assessment Contest.

That morning in the banquet room, the academics and experts who organize the contest (under the sponsorship of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the nation’s primary professional society for vets) laid out three different fictional scenarios, each one involving a binary choice: Which animals are better off? One scenario involved groups of laying hens in two different facilities, a family farm versus a more corporate affair. Another involved bison being raised for meat, some in a smaller, more managed operation and others ranging more widely with less hands-on human contact.

Then there were the tortoises. On screens along the room’s outer edge, a series of projected slides laid out two different settings: one, a desert museum exhibiting seven Sonoran specimens together in a large, naturalistically barren outdoor enclosure; the other, a suburban zoo housing a group of four tortoises, segregated by sex, in small indoor and outdoor pens furnished with a variety of tortoise toys and enticements. Into the slides had been packed an exhausting array of detail about the care provided for the tortoises in each facility. Only contestants who had prepared thoroughly for the competition — by researching the nutritional, environmental, social and medical needs of the species in question — would be able to determine which was doing a better job.

“Animal welfare” is sometimes misused as a synonym for “animal rights,” but in practice the two worldviews can sometimes be at cross purposes. From an animal rights perspective, nearly every human use of animals is morally suspect, but animal-welfare thinkers take it as a given that animals of all kinds do exist in human care, for better or worse, and focus on how to treat them as well as possible. In the past half century, an interdisciplinary group of academics, working across veterinary medicine and other animal-focused fields, have been trying to codify what we know about animal care in a body of research referred to as “animal-welfare science.”

The research has unlocked riddles about animal behavior, spurred changes in how livestock are treated and even brought about some advances in how we care for our pets: Studies of domestic cats, for example, have found that “puzzle feeders,” which slow consumption and increase mental and physical effort while eating, can improve their health and even make them friendlier. The discipline has begun to inform policy too, including requirements for scientists receiving federal grants for their animal-based research, regulations governing transport and slaughter of livestock, accreditation standards for zoos and aquariums and guidelines for veterinarians performing euthanasia.

Contest organizers hope to help their students, who might someday go into a range of animal-related jobs — not just as vets but in agribusiness, conservation, government and more — employ data and research to improve every aspect of animal well-being. Americans own an estimated 150 million dogs and cats, and our policies and consumption patterns determine how hundreds of millions of creatures from countless other species will live and die. The Animal Welfare Assessment Contest tries to introduce students to that enormous collective responsibility, and to the complexity of figuring out what each of these animals needs, especially when — as in the case of reptiles living in a shell — their outlook differs radically from our own.

The effort to improve the lives of America’s animals began more than 150 years ago. As it happens, a hundred or so turtles figured in one of the most important events in the early history of animal activism in America. It was May 1866 — the heyday of turtle soup, a dish so beloved at the time that restaurants in New York would take out newspaper ads, or even maintain special outdoor signage, declaring the hour at which the day’s batch would be ready. And so this group of unlucky sea turtles, after being captured by hunters in Florida, was brought to New York upside down on a schooner. To further immobilize them, holes were pierced through their fins with cords run through them.

The turtles would have assumed a tranquil, passive demeanor under such conditions, perhaps making it possible for the ship’s crew to believe that the creatures weren’t suffering. But there is every reason to believe they were. Evolution has equipped the marine turtle for a life afloat, with a large lung capacity filling the space beneath the shell, to enable long dives. When the turtles were on their backs, the weight of their organs would have put pressure on these lungs, forcing their breathing to become deliberate and deep.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals started up the month before. Its president and founder, a Manhattan shipbuilding heir named Henry Bergh, spent its early weeks focusing on domestic species — above all, horses, the rough treatment of which in 19th-century streets was the main inspiration for his activism. But when he became aware of these suffering sea turtles for sale at Fulton Market, he decided to extend his campaign to a wildlife species that then barely rated more consideration than a cockroach, if not a cabbage.

Bergh made a case that the infliction of prolonged pain and distress upon sea turtles bound for the soup pot was illegal as well as immoral. As with other “mute servants of mankind” providing labor, locomotion, meat or milk to human beings, the turtle was entitled to be treated with compassion. But when Bergh hauled the ship’s captain in front of a judge, the defense argued (successfully!) that turtles were not even “animals,” but rather a form of fish, and thereby did not qualify under the new animal-cruelty law that Bergh succeeded in passing earlier that year.

