In our increasingly interconnected and wired world, some of the biggest global stars
have been nonhuman animals. On blogs, on Facebook and all around the Internet,
claws and clicks go hand in hand or paw in paw, with the furry claiming cyberspace.
In 2014, one of the most emailed stories on The New York Times ’s website was
about the biology of cats . 1 According to media reports, there has been a sharp rise
in the proportion of American dog and cat owners with provisions in their wills for
their pets , with nearly one in every ten now making such arrangements. 2 One of the
most fervently embraced documentaries of 2013 was Blackfi sh , shown over and
over on CNN. And these are not just “feel good” stories about cute and cuddly animals.
They are about animal suffering , animal science , animal intelligence and cognition
, animal behaviour and social life, animal welfare and law, and above all,
animal dignity , rights and justice. For instance, in a New York Times’s op-ed piece,
the commentator writes about “according animals dignity”. 3 These topics are not
academic jargon but increasingly entering the popular cyber parlance.