The following chapter aims at unfoldingthe multilayered circumstances fromwhich the current debates about cattle and their living conditions grew, givingmeaning to the idea of the“happy cow,”seen in the marketing of dairy and meatproducts, as well as popular events such as pasture releases. The goal is to investi-gate how the well-being of cows was understood in different contexts, opening ahistorisation of modern animal welfare, food production and husbandry. Thechapter asks why ideas about the necessity of cows to be happy emerged in thedebate at the time they did, and what areas of conflict they related to. The methodused is archaeological, broadly contextualising the idea of the necessity of cowsbeing happy. A wide range of sources are used: the critical articles, propositionsand debates concerning animal welfare laws, the industry magazineHusdjurandliterature about the handling of animals in zoos and in training. The case here isSweden with its claim and self-image of being a nation with a very high level ofanimal welfare.

Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools. Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus. We ask how children’s equestrian cultures were formed within the spaces of horse yards, especially riding schools, and how caring well was understood and negotiated through different types of knowledge and the idea and practice of horse ownership. As we show in the analysis, despite the increase of written knowledge about horses and their care, situated and relational knowledges based on interspecies interaction prevailed in children’s equestrian cultural spheres in which children had a chance to interact with animals and care for them outside the everyday spaces of family and school. In these cultures of interspecies care, ideas of horse ownership carried expectations of continuity where the child–horse relationship was secured and could develop. The entry to these spatial cultures was through rites of passage characterised by embodied interaction and hands-on care, where children learned to care for animals well.

The chapter discusses encounters between bears and the two 19th-century hunters Herman Falk and Llewellyn Lloyd. By taking both the hunter’s and the bear’s perspective into account, the 19th-century ambivalence towards hunting in general, and large carnivores in particular, is highlighted. Different forms of hunting have been categorised by anthropologist Garry Marvin, and this chapter utilises, as well as questions, these categories. From the bear’s perspective, hunting was probably experienced as traumatic and destructive. On the other hand, hunters also built relationships with individual animals, thus gaining knowledge about bears. A hunt sometimes went on for hours or days. The particular animal hunted may have been hunted before, and was known to the hunters. This allowed the hunters to gain a nuanced picture of the animals and to understand their lives. In this way, the perception of the bear grew from experiences that were shared by hunters and bears. Eventually, this alternative view of the bear entailed the relative protection of the animal in Sweden.

I tidningen Dalpilen publicerades den 29 januari 1886 ennotis med rubriken ”Hård vinter”. Notisen bestod av en endamening: ”En varg visade sig i måndags vid Rålambshof, utanförMarieberg”. Det pregnanta tillkännagivandet innehåller en helvärld av föreställningar.I detta kapitel ska jag vända och vrida på denna notis i syfteatt undersöka hur tolkningar kan öppnas och prövas mot olikakontexter. Vilka sammanhang kan jag frammana om jag läser denlilla artikeln från olika perspektiv? Vilka möjliga ramverk finnsgenom vilka jag kan ge notisen mening? Det gäller att läsa ordenkreativt och noggrant utan att ta dem eller deras sammanhang förgivna. Jag ska bryta upp till synes givna positioner och destabilisera dem. Det handlar om att utmana källmaterial men också omatt utvinna kunskap om en varg i Stockholmstrakten, föreställningar om den hos tidningsmakare och läsare, vad som skrämdemänniskor i 1800-talets Sverige och hur vi i allmänhet kan lyssnatill vargar.