A photo illustration of a rat smiling.

Still, the case became a media sensation — and signaled to New Yorkers that Bergh’s campaign on behalf of animals was going to force them to account for the suffering of all animals, not just the ones they already chose to care about.

It’s perhaps no accident that Bergh turned to activism after a failed career as a dramatist. There’s something irreducibly imaginative in considering questions of animal welfare, regardless of how much science we marshal to back up our conclusions. George Angell of Boston, his fellow titan of that founding generation of animal advocates, pirated a 13-year-old British novel called “Black Beauty” and turned it into one of the century’s best-selling books, touting it as “the ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of the Horse” — though its real innovation was its use of an animal as a first-person narrator, thrusting readers into a working horse’s perspective and forcing them to contemplate how the equines all around them might see the world differently.

But how far does imagination really get us? The philosopher Thomas Nagel famously explored this problem in an essay called “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” which took up that question only to dramatize the impossibility of answering it to anyone’s satisfaction. “It will not help,” he wrote, “to try to imagine that one has webbing on one’s arms, which enables one to fly around at dusk and dawn catching insects in one’s mouth; that one has very poor vision, and perceives the surrounding world by a system of reflected high-frequency sound signals; and that one spends the day hanging upside down by one’s feet in an attic. Insofar as I can imagine this (which is not very far), it tells me only what it would be like for me to behave as a bat behaves.”

In the case of chelonians like turtles — and their encarapaced brethren, the tortoises — we may know even less about how they experience the world than we do about bats. Take their vision, for example: Among those species that have been studied, scientists have found evidence of broad-spectrum color vision, sometimes including ultraviolet wavelengths invisible to the human eye. And while chelonians can see well beyond their pointed beaks, where edible vegetation or predators may await notice, their brains process these visual signals slowly — a quality of certain animal brains that might, some experts have theorized, result in a sped-up perception of time. (In chelonian eyes, do grasses wave frenetically in the breeze and clouds race across the sky?)

Next to vision, smell is probably the sense turtles and tortoises rely upon most. Their sensitive nasal epithelium, distributed between two chambers, can detect odors diffused in a warm desert breeze or dissolved in a cold ocean current. Chelonian ears are where you’d expect them to be, but buried beneath their scaled reptilian skin. They hear well at low frequencies, even if they don’t register the high notes of twittering birds, humming mosquitoes or the whistling wind. Some chelonians seem to have the power of magnetoreception, which means that somewhere in their anatomy — perhaps their eyes, or their nervous systems, or elsewhere — there are chemicals or structures that allow them to sense the earth’s geomagnetic field and navigate by it.

The chelonian sense of touch presents fewer mysteries. Specialized receptors in the skin and on the shell detect mechanical, temperature and pain stimuli and send messages to the nervous system — just as they do in humans and a wide variety of other species. Recognition of pain, in particular, is considered a primordial sense, essential to the survival of animals on every limb of the evolutionary tree. But even here, there are differences separating species: What does the nervous system do with signals from its nociceptors? Does the desert tortoise withdraw its foot from the scorpion’s tail only reflexively, or does it consciously register the pain of the sting? What suffering does a turtle endure when its shell is struck by the sharp edges of a boat propeller?

As Nagel argued, there is no way to meaningfully narrow the gulch in understanding that exists around “what it is like to be” such a creature. The strategy of animal-welfare science is to patiently use what we can observe about these other kinds of minds — what they choose to eat and to do, how they interact with their environments, how they respond to certain forms of treatment — looking for objective cues to show experts what imagination cannot.

Upstairs from the banquet hall, student competitors nervously milled around carpeted corridors. One by one they were called into conference rooms to face a judge, who sat at a table beside a digital chronograph. In one room, a neatly dressed young woman in owlish glasses took a breath as the display began counting up hundredths of seconds in bright red digits. Catherine LeBlond, a second-year student at Atlantic Veterinary College at Canada’s University of Prince Edward Island, began her presentation about the bison scenario.

She was allowed to refer only to a single 3-by-5 index card, which she had packed with information based on a “summary sheet” of takeaways that she and her teammates worked up together, with key phrases emphasized and sources cited, all of it broken down by category: social behavior (“Bison are a very social species with strong matriarchal divisions”), handling guidelines (“Prods should not be used to move bison unless safety is an issue”), facility design (“Ensure that there is a sufficient number of gates within facilities to slow the animals”), euthanasia (“The recommended euthanasia method of a bison is gunshot”) and more.

