Human Nature and Humanity

This topic submitted by Cat Fincun and Brian Forrester ( Fincuncl@muohio.edu ) on 2/17/06. [ Human Nature Team: Cat Fincun and Brian Forrester-Section: Cummins/Wolfe]

INTRODUCTION

The specific nature of our hypothesis is to determine the treatment of our society's homeless. We are questioning our treatment of stray animals compared to that of stray humans. Who is treated more like an animal, the human or the beast? We theorize that our American culture takes care of and treats our abandoned, domesticated animals better than our fellow brethren who have fallen through the cracks of the system to the gutters of the streets. Our research is to determine the extent of which this is true.
America is a country of promise. Everyone is hoping to achieve the ÔAmerican dream.' The paupers of this country contradict this dream. Our poorhouses, halfway houses, almshouses, etc. are supposed to be institutions to help our poor back on their feet. In reality these places allow us to hide the poor from view. Are these institutions like a child's cluttered closet? Do we clean our country and hide what's left over in the darkened corners?
In comparison to the poor, what of the stray dogs and cats that roam the country. We have decided that we must house these Ôlost' animals to be adopted. Humane societies take care of these animals while they are sheltered. Do the animals get treated better than Ôlost' humans? Are the facilities cleaner and modernized compared to homeless shelters?
What is it about human nature that puts a dog above another human? In a Darwin perspective it would be human nature to let go of those humans who have fallen behind the rest. It would be considered survival of the fittest. In a world of hunting numbers instead of beasts, resources are available to people that are capable of the demands of capitalism. A person unable to compete cannot afford the resources necessary to provide their basic necessities (shelter, clothing, food). We might consider a dog helpless in this sense and have more compassion and sympathy for their weakness. We expect a dog to be dependant on humans, but we do not expect other humans to depend on humans. When it comes to this deprivation, our nature is to shun away from it in fear of falling to the gutter, or consider it a form of evolution, are ignorant of the problem, or deny the extent of the problem.
Our study of human treatment is interdisciplinary through our different perspectives of the study. To answer whether our society treats the poor worse than our pets we must look at the structure of our society, the ethical laws concerning welfare of humans and animals, the condition and programs of the different facilities, as well as the final outcome of situation. To find these answers we will be considering many disciplines, utilize their information, and reanalyze their results. We will be looking at anthropology, sociology, ethics, law, as well as statistical data from existing reports as well as from our own surveys, and psychology. This process is interdisciplinary in the manner of evaluating our research and data.

RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH QUESTION
Our literature research will include the analysis of government policy, societal and sociological perspectives, economic and cause/effect relationships, culture perspectives, and historical essays on American Poverty. We will also look at these issues from the animal perspective as well.
Government policy of poverty and animal treatment is crucial to our research. This information is the backbone to how these institutions are run. Helen Ginsburg's selections of essays from our founding economists provide the foundation theories on poverty in Poverty, Economics, and Society. Robert H. Haveman (Poverty Policy and Poverty Research) and Dorthy Buckton James (Analyzing Poverty Policy) discuss the policies of the US government for the poor. Dale Rogers Marshall explains the politics of working with the poor in The Politics of Participation in Poverty. On The Humane Society of the United States web site there is information on government policies in running animal shelters.
Economy is a major factor for the homeless. Depending on the sate of our economic welfare in a big part determines how many homeless are present in America. Michael Harrington discuses the connection in: The New American Poverty. Anuradha Mitta and Peter Rosset edit a compilation of essays on the economics of poverty in their book America Needs Human Rights.
Our society and culture have strong opinions and perspectives of poverty. It is because of these perspectives that many of the social barriers are present. Douglas R. Imig talks about the hierarchy in Poverty and Power. Herbert J. Gans presents the discrimination and segregation of classes in his book The War Against The Poor. Michael B. Katz talks about the sociology of the poor houses and their surroundings in his book In the Shadow of the Poorhouse. While John E. Tropman asks the question: Does America Hate the Poor? Finally Mark and Phyllis Pilisuk look at the lives of Caucasian homeless and poor in their book How the White Poor Live. We will be comparing these academic scholars on the poor of humanity to the literary reviews on the treatment and care of animals.
Policies and government issues on animal treatment are discussed by Alison Hills Do animals Have Rights? Rod and Pattie Strand look at the Humane movement and its effects in the book The Hijacking of the Humane Movement. Tom Regan and Peter Singer edit Animal Rights and Human Obligations examining the ethical and moral parameters to human involvement with animals.
Another look at animal treatment is through the social and cultural aspects of American involvement with domesticated animals. David Degrazia wrote Taking Animals Seriously looking at human perspective of animals. Dr. Michael W. Fox suggests that our society is indecent in its animal treatment in his book Inhumane Society: The American Way of Exploiting Animals. Comparison of animal and child abuse looks at the human behavior of treating vulnerable animals in Frank R. Ascione and Phil Arkow's book Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse. Morals, Reasons, and Animals is another perspective by S. F. Sapontzis.

