Wild Animals and Leisure: Rights and Wellbeing

Wild animals form an integral component of the human leisure experience. They are a significant part of the leisure industry and are economically valuable entities. However, as sentient beings, animals also have rights and welfare needs, and, like humans, may also have their own leisure desires and requirements. This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the rights and welfare of humans and wild animals as the two relate to one another within the sphere of leisure studies. It examines a wide array of animals, such as wolves, elephants, dolphins and apes, in a diverse range of leisure settings in international locations, from captive wild animals in zoos, hunting, swimming with dolphins and animals used as educators and for tourist entertainment. This book provides a forum for future considerations of wild animals and leisure and a voice for animal welfarist agendas that seek to improve the conditions under which wild animals interact with and are engaged with by humans.

Neil Carr is at the University of Otago and is the Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. His research focuses on understanding behaviour within tourism and leisure experiences, with a particular emphasis on children and families, sex, and animals. He has authored and edited several books, including Dogs in the Leisure Experience (2014) and Domestic Animals and Leisure (2015).

Janette Young lectures in health policy, politics and promotion at the University of South Australia. Her research interests are centred on the human–animal intersection, salutogenesis or what creates health and wellbeing, social justice and public policy. She has a background as a social worker in ageing, and project and policy work across a diverse range of human interest areas. As a social work student many years ago, Janette learnt that seeking to holistically meet the needs of some people has to encompass caring about the animals people care about.