Sociology debate letter to the editor posted in Minding Animals blog

This week's post in the Minding Animals Norway blog is written by me. Entitled "Er ikke dyr blant samfunnets svakeste?" [Aren't animals among society's weakest?], the text was originally published as a letter to the editor in the Norwegian daily Dagbladet July 16th.

See also:

Letter to the editor in Norwegian daily Dagbladet: "Aren't animals among society'sweakest?" (July)

Letter to the editor on wolf mortality in Dagbladet

Friday August 23rd, the day after the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference took place in Oslo, I had a letter to the editor published in the Norwegian national daily Dagbladet, entitled "Et ulveliv" [A wolf's life]. The article presents excerpts from my wolf chapter in the recently published anthology Hvem er villest i landet her? [Who's the wildest one in the country here?], and raises the question of whether wild wolves have a right to die of natural causes, rather than by the human hand. A modest management goal is proposed, namely that at least every second wolf should die of natural causes (versus only one out of five today, in Scandinavia).

The complete text has been posted in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme. The letter to the editor was written with reference to my chairmanship of Minding Animals Norway and as a University of Stavanger scholar.

HAS anthology mentioned in letter to the editor in Dagbladet

The recently published Norwegian Human-Animal Studies anthology I am a co-editor of, Hvem er villest i landet her? Råskap mot dyr og natur i antropocen, menneskets tidsalder [Who is wildest in this country here? Brutality towards animals and nature in the Anthropocene, the age of Man], is mentioned in a letter to the editor by Ragnhild Sollund and published in Norway's third biggest daily, Dagbladet, today, entitled "Kunnskapsløst om dyr" [loosely; Ignorant about animals]. Excerpt (my translation):

If Forr [pictured below] wants to get informed about easily available Norwegian research in this field [Human-Animal Studies], he can in addition [to reading the debated special issue of Sosiologi idag] read the book Hvem er villest i landet her? (eds. Ragnhild Sollund,  Morten Tønnessen and Guri Larsen, published by Spartacus/Scandinavian Academic Press this spring).

See also:

Letter to the editor in Norwegian daily Dagbladet: "Aren't animals among society's weakest?" (July 16th)

Letter to the editor in Norwegian daily Dagbladet: "Aren't animals among society's weakest?"

Today a letter to the editor by me is published in the Norwegian daily Dagbladet, which is Norway's third biggest newspaper. The whole text, entitled "Er ikke dyr blant samfunnets svakeste?" [Aren't animals among society's weakest?] is posted in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme. The letter to the editor is written in response to a commentary article published yesterday, entitled "I bås og samfunn" [In cubicle and society] and written by Dagbladet's staff journalist Gudleiv Forr. Forr comments on the special issue of the Norwegian academic journal Sosiologi idag, "Dyr i samfunnet" [Animals in society], where I contribute with a book review of Ulvekonflikter [Wolf conflicts], written by three sociologists. Forr basically claims that sociologists should not waste their time on animals, but be occupied only with improving conditions for human beings, as they used to.

My letter to the editor is signed M.T., Chair of Minding Animals Norway and Associate professor in philosophy at University of Stavanger.

Excerpts from online debate on agriculture and carnivores in Dagbladet

My chronicle in Dagbladet, "Landet som grodde igjen", triggered 90 comments or so in Dagbladet's online debate (same page as the article). Three excerpts were printed in a column in Dagbladet Tuesday 15th of February, along with a brief presentation of my text.

Chronicle on agriculture and carnivores

Today a chronicle of mine, "Landet som grodde igjen" [The country that /overgrew/], is in print in the national Norwegian daily Dagbladet (Norway's third biggest newspaper).

An unedited version of the Norwegian language text has been posted in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme.

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Here's the chronicle on Dagbladet's pages. As of now there are 69 comments.

Chronicles in Norwegian media - wolf politics

October 2nd my chronicle "Den kinesiske miljøbevegelsen" [The Chinese Environmental Movement] appeared in Adresseavisen, the major regional newspaper in mid-Norway (cf. previous report).

Yesterday I wrote a chronicle entitled "Ulven som syndebukk" [The Wolf as a Scapegoat], that I now submit to Dagbladet, Norway's third biggest national daily.

The political platform of the re-elected coalition government is said to be ready for announcement in one and a half hour. According to preliminary news reports, Senterpartiet (which has around 6 % of the vote) has not succeeded in its efforts to reach an agreement with the two other governing parties according to which all remaining wolves would be shot, and no wolves would be tolerated on Norwegian land.