MAN-10265 MAGAZINE.indd - Mansfield College - University of Oxford

For the Love of Animals
Sidney Blankenship
Theology 1967-69, MA (Oxon.)
Some people ask me how I ever got to Oxford. So here is a
glimpse into my life that may explain the basis of my current
work, and the photos that accompany this article. My father
raised sheep on the prairies of West Texas in the 1930’s,
following the environmental devastation known as the
“dust bowl,” caused by speculators who sold vast acreages
of grassland as suitable for cultivation. In the 1870’s, after
the Civil War, American bison were being eradicated, and
Indian tribes were being forced on to “Reservations.” The
massive infl ux of European cattle and other domestic
animals fuelled ecological disruption and the removal of
indigenous animals such as the gray wolf, and other species
whose natures confl icted with a settled society. My father
eventually gave up the sheep business (he had hundreds,
if not thousands, grazing on open range abandoned by
disillusioned settlers). He sheared the sheep, but we never
ate them. At this stage, he started farming on rented land.
I attended a rural public school in Adrian for twelve years.
After being valedictorian of a class of twelve students,
I attended Abilene Christian College. I was Student
Association Vice-President and graduated magna cum laude
with a B.A. in Bible and Greek in 1966.
My application to Oxford was too late for consideration for
that year, but I was accepted into the Bachelor of Divinity
course at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. I re-applied
to Oxford, and received a letter of acceptance to Mansfi eld.
I was also accepted by the University of Texas Law School,
but theology was a more powerful infl uence for me. My
experience did not disappoint me: with tutorials under
George Caird, Donald Sykes, and R.C. Zaehner at All Souls,
and the ever-caring Principal John Marsh, I received a B.A.
degree in the Honour School of Theology in 1969. The
camaraderie of my student days will always be with me:
rowing with the college eight, tennis cuppers, the diners’
club(!), President of the Junior Common Room... all made
life a pleasure which has never been equalled.
The farm’s landscape, with white-tailed deer in the foreground,
and bison in the distance.
Collared peccaries
When I came down from Oxford I did research in San
Francisco for a Dartmouth professor in kinetics and nonverbalcommunication,
after which I returned to the family
farm in Texas. My interest turned to the environment,
animals, and the spirituality of Native American culture.
In 1980 I became a vegetarian. I bought two bison calves
in South Dakota and began a restoration of this extirpated
species, presentlya viable herd of 65 animals. My long-lost
love of canids was revived with a closed population of dogs
evolving into a virtual family. All my animals (bison, bears,
African lions, whitetail deer, javelinas) are reared with a
view to their social needs as a factor of the preservation and
enhancement of species. They serve to keep my approach to
research up close and personal.
Mansfi eld has been very generous in respect to this pursuit.
As a member of the North American Development
Committee in the mid-1980’s, I returned for several College
events including a celebration of the Royal Charter for full
collegestatus in 1995. John Muddiman was instrumental in
directing me to the Interdisciplinary Research Network on
Environment and Society; and I gave a paper at Warwick
University on “Culture and Animals” in 1994.
I attended the University’s Columbus Quincentenary event
at the Guildhall in London in 1992. Having attended
several University alumni events in New York, Houston
and Oxford, and being personally acquainted with all
the Principals of Mansfi eld since I was a student all those
years ago, I am convinced that Oxford is an unparalleled
support system for original research. The inauguration of
the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics by Professor Linzey
in 2007, which I attended last year, and the work of the
University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which
I explored more fully this year, lends proof to that
conviction.
My immediate research consists of a “Comparison of
Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 11.” It is being undertaken
concurrently with the compilation of a “Concordance
of Biblical Animals.” Both theological works have their
foundation in literary analysis, natural history and ethics. ●
27 MANSFIELD COLLEGE MAGAZINE