LeBlond began by declaring her choice: The wilder facility provided a more humane environment for its animals. She felt it was helping bison “live a more natural life”: The more spacious grounds would support wallowing behavior, she reasoned, and allow the animals to choose their social grouping, an important policy given bisons’ strong sense of social structure. She also praised the operation for enabling bison to avoid “aversive life events,” by using drones, rather than ranchers on horseback, to monitor the animals in the field, and also by slaughtering the animals on-site to avoid the distress they experience in transport. As she ran through her presentation, she took care to hit two important rhetorical notes that judges look for: “granting” some areas in which the other institution excelled and offering positive advice about how it might improve.

One way to think about her reasoning is through the lens of “the five freedoms,” a rubric that animal-welfare thinkers have long embraced to consider all the different obligations that humans have to the animals in their care. They are: 1. the freedom from hunger and thirst; 2. the freedom from discomfort; 3. the freedom from pain, injury or disease; 4. the freedom to express normal behavior; and 5. the freedom from fear and distress. In fact, it was arguably the articulation of these five freedoms — in the Brambell Report, a document put out by a British government committee in 1965 to assess the welfare conditions of the nation’s livestock — that inaugurated the whole field of animal-welfare science.

What made this list of “freedoms” so influential, in retrospect, was that it created a context for other, more targeted thinking about how a species might experience each freedom or its violation. What sort of environment will offer “freedom from discomfort” to a beef steer, on the one hand, and a freedom “to express normal behavior” on the other? Trying to answer such questions in a rigorous way involves considerations of veterinary medicine but also of evolutionary history, behavioral observation, physiology (scientists have begun using proxies like cortisol levels as an indication of animal stress), neuroscience and more.

In her bison presentation, by citing “a more natural life” and avoiding “aversive life events,” LeBlond was emphasizing Freedoms 4 and 5, the freedom to express normal behavior and the freedom from distress. In the scenario about tortoises, though, Freedoms 4 and 5 seemed to be at odds. When LeBlond addressed the judge for that category, she awarded the edge to the zoo — weighing its better health outcomes and stimulating enrichments over the more naturalistic setting at the museum. She zeroed in on the zoo’s visitor program, which gave the tortoises a novel method of choosing whether or not they wanted to interact with humans: Staff put out a transport crate, and over the course of 20 minutes, tortoises could decide to climb into the crate to be taken to the human guests, and later receive a special biscuit for their service.

And she linked this to a behavioral difference, illustrated by a set of charts comparing how readily each set of tortoises moved toward a “novel object” (like an enrichment toy) or a “novel person” in their midst. The numbers showed that the zoo’s tortoises were far more drawn to interactions with people. “This indicates that they have less fear of humans,” LeBlond pointed out, “which could be because they are given a choice about whether or not they get to participate in educational programs, and those that do are positively reinforced with high-value rewards.”

Most of the students followed a similar logic and chose the zoo. The judges, however, disagreed. As one of them explained later at the awards ceremony — at which LeBlond took second place among vet students — the facility may have seemed to be offering their tortoises a consensual choice, but it was more accurate to see it as heavy-handed operant conditioning, which lured them into submitting to human contact with the promise of a biscuit. In scenarios involving domestic animals, a documented comfort around humans is a sign of positive treatment, but when it comes to wild animals, the goal is the opposite: to acclimate them as little to human contact as possible. Another way of putting it is this: Biscuits might make a desert tortoise “happy,” insofar as we can even imagine what that means, but happiness isn’t ultimately what humane treatment is about.

Each year at the contest, competitors are asked to perform one “live” assessment: a situation with real animals in it. This time, the species of choice was the laboratory rat. We joined Kurt Vogel, head of the Animal Welfare Lab at University of Wisconsin-River Falls, on a tour of the scenario that he and a colleague, Brian Greco, had constructed in a warren of rooms a few buildings over from the competition site.

