Search
Loading
May 10th, 2018
In order to celebrate National Pet Week we reached out to the editors of our book series, New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond, to ask them a few short questions about the series and their own pets. Both series editors are at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University. Alan Beck, ScD is director of the Center of the Human-Animal Bond and the Dorothy N. McAllister Professor of Animal Ecology; and Marguerite (Maggie) E. O’Haire, PhD is an assistant professor of human-animal interaction in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology.
O’Haire: I have 2 dogs – Milo and Chloe. My dogs are both rescues. We recently did the dog DNA testing and Milo is a Beagle/Jack Russel Terrier mix and Chloe is an American Foxhound. Milo is almost 4 years old and Chloe is almost 14 years old.
Beck: I now have two dogs, Lili (brown & white) and Luci (black & white); both rescue mutts. Two photos of Lili at two different ages.
O’Haire: I have always been fascinated by how and why people interact with animals. I am motivated to bring strong science to an area that has often been underappreciated by the scientific community.
Beck: Growing up in crowded Brooklyn, we had no pets, indeed very few people did. I would walk to the dumps to watch birds and rats. As a graduate student I studied the stray dogs of Baltimore and became fascinated with how people interacted with pets; the interactions changed the behavior and even the health of both the people and pets. I changed my focus of study and soon after moving to Indiana, I joined the ranks of dog owner.
O’Haire: The New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond series is a great venue to translate human-animal bond science into everyday language to reach a broader audience. We love receiving new submissions and look forward to continuing to help bright and innovative scholars share their work through the Purdue University Press.
Beck: The New Directions series begins to capture the many aspects of our relationship with animals, not always what you would like, but all part of the mutual world shared by people and their animals. Of great value, the series allows insights to major facets not always studied but still very important.
The New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond series is published by Purdue University Press in collaboration with Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. It expands our knowledge of the interrelationships between people, animals, and their environment. Manuscripts are welcomed on all aspects of human-animal interaction and welfare, including therapy applications, public policy, and the application of humane ethics in managing our living resources.
The staff at the Purdue University Press loves our pets, too! Check out some pictures that we featured last month on National Pet Day!
Filed under: general