HumAnimal ProjectC Lit 35: Humanimality

By: Belarmino GarciaSeptember 13, 2013

1st Step: Focus of Project

• Study the Reactions of several animals to human presence.

• Animals will come from a wild, semi-domesticated and fully domesticated background.

• Patterns were analyzed to deduce ideas that underline human animal hierarchies and

the challenges to them.

Wild Animals:

• Little newt;– The newt was minding his own business soaking

up some sun till he saw me stroll up. Soon enough he stopped moving and projected himself into the water.

• The newts reaction to my approach supports the human over animal hierarchy.

• I jumped in after him to show him I meant no harm.

Mr. Newt

Wild Animal

• Water Snake:– Coming up to a water hole, a snake was peaking

out from underneath a rock. The snaked noticed us before we noticed him.

• Just like the newt, the snake retreated back into the water pool. Once again supporting the human hierarchy.

• I, again, jumped in to show the snake I meant no harm.

Mr. Water Snake

Semi- Domesticated

• UCSB Raccoons:– One warm morning going to class I ran across a group of

raccoons. What seemed like a mother leading her litter of babies across Girvetz Quad.

– The mother raccoon guided her kids to a safe patch of bushes were I was able to look at them.

– The mother was calm and collective, peaking out like a meerkat. Any sudden movements and I was afraid she would have attacked me.

– The babies had no idea of the damager and kept snooping around with no aware of my company.

Raccoons continued…

• The mother raccoon has been in the presence of humans before, realizing I posed no direct threat at first sight.

• The mother stood her ground, unlike the wild animals. Challenging the human animal Hierarchy.

• The younglings did not mind my presence one bit. • I did not try to catch one in the fear of being

attacked…

Momma Coon and Her Kids

Fully Domesticated

• Pit-bull Puppy named Todd– I had the responsibility of taking care of this 3 month

old puppy.– I took him out for a run and to my astonishment, he

showed a lot of personality. – He would completely lay down when he did not

want to run. He would bite my shoe to make me stop. Then he would go for my ankles if biting my shoe was not enough. I gave him the name creature after his vicious methods of gaining attention.

Creature Continued

• The chores that came along with creature were some similar to taking care of a baby human.– Pick his poop up, make sure he is fed 2-3 times a

day and he made sure to always have someone pay attention to him.

• It felt as if the hierarchy was reversed. Creature proved to be my master than the other way around.

Meet Creature

Analysis.

• The concept of the human and animal hierarchy proved to be minimal when it came to animals that were used to human contact.

• The wild animals ran away, while domesticated animals did not fear my presence.

• Even though domesticated animals are meant for human use, they seem to have as much power over humans and humans do over them.

Analysis Continued..

• Not to mention the way domesticated animals are treated, it beg the question if humans are domesticated themselves.

• Humans are fed, cleaned after and exercised by work for a larger system, employing yet another hierarchy.

• Now how do you feel about being a merely used animal in the bigger system of things..?

Analysis Continued…

• So before ignoring the next animal you may come across, you might want to ask how different are you two in the grand scheme of things.

• Even though they might look difference, and seem unaware, they are placed in a hierarchy just as we are.

Last Thought

• Like Cary Wolfe said, “ What’s beautiful and worthy of respect is that animals are not like us. There are different ways from being in this world that, just like us being in this world deserve to be protected from exploitation, protected from cruelty and allowed to flourish.”

• Produced by: Belarmino Garcia Jr.

• Music: “How to Save a Life”- The Fray

• Title image: https://www.avma.org

• All other Images by Belarmino Garcia

• Special Thanks to C Lit 35 class of S 13 and instructor Shari Sanders

• No animals were harmed in the production of this presentation.