Human uses of animals

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Still Life with Lobster and Oysters by Alexander Coosemans
, c. 1660
Practical use: cattle carcass in a slaughterhouse

Human uses of animals include both practical uses, such as the production of food and clothing, and symbolic uses, such as in art, literature, mythology, and religion. All of these are elements of

birds
.

Economically, animals provide

drug testing
.

Many species are kept as

mammals, especially dogs and cats. These are often anthropomorphised
.

Animals such as horses and deer are among the earliest subjects of art, being found in the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings such as at Lascaux. Major artists such as Albrecht Dürer, George Stubbs and Edwin Landseer are known for their portraits of animals. Animals further play a wide variety of roles in literature, film, mythology, and religion.

Context

mythology, philosophy, literature, and science.[1]
totemism and animism. More recently, anthropologists have also seen other animals as participants in human social interactions.[2]
This article describes the roles played by other animals in human culture, so defined, both practical and symbolic.[3][4][5]

Practical uses

Further information: Cruelty to animals

As food

Traditional fishing trawler filled with sardines, India
Main articles: Animal husbandry, Fishing, and Hunting

The human population exploits a large number of non-human animal species for food, both of

domesticated livestock species in animal husbandry and, mainly at sea, by hunting wild species.[6][7]

Marine fish of many species, such as herring, cod, tuna, mackerel and anchovy, are caught and killed commercially, and can form an important part of the human diet, including protein and fatty acids. Commercial fish farms concentrate on a smaller number of species, including salmon and carp.[6][8][9]

Invertebrates including

gastropod molluscs such as clams, oysters, cockles, and whelks are all hunted or farmed for food.[10]

Non-human mammals form a large part of the

domestic pigs,[7][11] and (1985) over 700 million rabbits.[12]

For clothing and textiles

sinews as lashings and bindings. Leather from cattle, pigs and other species is widely used to make shoes, handbags, belts and many other items. Other animals have been hunted and farmed for their fur, to make items such as coats and hats, again ranging from simply warm and practical to the most elegant and expensive.[13][14] Snakes and other reptiles are traded in the tens of thousands each year to meet the demand for exotic leather; some of this trade is legal and sustainable, some of it is illegal and unsustainable, but for many species insufficient data is available to make a determination either way.[15]

Dyestuffs including

classical times, Tyrian purple was taken from sea snails such as Stramonita haemastoma (Muricidae) for the clothing of royalty, as recorded by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder.[24]

For work and transport

Horses pulling wagons in Tibet
Main articles: Working animal and Pack animal

Working domestic animals including cattle, horses, yaks, camels, and elephants have been used for work and transport from the origins of agriculture, their numbers declining with the arrival of mechanized transport and agricultural machinery. In 2004 they still provided some 80% of the power for the mainly small farms in the third world, and some 20% of the world's transport, again mainly in rural areas. In mountainous regions unsuitable for wheeled vehicles, pack animals continue to transport goods.[25]

Police, military and immigration/customs personnel exploit dogs and horses to perform a variety of tasks, which cannot be done by humans. In some cases, smart rats have been used.[26]

In science

Laboratory mice being prepared for a radiation test at Los Alamos
in 1957
Main articles:
Animal model

Animals such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the zebrafish, the chicken and the house mouse, serve a major role in science as experimental models,[27] being exploited both in fundamental biological research, such as in genetics,[28] and in the development of new medicines, which must be tested exhaustively to demonstrate their safety.[29][30] Millions of non-human mammals, especially mice and rats, are used in experiments each year.[31]

A knockout mouse is a genetically modified mouse with an inactivated gene, replaced or disrupted with an artificial piece of DNA. They enable the study of sequenced genes whose functions are unknown.[32][33]

In medicine

Yondelis
.
Further information: Vaccine

Vaccines have been made using other animals since their discovery by Edward Jenner in the 18th century. He noted that inoculation with live cowpox afforded protection against the more dangerous smallpox. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur developed an attenuated (weakened) vaccine for rabies. In the 20th century, vaccines for the viral diseases mumps and polio were developed using animal cells grown in vitro.[34]

An increasing variety of drugs are based on

Prialt in pain relief.[35]

Different non-human animals unwillingly help humans with creating medicine that can treat certain human diseases. For example, the anticoagulant properties of snake venom are key to potential medical use. These toxins can be used to treat heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and many other diseases, all of which may originate from blood clots.[1]

