Trash Animals

Author: Kelsi Nagy
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816686742
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Book Description
Why are some species admired or beloved while others are despised? An eagle or hawk circling overhead inspires awe while urban pigeons shuffling underfoot are kicked away in revulsion. Fly fishermen consider carp an unwelcome trash fish, even though the trout they hope to catch are often equally non-native. Wolves and coyotes are feared and hunted in numbers wildly disproportionate to the dangers they pose to humans and livestock. In Trash Animals, a diverse group of environmental writers explores the natural history of wildlife species deemed filthy, unwanted, invasive, or worthless, highlighting the vexed relationship humans have with such creatures. Each essay focuses on a so-called trash species—gulls, coyotes, carp, cockroaches, magpies, prairie dogs, and lubber grasshoppers, among others—examining the biology and behavior of each in contrast to the assumptions widely held about them. Identifying such animals as trash tells us nothing about problematic wildlife but rather reveals more about human expectations of, and frustrations with, the natural world. By establishing the unique place that maligned species occupy in the contemporary landscape and in our imagination, the contributors challenge us to look closely at these animals, to reimagine our ethics of engagement with such wildlife, and to question the violence with which we treat them. Perhaps our attitudes reveal more about humans than they do about the animals. Contributors: Bruce Barcott; Charles Bergman, Pacific Lutheran U; James E. Bishop, Young Harris College; Andrew D. Blechman; Michael P. Branch, U of Nevada, Reno; Lisa Couturier; Carolyn Kraus, U of Michigan–Dearborn; Jeffrey A. Lockwood, U of Wyoming; Kyhl Lyndgaard, Marlboro College; Charles Mitchell, Elmira College; Kathleen D. Moore, Oregon State U; Catherine Puckett; Bernard Quetchenbach, Montana State U, Billings; Christina Robertson, U of Nevada, Reno; Gavan P. L. Watson, U of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Garbage and Trash

Author: Holly Duhig
Publisher: Millbrook Press
ISBN: 1541591828
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 24

Book Description
Have you ever seen an animal digging through your trash? Some animals really do eat garbage! Full-color photography and funny facts will engage young readers in learning about the biological processes of living things and some of the unusual diets that are found in the animal kingdom.

Barf and Poop

Author: Holly Duhig
Publisher: Lerner Publications (Tm)
ISBN: 1541587022
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Book Description
"Do animals really eat barf and poop? They sure do! Full-color photography and funny facts will engage young readers in learning about the biological processes of living things"--

The Humane Gardener

Author: Nancy Lawson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616896175
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Trash Fish

Author: Greg Keeler
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1582439192
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 197

Book Description
Trash Fish is the story of a boy who gives himself over to his obsession with fish as an escape from the trials of growing up. Time and again, as his life unfolds to reveal his failings and foibles to those around him, he returns to the fish, which cast him a lifeline of their own. Laugh–out–loud funny yet sardonically raw to the bone, Keeler tells a whole whirlpool of a story—the women, the Peace Corps, the teaching jobs, the marriage and children, and, of course, the rod and reel. Eventually, however, his serene fishing life becomes contaminated with real–world influences: a polite society of angling purists insists that he choose between flies and bait, while his alter ego (and nemesis) begins to use fishing as an excuse to cheat on his wife. Ultimately, Keeler's fisherman must acknowledge that he can't escape down the river bend, and that in order to experience true love, he must accept the complexities within himself and within the people on land around him.

Animal Facts to Make You Smile!

Author: Grace Hansen
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1496613163
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 25

Book Description
These animal facts are sure to make just about everyone smile and sometimes go "awwwe!" Little readers will learn a cute or funny fact about some of their favorite animals. A colorful, full-bleed photograph will accompany each fact and will certainly attract reluctant readers too. Complete with a table of contents, glossary, index, and even more facts!

Saving Animals

Author: Elan Abrell
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452961921
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
A fascinating and unprecedented ethnography of animal sanctuaries in the United States In the past three decades, animal rights advocates have established everything from elephant sanctuaries in Africa to shelters that rehabilitate animals used in medical testing, to homes for farmed animals, abandoned pets, and entertainment animals that have outlived their “usefulness.” Saving Animals is the first major ethnography to focus on the ethical issues animating the establishment of such places, where animals who have been mistreated or destined for slaughter are allowed to live out their lives simply being animals. Based on fieldwork at animal rescue facilities across the United States, Elan Abrell asks what “saving,” “caring for,” and “sanctuary” actually mean. He considers sanctuaries as laboratories where caregivers conceive and implement new models of caring for and relating to animals. He explores the ethical decision making around sanctuary efforts to unmake property-based human–animal relations by creating spaces in which humans interact with animals as autonomous subjects. Saving Animals illustrates how caregivers and animals respond by cocreating new human–animal ecologies adapted to the material and social conditions of the Anthropocene. Bridging anthropology with animal studies and political philosophy, Saving Animals asks us to imagine less harmful modes of existence in a troubled world where both animals and humans seek sanctuary.

We the Animals

Author: Justin Torres
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547577001
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Book Description
The critically acclaimed debut from the National Book Award–winning author of Blackouts. In this award-winning, groundbreaking novel, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become. “A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it.” —The Washington Post Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. “We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.” —Michael Cunningham “A fiery ode to boyhood. . . A welterweight champ of a book.” —NPR, Weekend Edition NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans

Author: Jakob von Uexküll
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9781452903798
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
“Is the tick a machine or a machine operator? Is it a mere object or a subject?” With these questions, the pioneering biophilosopher Jakob von Uexküll embarks on a remarkable exploration of the unique social and physical environments that individual animal species, as well as individuals within species, build and inhabit. This concept of the umwelt has become enormously important within posthumanist philosophy, influencing such figures as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze and Guattari, and, most recently, Giorgio Agamben, who has called Uexküll “a high point of modern antihumanism.” A key document in the genealogy of posthumanist thought, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans advances Uexküll’s revolutionary belief that nonhuman perceptions must be accounted for in any biology worth its name; it also contains his arguments against natural selection as an adequate explanation for the present orientation of a species’ morphology and behavior. A Theory of Meaning extends his thinking on the umwelt, while also identifying an overarching and perceptible unity in nature. Those coming to Uexküll’s work for the first time will find that his concept of the umwelt holds new possibilities for the terms of animality, life, and the framework of biopolitics.

Trash Revolution

Author: Erica Fyvie
Publisher: Kids Can Press Ltd
ISBN: 1525301144
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description
Think you know all about how your stuff impacts the environment? Think again! Where did all our “stuff” come from? And where does it go when we’re done with it? Kids find out by tracking the life cycles of typical items in a school backpack — water, food, clothing, paper, plastic, metals and electronics. Though they all end as waste, there are lots of decisions to be made along the way. And kids will see that there’s an important, constructive role they can play by making choices that are good for them — and for the planet! A cotton T-shirt. A plastic water bottle. A cell phone. Kids will never look at their stuff the same way again!