Attitudes towards wild animals are reflected through history in various categorizations of species. For example, changes in the useful-harmful dichotomy of species have affected policy decisions during the long history of organized pest persecution as well as during the much more recent rise of nature conservation. The first hunting legislation in Finland dates back more than 650 years, to times when the country belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden. From those times to the early 20th century various acts of law exhibited a marked variation in placing species into useful and harmful categories. The dichotomy seems to be based upon fundamental ecological interactions between humans and other species. We show that the varying interest in pest persecution as well as important conservation milestones have been associated with contemporary human-animal relations such as the attitudes of decision makers and laymen towards wild animals, and the public awareness of species conservation issues.