Where does the animal magic go?

I recently blogged about Cow Adverts Getting my Goat, irritated by cows in food hygiene hats and 'Cow Baywatch' beach scenes in TV adverts, and yet I was positively enthralled by the sight of pigs synchronise swimming and an adorable-looking baby elephant hiding pens up its trunk in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Why should the two be any different? As usual, our complicated relationship with other animals gets in the way of seeing in black and white - we're drowning in grey areas. I haven't seen the first Nanny McPhee film, but the second certainly portrays animals with reverence - they're part of the family and undoubtedly part of the action as two groups of bickering children come together to save the family farm. Most of the scenes are computer-generated, based on real animal 'actors', and the imagination of the writer and star of the film, Emma Thompson, brings their characters to life with a magical quality that has you laughing, giggling and cooing over them. I started to wonder at which point the magic of the animal kingdom gets lost. In kids' entertainment we tell happy stories about animals; we get to know their characters, respect their sameness and their difference, enjoying every element of the life we share with them on Earth - in essence, they're our kin. As we get older, we see animals used in advertising to help the sale of products. Only this week the Evening Standard published a feature called Animal attraction: the creatures that feature in glossy ads, commenting on a "new advertising trend" where animals are a big hit with helping to build brands - for example, Churchill the dog from the Churchill insurance ads: “The British public have a fondness for pets and, for a low-interest category such as insurance, the dog gets the brand noticed. He's a lovable, dependable character who gives it a warm, human voice." Past these fictitious stories comes the reality of factory farming. The animals we loved as children and wanted to protect are now slaughtered and butchered, without identity. I'm not against eating meat per se, as I continually have to justify to carnists, but I am against manufacturing living creatures for our own greed - both consumerist and monetary greed. I can't work out how we got here... I'm sure such light childrens' entertainment can't be seen as a bad thing; I'm sure too that owning pets can't ultimately be the start of it. So, when do we lose our love?

Polar bears gathering dust

I'm about to start an MA in Anthrozoology, so I've been reflecting on some of the artists in the human-animal realm I learned of during my Wildlife & Environmental Photography degree. Snaebjornsdottir & Wilson just cannot go without a mention. Their Nanoq project is particularly impressive: a large record of taxidermied polar bears, originally collected for museums and such like, that the duo traced over the course of two years. I was lucky enough to receive a lecture by Mark Wilson at college last year and his professionalism, interest and avant-garde attitude to creative research projects provided significant backbone to this project, I'm sure. The image above is one of the most significant, in my view. This polar bear was once a trophy; conquered by man - killed and stuffed for display in the midst of human wonderment and marvel at this magnificent one-wild creature. Now, it sits dead and dormant in a back room; the irony of the 'danger' sign behind it. 'Void' seems much more apt. So, what was it all for? Now the polar bear has been seen and not spared? This sad image represents our human whims and desires; the killing of wild animals for our own aspirations and interests that eventually fade and move on to other things. Snaebjornsdottir & Wilson really have managed to successfully pull together a quite overwhelming exhibition that demonstrates the enormous complexities of our historical, tangled relationships with other animals.