The sound environment of a zoo animal is a complex milieu of animal and human‐generated sounds; coming from the species itself, other species, visitors, keepers and other zoo‐users. Research determining how different components of the sound environment affect animal behaviour is surprisingly lacking but could have real‐world impacts for animal welfare and zoo enclosure design. The current study investigated the effects of the sound environment on two flocks of flamingos housed in open‐air enclosures at British zoos. Measures of how each flock used its enclosure (as a response variable) and environmental variables (Inband Power and Peak Frequency were recorded as characteristics of the sound environment, as well as temperature, humidity and cloud cover, and finally visitor presence—all as potential predictor variables) were made over a 2‐month period. Assessment of space use by zoo animals is often used as a measure of the appropriateness of an exhibit and to understand welfare. Given that flamingo activity is influenced by weather and that the sound environment of the zoo is likely to be influenced by the number and the presence of visitors, it was assumed that these predictor variables would influence where the flamingos were located at different times of the day. As expected, there was a complicated relationship between enclosure use and Inband Power (average spectral density, a measure of sound energy) in both flocks; visitors generated salient sound but other visitor characteristics such as their physical presence may have impacted the movement of the birds around their enclosures. Results show a complex picture where environmental conditions influence flamingo enclosure usage as well as visitor presence and sounds around/in the enclosure. Findings are not consistent between the two flocks, with one flock demonstrating distinct temporal change to enclosure zone occupancy and the other responsive to humidity and cloud cover variation. We believe enclosure use can provide a valuable indication of how birds react to their soundscape; however, our findings suggest more work is needed to unpick the components of captive sound environments, and their relative effects on how animals use their space.

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Th e lack of importance traditionally ascribed to human-nonhuman animal relationships in the social sciences has meant that while commercial sex in the human realm has been well documented, very few socio-cultural studies of commercial sex involving nonhuman animals have been undertaken to date. However, the growing recognition that nonhuman, as well as human, animals are "actors" means that their role in the sex trade, (commercial breeding) becomes problematic and eminently worthy of academic attention. Th is article considers a very particular instance of commercial animal sex-that practiced on stud farms in West Wales, where the breeding of autochthonous Welsh cobs (hardy, stocky native ponies) is of immense political, social, economic, and cultural significance. Th is study found that in this context Welsh cobs are expected to embody specific gender ideals in what is an inherently inter-subjective relationship. Th rough their animals' performances, human caregivers (owners) are able to negotiate their own ideas about gender roles, and these in turn determine those individual animals used for breeding and those not.

Palliative care is routinely offered to humans in the United Kingdom, while euthanasia remains illegal. The converse is true for nonhuman animals (henceforth animals). Indeed, euthanasia is widely accepted as the appropriate course of action for "suffering" animals, and for those whose behaviors or suspected ill health are thought to pose a threat to others. This article details examples of nonhuman death at a multi-faith ashram whose members vehemently oppose all forms of killing on religious grounds. Through exploring their efforts in palliative care for animals, and their emphasis on natural death as a means of respecting the sanctity of life, the practical, emotional, and theoretical viability of caring for, instead of killing, other animals at the ends of their lives is considered. In the process, normative distinctions between different categories of animals, (including humans), and different approaches to end of life care (palliative care, euthanasia, natural death) are called into question. Indeed, paying mindful attention to the diverse ways in which individual animals are cared for as they die reveals the potential violence inherent in both palliative care leading to natural death, and euthanasia, blurring perceptions of good and bad death in both veterinary and human medicine. [euthanasia, veterinary palliative care, natural death, animal death, violent care]

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