Experiencing the local wildlife while on vacation is high on the agenda of many holiday-makers. But can a seemingly harmless interaction have wider implications for wildlife conservation? Susannah Waters uncovers the consequences of some popular wildlife-based tourist activities in Thailand, and argues that the widespread use of animals for entertainment is a massive threat to many critically endangered species as well as being very damaging to individual animals.

A tent ‘embassy’ has been set up on the lawns of Australia’s Parliament House to highlight the plight of factory-farmed animals, and will be followed by a 500-kilometre consciousness-raising walk. Peter Hackney interviews the woman behind it, Jodi Ruckley.

The oppression and exploitation of animals and humans are interlinked. Discrimination and abuse occurs through a process of ‘othering’ by a dominant group to an ‘inferior’ group, whether on the basis of race, gender or species. Katrina Fox looks at how privilege and oppression manifest in social justice movements, and how the more aware we become of our own privilege and oppression, the more we may be able to build alliances and gain allies.

Scientific research shows that many animals are very intelligent and have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles; and bats, dolphins, whales, frogs, and various rodents use high-frequency sounds to find food, communicate with others, and navigate, writes Marc Bekoff.

Jumps racing has been cropping up in the news after a series of track deaths in the UK and Australia. But while track deaths are problematic for racing’s image, the fate of countless other racehorses is hidden from the public, writes Susannah Waters.

The same mentality that made it okay to conduct cruel experiments on black women by the ‘father of gynecology’ in the 19th century is the same mentality that continues to allow nonhuman animals to suffer heinous atrocities today, writes critical race feminist Breeze Harper.