Interspecies Etiquette: An Ethics of Paying Attention to Animals

Actually to respond to the cat's response to his presence would have required his joining that flawed but rich philosophical canon to the risky project of asking what this cat on this morning cared about, what these bodily postures and visual entanglements might mean and might invite, as well as reading what people who study cats have to say and delving into the developing knowledge of both cat-cat and cat-human behavioral semiotics when species meet.What, if any, is the ethical significance of paying attention to animals? Taking a cue from Donna Haraway's (2008) provocative new book, When Species Meet, it seems that there is enough significance to rouse a call for humans, particularly those who identify as ..