Animal Genocide and its Aftermath: The Tasmanian Tiger and the Newfoundland Wolf

by Nicholas Chare

Overview

In this exacting assessment of the bounty policies enacted against the Tasmanian Tiger and the Newfoundland Wolf, Animal Genocide and its Aftermath provides a much—needed reappraisal of the legal, political, and social definition of animal killing. Analyzing natural history collections and cultural representations, this book advances a compelling case for viewing the bounty schemes as a form of genocide that requires its own historical reckoning. Ethical issues regarding the evocation of animal genocide in film, literature, photography and museum exhibitions are also explored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781836951254
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	09/01/2025
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Chare is Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History, Cinema and Audiovisual Studies at the Universityé de Montréal. He is the author of Sportswomen in Cinema: Film and the Frailty Myth (IB Tauris, 2015) and the co—author (with Dominic Williams) of Matters of Testimony: Interpreting the Scrolls of Auschwitz (Berghahn Books, 2016). He is also the co—editor (with Valérie Bienvenue) of the edited collection Animals, Plants and Afterimages: The Art and Science of Representing Extinction (Berghahn Books, 2022).

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Cruelty, Thy Name is Wolf!

Chapter 1. Animal Genocide
Chapter 2. Material Witnesses: Thylacine Remains and Animal Histories
Chapter 3. Displaying the Thylacine: Exhibiting Genocide by Any Other Name
Chapter 4. The Compulsion to Repeat: Erle Wilson’s Coorinna
Chapter 5. Coloured by Suffering: Capturing the Thylacine on Film
Chapter 6. The Newfoundland Wolf

Afterword: Afterimages of the Genocidal Gaze

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Animal Genocide and its Aftermath presents a thoughtful and engaging account of how the killing and the extinction of nonhuman animals can and should be thought of as genocide, thus bringing into play more complex sets of historical, political, and legal concepts and experiences.” • Rick De Vos, Curtin University

“This book represents a brilliant piece of detailed, historical research which challenges and demands so much of the reader through destruction of the easy and comfortable acceptance of the human actions that result in animal extinction, together with an analysis of the different cultural representations of those actions that led to the genocide.” • Robert Paddle, Australian Catholic University

From the Publisher