In hunting

Non-human animals, and products made from them, are used to assist in hunting. Humans have used hunting dogs to help chase down animals such as deer, wolves, and foxes;[36] birds of prey from eagles to small falcons are used in falconry, hunting birds or mammals;[37] and tethered cormorants have been used to catch fish.[38]

blowpipe darts.[39][40]

As pets

Main article: Pet
A pet dog

A wide variety of animals are used as

praying mantises,[41] reptiles such as snakes and chameleons,[42] and birds including canaries, parakeets and parrots.[43] However, non-human mammals are the most popular pets in the Western world, with the most utilized species being dogs, cats, and rabbits. For example, in America in 2012 there were some 78 million dogs, 86 million cats, and 3.5 million rabbits.[44][45][46] Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human traits to non-human animals, is an important aspect of the way that humans relate to other animals such as pets.[47][48][49] There is a tension between the role of other animals as companions to humans, and their existence as individuals with rights of their own; ignoring those rights is a form of speciesism.[50]

For sport

Recreational fishing
Main article: Animals in sport

A wide variety of both terrestrial and aquatic non-human animals are hunted for sport.[51]

The aquatic animals most often hunted for sport are fish, including many species from large marine predators such as sharks and tuna, to freshwater fish such as trout and carp.[52][53]

Birds such as partridges, pheasants and ducks, and mammals such as deer and wild boar, are among the terrestrial game animals most often hunted for sport and for food.[54][55][56]

Symbolic uses

In art

Further information:
Fish in art, and Insects in art

Non-human animals, often mammals but including fish and insects among other groups, have been the subjects of art from the earliest times, both historical, as in Ancient Egypt, and prehistoric, as in the cave paintings at Lascaux and other sites in the Dordogne, France and elsewhere. Famous images of other animals include Albrecht Dürer's 1515 woodcut The Rhinoceros, and George Stubbs's c. 1762 horse portrait Whistlejacket.[57]

In literature and film

Further information:
Birds in film
Poster for The Deadly Mantis, 1957

Animals as varied as bees, beetles,

Tale of Peter Rabbit.[58]

A genre of films,

special effects.[59][63]

Birds have occasionally featured in film, as in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 The Birds, loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's story of the same name, which tells the tale of sudden attacks on humans by violent flocks of birds.[64] Ken Loach's admired[65] 1969 Kes, based on Barry Hines's 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave, tells a story of a boy coming of age by training a kestrel.[65]

In video games

Further information: Animals in video games

Animals feature in many different roles in

video games, ranging from background NPCs and basic enemies to the protagonist of a game, as in the 2022 game Stray. Animals are considered crucial[by whom?] to creating a believable video game setting.[66] Virtual pet video games, such as the Nintendogs series and the mobile game Neko Atsume, are a popular type of game where you care for a fictional pet, usually a dog or cat.[67] In 2019, a Twitter account named Can You Pet the Dog? was created to document whether the dog and cat NPCs in a game can be petted.[68]

In mythology and religion

Further information: Animal worship, Insects in mythology, and Animals in Islam
Zapotec bat god, Oaxaca, 350–500 CE

Animals including many insects[69] and non-human mammals[70] feature in mythology and religion.

Among the insects, in both Japan and Europe, as far back as ancient Greece and Rome, a

San tradition for their praying posture.[74]

Among the mammals, cattle,[75] deer,[70] horses,[76] lions,[77] bats[78][79][80][81][82] bears,[83] and wolves (including werewolves),[84] are the subjects of myths and worship. Reptiles too, such as the crocodile, have been worshipped as gods in cultures including ancient Egypt[85] and Hinduism.[86][87]

Of the twelve

signs of the Western zodiac, six, namely Aries (ram), Taurus (bull), Cancer (crab), Leo (lion), Scorpio (scorpion) and Pisces (fish) are animals, while two others, Sagittarius (horse/human) and Capricorn (fish/goat) are hybrid animals; the name zodiac indeed means a circle of animals. All twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac are animals.[88][89][90]

In Christianity the Bible has a variety of animal symbols, the Lamb is a famous title of Jesus. In the New Testament the Gospels Mark, Luke and John have animal symbols: "Mark is a lion, Luke is a bull and John is an eagle".[91]

See also

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