We have been domesticating animals for over ten thousand years. Why do we want tame wolves in our homes, subdued wild cats on our laps and snakes draped like scarves around our necks? This great conversation between the wild and the tame is human history, human psychology, human politics and human sociology. Pets feature in art, poetry and some of our most popular stories. Is it because we ourselves are wild and so we want furry, feathered and scaly wildness in our lives? But on what terms? Have we tamed the wolves, or are wolves wilding us?

Pets and their People looks at the strange rapport between humans and their pets – or pets and their humans – at each stage of our lives. It takes bearings from every era of human history, asking how the special bond between owners and their pets has evolved, and what that evolution tells us about our own changing identity.  Do we look to animals as moral – or other – role models? Do pets help us to communicate? Do they teach us about birth and death? Can they show us who we really are?

A brilliant and fascinating book which not only the 60% of us with pets must read but so should the other 40%.

John Fletcher, author of A Life for Deer

Authoritative, insightful and illuminating. The latest of Foster’s celebrated endeavours to explore what humans are examines the myriad facets of pet-keeping with compassion and humour, reflecting on the role that animal companions are undertaking on our behalf.

Dr Sean Wensley
author of Through A Vet’s Eyes

'...we love our pets, and that is good, as is Dr Foster’s book.'

'Pets & their People' is a wide-ranging and entertaining exploration of the relationship between humans and animals.

CHARLES FOSTER is a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. His previous books include Being a Beast (2017), The Screaming Sky (2021) and Cry of the Wild: Eight Animals Under Siege (2023).