They had brought a great deal of brio to the task. In the first room, where several rats snoozed in containers, Vogel and Greco had left a panoply of welfare infractions for eagle-eyed students to find. One cage was missing a water bottle, while others housed only a single rat, a violation of best practices (rats prefer to be housed in groups). Feed bags sat on the floor with detritus all around, and a note in a lab journal indicated that pest rodents had been observed snacking on it.

In subsequent rooms, the horrors became more baroque. A euthanasia chamber had the wrong size lid on it, and a nearby journal described a rat escaping in the middle of its extermination. Paperwork in an office laid out the nature of the study being performed, which involved prolonged deprivation of food and water, forced swimming and exposure to wet bedding. Diagrams showed that the rats’ brains were being studied through physical implants, and students could see that the operating room was a nightmare, littered with unsterile implements and the researchers’ food trash (the remnants of Vogel’s bagel sandwich, deliberately left behind). None of the abuse was real — Vogel and Greco were even taking care to cycle the rats in and out of the fake scenario, in order to avoid undue stress from the parade of students who came through taking notes.

Happiness isn’t ultimately what humane treatment is about.

Rodents did not always play the role in labs that they do today. In the late 19th century, experiments were carried out on a whole host of species, including a high proportion of dogs — a fact that animal-welfare activists publicized to turn the “vivisection” debate into a political issue, to the point that even some prominent doctors became galvanized to restrict or ban the practice. In the 20th century, as research shifted to carefully bred rats and mice, optimized for predictability and uniformity, animal experimentation receded as an issue in the public discourse. Today animal-welfare advocates struggle to motivate their base on the matter of rodents: the Humane Society’s website illustrates its section on “Taking Suffering Out of Science” (which sits at the very end in its list of the group’s current “fights”) with a picture of a beagle in a cage, despite the fact that roughly 95 percent of all lab mammals are now rats or mice.

Lab rodents are maybe the most vivid example of a species whose suffering is hard to know how to weigh against the benefits it provides us. Studies using rat and mouse models have sought to answer basic scientific questions across diverse fields of inquiry: psychology, physiology, pathology, genetics. Look into any new advance in human health care, and you’re likely to find that it’s built on years of experimentation that consumed the lives of literally thousands of rodents. We may now be on the cusp of innovations that could allow that toll to be radically reduced — by essentially replacing animal models with some combination of virtual simulations and lab-grown tissue and organs — but it’s hard to imagine a world anytime soon where human patients would be subject to therapies that have never been tested on hundreds of animals. No one even reliably counts how many rodents are killed in U.S. labs every year, but the estimates range from 10 million up to more than 100 million.

This question of scale especially haunts the problem of livestock, which is an area where many of the contest’s student competitors will eventually find jobs. America is currently home to roughly 87 million cattle and 75 million pigs: populations that exceed those of dogs and cats in scale, but the welfare of which commands so much less of our moral attention.

When the practice of centralized, industrialized livestock management began in earnest after the Civil War, the treatment of the animals, especially during slaughter, could be barbaric. Pigs were simply hoisted up and their throats cut, and after some point were assumed to be dead enough to dump into boiling water so that the sharp bristles on their skin could be scraped away. There was little doubt that some of them were still conscious at the point that they were plunged into the water, as was reported in a broad exposé in 1880 by The Chicago Tribune: “Not infrequently,” the reporter noted, “a hog reaches the scalding-tub before life is extinct; in fact, they sometimes are very full of life when they reach the point whence they are dumped into the seething tub.”

After 1906, when Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” exposed the industry’s unsanitary practices, a series of reforms did lead to significant improvements in the lives and deaths of American livestock. Thanks to the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, federal law now requires that animals be “rendered insensible to pain” before the act of killing; with pigs, this is generally done either with electrocution or by suffocation in a carbon-dioxide chamber, while with cattle, the method of choice is the captive-bolt gun. And since the 1970s, animal-welfare science has led to some considerable reforms. Perhaps the most transformational work has been done by Temple Grandin, the animal behaviorist whose research into how food animals experience and respond to their environment — particularly during transport and slaughter — has changed the way that meat and dairy producers operate.

Still, despite years of promises to end the practice, many sows are still kept almost permanently in 7-feet-by-2-feet “gestation crates,” too small to turn around in. And the rise of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has doomed millions of pigs, cattle and chickens to lives spent cheek to jowl in the stench of their own waste — waste that also threatens the health of nearby communities and ecosystems.

