Abstract
Different ideas exist on how human beings relate to non-human animals, and on how we make room for other creatures in ‘our’ world. In view of the frequent disparity that exist between people’s attitudes to animal welfare and their actual pattern of behaviour, it is of particular interest in the present thesis to explore the relationships and the attitudes to animals that are being shaped throughout the education of veterinary students at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH). Veterinary students are likely to have a loving relationship to (some?) animals prior to their education, however, a challenge of values may occur when faced with some of the requirements of the veterinary education of conducting experiments on animals.
The thesis elucidates how meanings, values, and identities are unfixed and, if they change, the students and the surrounding world also change – making available other possibilities for thinking and acting. The act of experimentation in itself can become ‘easier’ over time in the sense that the students get used to conducting experiments and because they learn how to manage the emotional strains of using animals in this mode of action. However, the change in attitudes and construction of identity is more connected to a change of ideas and assumptions related to what experimentation is, and when and why it can be an indispensable method of acquiring knowledge. What is behind this change in becoming ‘realistic’ (as many of the students called it) has been rooted in two different social practices and effects: animal experimentation and power relations (including discourses and knowledge production). The majority of the narratives given by the students reveal a sense of insecurity and indecisiveness regarding the use of animals in education – reflecting both the complexity of the issue, how values and ethics plays a part in the construction of attitudes and identities, and consequently that identity is always subject to negotiation.
It is not a thesis about animal rights and human wrongs, although the moral status of animals and the paradoxes involved within human society is important to question. The primary concern, however, is exploring the human-animal relationship from a perspective reflecting that identity construction is relational and that how humans relate to animals can be indicative of how we see ourselves.