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Multispecies Partnership, Security, and Affect Among Canine Search and Rescue Teams Southern Methodist University SMU Scholar Anthropology Theses and Dissertations Anthropology Spring 5-15-2021 Making Scents: Multispecies Partnership, Security, and Affect Among Canine Search and Rescue Teams Kara Griffin [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_anthropology_etds Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Griffin, Kara, "Making Scents: Multispecies Partnership, Security, and Affect Among Canine Search and Rescue Teams" (2021). Anthropology Theses and Dissertations. https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_anthropology_etds/14 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. MAKING SCENTS: MULTISPECIES PARTNERSHIP, SECURITY, AND AFFECT AMONG CANINE SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAMS Approved by: _______________________________________ Dr. Nicolas Sternsdorff-Cisterna Assistant Professor of Anthropology ___________________________________ Dr. Caroline Brettell Professor of Anthropology ___________________________________ Dr. Nia Parson Associate Professor of Anthropology ___________________________________ Dr. Sabine Frühstück Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies University of California, Santa Barbara MAKING SCENTS: MULTISPECIES PARTNERSHIP, SECURITY, AND AFFECT AMONG CANINE SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAMS A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Dedman College Southern Methodist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Cultural Anthropology by Kara Griffin B.A., B.S. Texas Christian University M.A., Southern Methodist University M.A., Southern Methodist University May 15, 2021 Copyright (2021) Kara Griffin All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work could not have been accomplished without the support and input of numerous individuals and communities. First, I must thank my advisor and dissertation committee chair, Nicolas Sternsdorff-Cisterna for his unwavering support and guidance throughout this process. Without his encouragement, insight, and patient feedback on numerous chapter drafts, this project would never have been completed. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee for their valuable insights. Dr. Caroline Brettell provided instruction and inspiration during coursework and development of the project proposal. Dr. Nia Parson could always be counted on for encouragement as well as insight regarding ethnographic methods. And Dr. Sabine Frühstück gave me invaluable advice about conducting fieldwork. In addition to my committee members, the other faculty and staff of the Anthropology Department and others at SMU were vital to the completion of my work. Those who have supported me include Professor Keiko Flores of the SMU Japanese language program, Dr. K. Ann Horsburgh of the SMU Molecular Anthropology Laboratory, and the members of the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute Research Cluster on Family, Kinship, and Relatedness. Furthermore, Dr. David Slater and the Institute of Comparative Culture at Sophia University generously hosted me during my fieldwork in Japan. None of this would have been possible without the help of the participants who allowed me to work with them. I am especially grateful to everyone at Disaster Rescue Dog Network in Japan and their partners who welcomed and assisted me in countless ways during my fieldwork. Additionally, I am indebted to all of the other search and rescue teams, including human and iv canine personnel, in the United States, Europe, and Asia who participated in this research and allowed me to participate in their activities and events. The other members of my cohort at SMU have been the most supportive colleagues one could ask for. I am particularly grateful to Sara Mosher, Megan Latoya, and Brenna Raney for their continued inspiration, friendship, and feedback. Additionally, Josh Dorfman and Katie Fox provided especially helpful mentorship and advice early in my studies. I also benefited from participation in several writing groups, including those at the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development organized by Veronica Mellado de la Cruz, the Indiana University writing group sustained by LaTeeka Gray, NaiYi Hsu and Anne Mahady, and the Association for Feminist Anthropology writing group organized by Annie Wilkinson. This project was also enabled by the support and inspiration provided by the members of the Tokyo Feminist Book Club. My family and friends have tirelessly supported my work on this project for the last several years, providing encouragement, patience, and motivation in addition to practical assistance. I could not have completed this project without the backing of such a strong support network. This research was made possible by the generous funding of the National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Fellowship, the National Security Education Program (NSEP) David L Boren Fellowship, the SMU Dean of Graduate Studies Dissertation Fellowship, and the SMU Anthropology Department’s Mary Moore Free Graduate Summer Research Fund and Robert Kemper Pre-Dissertation Research Award. v Griffin, Kara B.A., B.S., Texas Christian University M.A., Southern Methodist University M.A., Southern Methodist University Making Scents: Multispecies Partnership, Security, and Affect Among Canine Search and Rescue Teams Advisor: Professor Nicolas Sternsdorff-Cisterna Doctor of Philosophy conferred May 15, 2021 Dissertation completed April 26, 2021 This study examines the qualitative experiences of dogs and handlers working on canine search and rescue teams as they strive to develop a successful relationship through working, training, and living together. In order to work effectively, these teams form affective partnerships characterized by mutual advocacy, correspondence, and trust, which highlight the co-constructed nature of more than human worlds and allow members of both species to contest certain framings of their partners in their social worlds. Each chapter will further explore how handlers grapple with contemporary controversies in their field which are often framed as questions of effectiveness and personal choice in regards to the development of a successful dog-handler relationship, but that I will argue are as contentious as they are partly because they are animated by strong affective multispecies bonds and are, at their core, debates about deeper questions and shifting attitudes regarding the responsibilities of humans to their non-human partners and to the global (multispecies) community as a whole. As experts working on the front lines of multispecies cooperation in the face of climate crises, the experiences and insights of canine search and rescue teams suggest implications for public policy and as it pertains to more-than- human engagement with the rest of our shared planet. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………….…………………………..………………………..1 CHAPTER 2 PARTNERSHIP………………………………………………………………..44 CHAPTER 3 ADVOCACY…………………………………………………………………..80 CHAPTER 4 CORRESPONDENCE………………………………………………………..118 CHAPTER 5 TRUST………………………………………………………………...………161 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….…198 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 206 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 A human remains detection team……………………………………………………48 Figure 2.2 An air scent team………………………………………………………………….…48 Figure 2.3 A trailing team………………………………………………………………….……49 Figure 2.4 SAR team Instagram post ……………………………………………………………69 Figure 2.5 Partners at training exercise………………………………………………………….78 Figure 3.1 Canine physical fitness………………………………………………………….…...87 Figure 4.1 SAR dog breeds………………………………………………………………….…126 Figure 4.2 Fundraising event……………………………………………………………...……149 Figure 4.3 Dog Festival…………………………………………………………………………157 Figure 5.1 FEMA Twitter examples……………………………………………………………186 Figure 5.2 Army Dog Memorial Statue………………………………………………………...190 Figure 5.3 Pokemon GO disabled………………………………………………………………194 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Japanese SAR team breed breakdown ………………………………………………127 Table 4.2 US SAR team breed breakdown……………………………………………..………127 Table 4.3 Animal Quarantine Flow Chart………………………………………………………144 Table 5.1 SAR Tweet Sentiments………………………………………………………………187 ix This is dedicated to Snow, valued research assistant, quarantine companion, and friend who consistently shows more affection and devotion than his human deserves. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: THEORY AND METHODS “You know, she can’t understand you when you talk to her in English. Even though she’s German, she only understands Japanese”. Tanaka-san eyed me skeptically as he replaced the teapot on the campfire stove we were using to make breakfast under the awning of the long-since abandoned middle school building where we would be working later in the day. Tanaka-san’s non-profit organization, a volunteer canine disaster search and rescue team, had recently received permission from the local government in a rural Japanese
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