At the contest, many attendees were excited about the gains that artificial intelligence could bring to the animal-welfare field. Pilot studies have indeed shown great promise: For example, with A.I. assistance, 24-hour video surveillance can help pinpoint sick or injured animals much more quickly so they can be pulled out for veterinary care. Last year, a group of European researchers announced that based on 7,000 recordings of more than 400 pigs, they had made significant progress in understanding the meaning of their grunts. “By training an algorithm to recognize these sounds, we can classify 92 percent of the calls to the correct emotion,” one of the scientists remarked.

That well may be, but given what we know about pigs — specifically, their remarkable intelligence, which rivals (if not exceeds) that of a dog, to the point that a group of scientists recently trained some to play video games — there is no amount of A.I.-driven progress that can reconcile their short, crowded life as an American industrial food animal with any definition of what a “good” life looks like for such brainy creatures, all 75 million of them.

The laying hen, among the four species considered at the contest, is the one that lives among us in the largest numbers: There are an estimated 308 million of them in the United States alone, or nine for every 10 Americans. In a backyard flock, these hens could be expected to live six to eight years, but a vast majority of them toil in industrial operations that will slaughter them after only two to three years, once their productivity (six eggs a week) declines — and chickens, notably, are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. Poor air quality, soiled litter, nutritional stress and conflict with other chickens can contribute to dietary deficiencies, infectious diseases, egg-laying complications, self-mutilation, even cannibalism. And even in the best laying-hen operations, including the “cage-free” ones imagined in the contest scenario, these are short lives spent under 16 hours a day of artificial lighting in extremely close quarters with other birds.

More than in the other scenarios, the organizers had made the laying-hen choice a straightforward one. The corporate farm offered fewer amenities for the birds, which were also observed rarely to use the dirt-floored, plastic-covered “veranda” that was supposed to serve as a respite from their long hours laying in the aviary. The more commodious verandas of the family farm, covered with synthetic grass, proved more popular with their chickens, and in warm weather, its birds made use of a screened “garden” as well.

In her presentation, Catherine LeBlond correctly picked the family farm, for many of the same reasons that the judges did. Again, she “granted” some positive qualities of the corporate farm and offered it some advice — reflecting, after all, the values of the veterinary profession that she was training to enter, a field that takes on the advising of everyone who has animals in their care, not only the most conscientious.

Even so, at the very end, LeBlond briefly stepped back to ask a true ethical question, one that troubled the entire premise of a multibillion-dollar global industry: “whether or not it is ethical to keep these hens for the sole purpose of egg-laying, only to have them slaughtered at the end.” Among the scores of students we watched over the course of a weekend, LeBlond and her teammates from the Atlantic Veterinary College were the only ones who, in the final seconds of their talks, raised deep questions about the scenario’s entire premise — about whether, in the end, these fictional animals should have been put in these fictional situations in the first place.

It was a question that the judges of the Animal Welfare Assessment Contest had no doubt considered, but it also was one that seemed to lie outside the contest’s purview: In its either-or structure, the contest is helping train future professionals how to improve, rather than remove, the ties that bind animals into human society. Unless the day arrives when there is no need for laboratory rats, or poultry barns, or facilities to house desert tortoises and other captive wildlife, the animals of North America will be in the hands of veterinarians and animal scientists like LeBlond and her classmates, to help shape their situations the very best way they can.

Parts of this article are adapted from “Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals,” by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, published this month by Knopf.

Read by Gabra Zackman

Narration produced by Krish Seenivasan and Emma Kehlbeck

Engineered by Lance Neal

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Animal Stories Essay

Animal Stories by Jason Brown

France is a librarian and teaches history and interdisciplinary studies at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. In the following essay, France discusses the theme of toxicity in Brown's story.

Most of the characters in "Animal Stories" are physically and emotionally damaged. Jamie, the narrator, provides glimpses and examples of environmental poisoning and self-destructive human behavior. By contrasting these with anecdotes and observations about nonhuman animal behavior, he underscores the unique capacity of humans to realize that they are going to die, which makes people more aware of loss and therefore more likely to feel great sadness. Except when faced with environmental poisons inflicted on them by humans, the survival instincts of many animals give them more adaptability and resilience than most of the people introduced in the story. The changes in Jamie's mother, suffering for years from an undetected brain tumor that severely deranges...

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