People represent only a smaller community of the vast populace of the living objects and creatures inhabiting our planet. Due to the human beings' dominating position in the hierarchy of progressive evolution of species the attitude of people toward animals has been too often characterized by pragmatic approaches that ranged from cruelty to irresponsibility.
Condescension to animals that are pets and people's companions, which, normally, has too little to do with taking insightful care of them, represents, most probably, one of the best possible outcomes of human and animal relations. Various aspects of ethical issues arising from people's responsibility to animals are discussed nowadays. These discussions address the highly sensitive and challenging issues of hunting wild animals, breeding farm animals to be used as food, and carrying out experiments on animals. The long and controversial history of human and animal relations does not suggest any easy solutions of the complex problems. Adopting absolute stances can only exacerbate them. The implementation of consistent policies and regulations on people's methods of using and handling different animals is the only realistic way to rationalize and humanize relations between humans and other living beings, which is in the best interests of both groups. .
In recent years, more and more people start to "think seriously about the inconsistencies in our relationships with other species," (Herzog 243). This reflective approach brings up traditional aspects of the problem like hunting animals and using them for producing meat, as well as some less obvious issues including developing people's relations with pets and animals used in scientific experiments. Both the public and experts are getting more and more aware of the complexities of relations between people and animals and of the problems that need to be resolved in this context.