The human psyche is remarkable and highly complex. When it comes to our relationship with animals, however, its sometimes deep abyss becomes apparent. Animals have fascinated people since time immemorial and at the same time fuel our fears. The human understanding of animals is often reflected in fables, myths and fairy tales and is, in turn, reinforced by these. Some animal species inspire us, we marvel at their abilities and even idolise them, or we investigate their amazing characteristics by capturing and killing them. Many creatures serve us humans as companions and food sources. Other species disgust or frighten us. Animals have also repeatedly been ascribed human attributes - such as industrious, mean or devious - which we measure against our moral and aesthetic ideas. These sometimes unjustified perceptions persist to this day. Scientific facts often find it difficult to break through them.

Stephan Wunsch portrays ten of these ill-reputed, even disreputable animals in his book and shows what kind of fears they trigger in us and why we often wrongly attribute characteristics to them that do not correspond to the truth. Our interpretations of vicious animals and fantasies of man-eating beasts have repeatedly issued in hunts and massacres, which have also been instrumental to the extermination of entire animal species. To this day, there are examples of excessive attacks on animals that cause fear, such as the rattlesnake festival in Texas (USA) or the current wolf hunting here in Switzerland. Although we have so-called farm animals transported to the slaughterhouse every day, many of us see the wolf as a bloodthirsty and uncontrolled species that threatens our food source.

Sharks are probably the best-known victims of human fears as an example of a disreputable animal species. The great white shark is held responsible for most attacks, as it likes to search for food in coastal waters and thus gets into contact with humans more easily than a deep-sea shark. Some shark attacks have become very famous and the media attention, later enriched by films such as "Jaws", has led to these fish being firmly anchored in our minds as beasts. Factual education often has a hard time combating deep-seated fears. According to the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF) 170 people have been killed by sharks in the past 20 years.

On average, this means 8.5 deaths and 68 injuries every year - worldwide. By comparison, the World Health Organization estimated the number of road deaths in 2021 at around 1.19 million people.

Another animal with a dubious reputation is the spider, which often triggers panic fear or even phobias in humans. One attempt to explain arachnophobia is based on a genetically anchored primal fear. The theory of primal fear states that millions of years ago, images of dangerous animals became so ingrained in primate brains that they were passed down to us over hundreds of thousands of generations and therefore put us into an instinctive state of alarm regardless of our individual experiences.

The book also devotes a chapter to wasps, which are often labelled as evil and generally have a bad reputation. The knowledge of their way of life and, above all, their usefulness in pollinating plants, which can only be of benefit to us humans, helps to transform our doubts and fears into fascination and respect.

Animals that are considered to be unhygienic and disgusting, such as mice, rats and urban pigeons, also have a hard time. They are labelled as disease carriers by pest control companies. Even public authorities often stir up fears in their public information about these animals instead of communicating a correct and respectful approach to them. It would be desirable to treat disreputable animals with more appreciation, to get to know them and to break down prejudices based on scientific findings. In our human-dominated world, their right to live often hangs by a thread, completely dependent on our benevolence towards them.

The book "Verrufene Tiere - Ein Bestiarium menschlicher Ängste" by Stephan Wunsch is available in stores and can also be viewed by appointment during opening hours in the TIR library, where reading and workstations are available. Current new additions to the TIR library are presented in the TIR library newsletter.