The palgrave international handbook of a 5

Acknowledgments

This Handbook has been quite a while in the making. Its origins can be traced
to the UK International Symposium on Situating Animal Abuse in
Criminology held in July 2010, in Cardiff, Wales. We are indebted to the
generosity of the University of South Wales (formerly the University of
Glamorgan) for funding the event. Many of the chapters in this book were
written by symposium attendees.
As editors, our debts are legion. To all those who share our pro-animal
passion for the advancement of animal abuse studies and who helped us
complete the Handbook: thank you! We thank the many authors who
contributed chapters and who in so doing helped advance this important
field of enquiry. Your commitment has been invaluable. We also wish to
acknowledge the contribution both of our immediate colleagues and of those
further afield (our many colleagues and their networks, especially in green
criminology); in different and important ways you have made this project
possible.
Our gratitude must also be extended to the fine staff at Palgrave
Macmillan, especially Julia Willan, Josephine Taylor, Dominic Walker and
Stephanie Carey. Your enthusiasm and constructive engagement have been
crucial.
The focus of the Handbook is the situation of animals who suffer death
and other harms and abuses at the hands of humans. Because much
animal abuse is intentionally and routinely rendered invisible, criminology, sociology and related disciplines have tended to ignore our fellow
creatures. We wish to recognise and acknowledge these animals and the
people and organisations who work so tirelessly on their behalf. As a
small token of our support in this regard, our royalties from this
v