This paper presents recent contributions in sociology, on the topic of human / animal relationships. The sociology of « situated action », but also interactionist sociology and ethnomethodology, have proposed new methods to describe and understand the hybrid relations. For some authors, the sociologist must be able to describe the perspective of all the « actants », human or not. The point of view defended in this paper is more cautious: the aim is not to adopt the animal’s perspective, but rather to follow the human actors in their encounters with animals. The sociologist’s role is not to develop an ethological approach of animal behaviour but rather to describe how animal presence is worked, handled in situations by human actors.