This week’s podcast reflects on changes in Americans perception of wild and domestic animals based on surveys done in 1978 vs. 2014. Here’s a Washington Post article and abstract of the original study.
The podcast doesn’t mention the downgrading of two species on the list–raccoons and swans. Many people who live in suburbia won’t have any trouble understanding the raccoon’s fall from grace. They spend a lot of time trying to outsmart the crafty animals trying to get into their garbage, bird-feeders, and anything else perceived as a potential food source by the masked raiders. Oh, and in some areas, they may carry rabies too.
Swans ran afoul of human symbolism, Disneyfication, and shortsightedness. All that initially all-positive human emotion associated with this exotic species led to the large birds’ proliferation which took its toll on their habitats and the native species that lived there. If this sequence sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The highly readable book, Trash Animals , describes other species that have gone and are going this route in response to changing human emotions. No doubt there will be more to follow.
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