Animals in the study of public administration

• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Author: Jerry Mitchell
• Date: 01 November 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13500

VIEWPOINT

Animals in the study of public administration

Jerry Mitchell

Austin W. Marxe School of Public and

International Affairs, Baruch College, The City

University of New York, New York,

New York, USA

Correspondence

Jerry Mitchell, Austin W. Marxe School of Public

and International Affairs, Baruch College, The

City University of New York, 1 Baruch Way, Box

D-901, New York, NY 10010, USA.

Email: jerry.mitchell@baruch.cuny.edu

Abstract

The human-animal experience has eluded the study of public administration. The

evidence shows the field’s top journals and textbooks have paid little attention to

animals, public affairs degree programs are mostly without animal-focused

courses, and professional associations have failed to include, for the most part, ani-

mals as stakeholders whose interests should be considered. This lack of attention

is out of step with a world confronting such wicked problems as animal cruelty,

species extinction, and zoonosis. Practical ways are proposed for incorporating ani-

mal topics into scholarship, education, and the overall posture of the discipline.

The expectation is that a focus on non-human species can shapeshift the field

toward a biocentric outlook and a truly authentic understanding of public affairs.

Evidence for Practice

•This article emphasizes what many public and nonprofit leaders already know—

animals play a significant role in public affairs encompassing both challenges

and opportunities.

•Engaging fully in a discourse on animals in public administration is relevant to

public organizations, such as fish and wildlife agencies, and political advocacy

groups, such as those focused on anti-cruelty laws and regulations.

•Attention to the human-animal relationship in the study of public administration

can contribute to the enduring discourse about how best to employ animals to

solve social problems and to provide public services.

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 has brought to a head the significant role that ani-

mals play in public affairs. It is most likely that SARS-CoV-2

originated in bats. How it was transmitted to people is

debated (Jo et al., 2020). One possibility is the virus moved

from bats to other exotic animals, such as pangolins, with

which humans came into contact via a wet market in

Wuhan, China. Another alternative is that scientists

harvested bat viruses for research purposes, which somehow

escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and then

infected people directly. Whatever the infection track,

COVID-19 is one among a series of animal-borne pathogens

that has attacked humanity in the past century, including

Ebola, H1N1, Hendra, Herpes B, HIV/AIDS, and rabies.

Public administration has necessarily been involved in

managing the virosphere’s impacts. Zoonosis affects the

work of public health professionals, school and college

leaders, transportation bosses, foreign diplomats, city

managers, elected chief executives, food regulators, and

other administrators too numerous to name. If the past is

prologue, more novel pathogens will be encountered

because of the increasing loss of biodiversity, growing

urbanization that allows for the easy transmission of dis-

eases, global travel, and human encroachment into where

animals reside thereby increasing the opportunities for

infections (Quammen, 2012).

The spillover of disease is but one aspect of why ani-

mals are important to public administration. Policymakers

and public administrators also confront wicked problems

such as animal cruelty, animal hoarding, feral animals,

species extinction, invasive species, animal experimenta-

tion, animal cloning, wildlife control, transplanting animal

organs into humans, and the ethics and safety of animal

meats processed in industrial slaughterhouses. Animals

are needed as well to solve public problems, such as K-9

dogs searching crime sites and therapy cats comforting

the lonely in nursing homes. And all sorts of public and

nonprofit organizations are required to be involved with

the formulation and implementation of animal policies,

Received: 11 November 2021 Revised: 21 February 2022 Accepted: 18 March 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13500

Public Admin Rev. 2022;82:1179–1185. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar © 2022 American Society for Public Administration. 1179