A BROADER LOOK
Our hypothesis and research, on the broader sense, will be addressing the question: is it our human nature to let go of the weak (poor/helpless) and promote the strong (rich/powerful)? Are we all motivated to evolve into a superÑspecies? In America do we consider the homeless worthless leftovers of humanity that, if it were the beginning of humanity, would be eaten by human predators and eliminated from the evolutionary process?

SPECIFIC RESEARCH DESIGN
Our research will include a survey distributed to 100 Miami University students, interviews with administrators of animal and homeless shelters, as well as a literary review.
The survey will reveal the general attitude of homeless. The survey will question the students on the myths of homelessness and treatment of stray animals, whether these students would be more willing to help local homeless people or animals, as well as determining the general opinion of homeless people and how they are regarded. The survey will further support our findings from our literature review. The main purpose for the surveys is to measure people's willingness to help humans over animals as well as social misconceptions of America's homeless.
Personal interviews with head administrators for local Cincinnati and Dayton shelters of the homeless and animals will be conducted. We will ask the same questions in our interviews to measure consistency between shelters and compare answers between humane societies and homeless shelters. The importance of the interviews lies in the magnitude of organization and administration that governs the two different types of shelters. Through the interviews we hope to gain an understanding of the degree of competence of each shelter. Do the animal shelters seem better organized and run than the homeless shelters?

SURVEY:

What do you think the severity of homelessness is in America?

Do homeless have an impact on your life?

Have you ever helped the homeless (such as habitat for humanity, soup kitchen etc.)?

If not have you ever thought about it or wanted to but weren't sure how to participate?

Do you think we should have institutions to house the homeless? (why or why not)

Do you think people who are homeless are homeless because of their own failings?

Would you consider homelessness part of the natural hierarchy of humanity?

Do you think homeless people should be helped to get Ôback on their feet'?

Have you ever helped a stray animal (either on a personal basis or through the affiliation of an animal shelter)?

Have you ever adopted an animal from a shelter?

Do you think animal shelters are good institutions to help save animals?

Do you think we should have animal shelters? (why or why not)

Do you think animal shelters or homeless shelters have better organization and maintenance? (In America)

Do you think people volunteer/donate more money and time to the homeless or to animal shelters? (In America)

If you were to donate $100 to a shelter, would it be to the homeless or to animals?

Do you think American's hide our homeless?

Do you think it's more likely to become homeless if you were born into wealth or poverty?

Do you think our homeless are treated better than our pets or worse?

Interview

How long has the shelter been running?

How many inhabitants can you house at one time? How many come in per year?

Where do you get your funding? How much do you get in donations per year?

How many volunteers work at the shelter per year?

Do you have a program to help the people/animals that come to the shelter?

How often is the facility updated and renovated?

Is there a problem of the same people/animals reappearing at the shelter after they were supposed to have left for good?

What is your involvement at the shelter?

How do homeless know about the shelter? / How are the animals received/brought to the shelter?

What kind of programs does the shelter facilitate?

Has the shelter ever been in trouble with ethic codes or building violations?

Is there a doctor/veterinarian available?

What is the diet that is provided? Is there a diet/meals provided?

Are the people who work at the shelter trained and specialized to work in these conditions?

What is the probability of turnover and rehabilitation?

Does the neighborhood participate at all in helping the shelter?

Why are you working here?

MATERIALS:

This is a list of important materials we will be using during our research project.
Paper to print our surveys on
Actual people to survey
A car with gas so we can visit our chosen cites for interviews
A tape recorder
Pencil and paper
The research is to be performed by the two of us in unison. We feel that to adequately analyze and interpret our accumulated information we must approach it together. Our interviews will be performed together as well as collecting the surveys. We also have plans to take our compiled data and collectively analyze our observable findings. Once we have completed the observable analysis of our data, we will work together and compile our quantitative survey findings into a statistical numeric analysis. When we have completed these tasks we will report our results and develop a mutual conclusion on our proposed question.
Our statistical analysis will consist of the quantitative data we find through our survey. We will take our surveys statistical findings to create a scientific analysis, which we hope will support our stated claims in our introduction.
Research time line:
March 5-10th Pass out surveys
March 4-5 Interviews
March 27 Compile and analyze both forms of data
March 31 Report our results and conclusion in rough draft
April 10-14 Final Editing

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