Anthrozoology

Growth of the field

There are currently 23 college programs in HAS or a related field in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands, as well as an additional eight veterinary school programs in North America, and over thirty HAS organizations in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In the UK, the University of Exeter runs an MA in Anthrozoology which explores human–animal interactions from anthropological (cross-cultural) perspectives. Human animal interactions (HAI) involving companion animals are also studied by the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, which partners with the US National Institutes of Health to research HAI in relation to child development and aging.

The field has also expanded beyond Western academic institutions. In Iran, a body of phenomenological research on human-animal relationships has emerged, critically examining traditional practices involving animals. Sociologist Hossein Solati and his colleagues have published a series of studies applying ethical phenomenology and human-animal studies frameworks to analyze the Varzajang (bullfighting) tradition in Gilan province. Their 2024 study directly addresses animal abuse and applies the concept of "phantom pain" (drawing on Blumenberg) to understand the persistence of animal suffering within cultural traditions. A 2023 study in bioethics by Solati and Taghavian advocates for the recognition of animal subjectivity and rights as a philosophical counterweight to traditional justifications for animal suffering, contributing to the broader international discourse on animal ethics. A further phenomenological study examined the evolution of human-animal relations across generations within the same cultural practice. These works represent the first systematic integration of human-animal studies frameworks within Iranian sociology.

There are now three primary lists for HAS scholars and students—H-Animal, the Human-Animal Studies listserv, and NILAS, as well as the Critical Animal Studies list.

There are now over a dozen journals covering HAS issues, many of them founded in the last decade, and hundreds of HAS books, most of them published in the last decade (see, for example, Humanimalia). Brill, Berg, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Columbia, Reaktion, Palgrave-Macmillan, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, and Oxford all offer either a HAS series or a large number of HAS books.

In addition, in 2006, Animals & Society Institute (ASI) began hosting the Human-Animal Studies Fellowship, a six-week program in which pre- and post-doctoral scholars work on a HAS research project at a university under the guidance of host scholars and distance peer scholars. Beginning in 2011, ASI has partnered with Wesleyan Animal Studies, which will be hosting the fellowship in conjunction with ASI. There are also a handful of HAS conferences each year, including those organized by ISAZ and NILAS, as well as the Minding Animals conference, held in 2009 in Australia. Finally, more HAS courses are being taught now than ever before. The ASI website lists over 300 courses (primarily in North America, but also including Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Poland) in 29 disciplines at over 200 colleges and universities, not including over 100 law school courses.

Romania has also seen the development of Human–Animal Interaction (HAI) initiatives within higher education and community engagement. In 2013, a service-learning outreach program titled Day of Human–Animal Interaction (Romanian: Ziua Interacțiunii Om–Animal, ZIOA) was initiated at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca by biologist and psychologist Alina S. Rusu. Originally developed as an extension of the undergraduate course Animal Psychology, the program aimed to promote responsible human–animal relationships and civic engagement among students while connecting academic institutions with local organizations involved in animal rescue, social veterinary medicine, and biodiversity conservation. The initiative later developed into a broader public outreach event organized in collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Cluj-Napoca and several non-governmental organizations, and has been cited as an example of service-learning practice in animal-related professions and anthrozoology. These initiatives contributed to the establishment in 2021 of the interdisciplinary master's program Ethology and Human–Animal Interaction, the first degree program in Romania dedicated to the field.

Famous anthrozoologists

• Pauleen Bennett
• Desmond Morris
• James Serpell
• See list of conservationists