An exploratory study of British Millennials’ attitudes to the use of live animals in events

ABSTRACT

Ethical issues related to animal rights have gained significant exposure in the past few decades. As a result, animal welfare concerns have continuously been at the forefront of public debate. This has had a major impact on Western culture, expressed in the growing popularity of lifestyle changes towards reducing and abandonment of animal use across different industries. However, animal use in planned events remains insufficiently studied and absent from most event management literature. Therefore, this research aims to explore the opinions of Millennials on the use of live animals in events. The literature discusses anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism and cognitive dissonance, as reoccurring themes. A combination of a focus group and semi-structured interviews was undertaken, and the analysis identified entertainment, financial benefit and tradition as the main reasons for using live animals at events. Awareness and transparency on animal welfare issues within the events industry were stated by interviewees as points for improvement together with the lack of a clear definition of animal welfare, especially when it comes to captive and performing animals, as well as the uncertainty regarding animals’ stakeholder status in events.

KEYWORDS:

• Events
• animal welfare
• anthropomorphism
• performing animals
• animal rights
• animals as stakeholders

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elena Marinova

Elena Marinova is a First-Class Honours Bournemouth University Event Management graduate based in London. Her interest in the human relationship with animals dates back to her childhood when she started observing the natural world and animals while spending time in the Bulgarian countryside. Following her passion for conservation, Elena completed a Marine Wildlife Guide training in the Bay of Biscay. Volunteering in marine conservation, doing educational outreach and studying events inspired Elena to consider the way animals are perceived and used in the events and entertainment industries. Her fascination with the topic grew in the research process as its multifaceted and complex nature was further revealed. Elena is currently working in the corporate environmental services sector, continuing her pursuit of having a positive impact on the collective thinking of, and care for the natural environment.

Dorothy Fox

Dr Dorothy Fox is a Senior Academic in Events and Leisure Management at Bournemouth University. She is the lead author of the first research methods textbook for event management students, entitled, ‘Doing events research: From theory to practice’. After many years of employment in business management and following completion of an undergraduate degree in environmental studies, she undertook her PhD thesis seeking to understand participation in garden visiting, within a conceptual framework of affordance theory. This approach is beginning to attract attention in leisure studies, because it enables a movement beyond the usual emphasis on individual agency to embrace social-material agents as well. Dorothy’s particular area of interest is in the interactions between people and socio-natural environments. She has published studies on wine tourism, rose water tourism, visitors to horticultural shows and the perception of nature by visitors to Jiuzhaigou National Park in China and the New Forest National Park in England.