Animals (that is, non-human animals) permeate all of fiction. They always have. From ancient tales, like in Aesop's Fables or the Panchatantra, to more recent popular works like The Wind in the Willows and The Lion King. Join me for a quick meander through time and space to see the many ways animals have been depicted and used in stories. Cultures the world over have woven animals into their folklore as representations of people, voices of nature, and conduits of moral values. We can see, over and over, how animals are subject to personification and anthropomorphisation. But also, we see how the use of animals in stories has changed with advances in science and ethics.
