Prospective, using faecal and pasture sampling.
To establish efficacy of faecal worm egg counts (FWEC) and pasture larval counts (PLC) in donkey parasite control programmes.
In-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and social actors. This will be complemented by document analysis of relevant materials including, advertisements, manuals, background papers, letters and memoranda, newspaper articles, press releases, organisational or institutional reports and various public records. Statistical data published by official Brazilian institutions will also be reviewed, in order to support to the analysis.
This 16-month project aims to contribute to ongoing studies developed in partnership with The Donkey Sanctuary and the Veterinary and Animal Science Faculty at the University of Sao Paulo, concerning the donkey skin trade. Believing that interdisciplinarity is one of the best strategies to address multidimensional problems, this research project proposes a socio-anthropological approach to identify public perceptions of donkeys and the threats they face in the Brazilian Northeast, mainly in the state of Bahia.
The specific objectives are: 1. To identify social actors (individuals or organisations) related to donkey trade and donkey protection in the Brazilian Northeast, especially in the state of Bahia; 2. To contextualise the scenarios where donkey trade takes place in Brazilian Northeast; 3. To identify and analyse personal and collective perceptions (social representations) constructed about donkeys (and the donkey trade) by different actors, including: rural populations; animal health authorities at local and national levels; legal authorities; animal rights organisations and welfare representatives.
Despite their enormous contribution to society, donkeys are much maligned in popular culture and often given very little respect. Misconceptions and donkey stereotypes (i.e. stubborn, stupid) are commonplace and can be witnessed in the language of insult and ridicule. Using corpus-assisted analysis, this project explores how language and societal discourse shape popular representations of donkeys and affect their status within UK/British culture. We build on the growing body of scholarship on the linguistic representations of animals, including how language affects the way animals are perceived and treated by humans.
References
J. Bough. 2011. Donkey. Reaktion Books: London.
A. Goatly. 2006. Humans, Animals, and Metaphors. Animals & Society. 14:1.
A. Sealey, N. Charles. 2013. What do animals mean to you? Naming and relating to nonhuman animals. Anthrozoös 26, pp. 485–503.
A. Sealey, C. Pak. 2018. First catch your corpus: methodological challenges in constructing a thematic corpus. Corpora Vol. 13 (2): 229–254
We used a corpus linguistics approach to analyse over 1 million references to donkeys within three key genres: news media, social media and professional information sources (academic and NGO). This involved using specialist statistical software to scan a digital database of texts and identify salient patterns in language use about donkeys. Key patterns were analysed in more detail, using fine-grained (critical) discourse analyses. Interviews and focus groups were also conducted with individuals of different demographics and stances.
This 12-month project aims to challenge donkey stereotypes and misinformation about donkeys. It also offers linguistic recommendations that promote positive representations of donkeys, contributing to The Donkey Sanctuary's mission to raise the status of donkeys in the UK and abroad. Research questions include: What are the main ways that donkeys are represented in UK/British culture? Are there regional differences in the way donkeys are represented? What are the differences between scientific texts vs popular texts? Is there a relationship between donkey roles (e.g. working animals, pets, production animals) and the way they are represented?