Interspecies Ethics

Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in their relations with us to allow for a rich and meaningful study of inter- species ethics and the possibilities of just multispecies societies. Using multispecies ethnography and feminist accounts of the self as a springboard, we investigate animal agency in a sanctuary for formerly farmed animals, considering how a careful exploration of dimensions of agency in this setting might inform ideas of interspecies ethics and politics. This innovative extension of multispecies ethnography explores individual and collective dimensions of animals’ agency through space and place, through practice and routine, and through social roles and norms, to learn about whether/how animals might want to live with us, and how we can recognize and support their agency through our relationships.

As the detrimental effects of human agency loom large in the "Anthropocene," theologians and philosophers have called for restraint by invoking the concept of kenosis. Although a "self-emptying" form of human life helps to counter the ways that humans are increasingly driving other species to extinction, we argue that such calls are often compromised by relying on notions of the Creator's own attenuated or self-limited agency. They therefore trade in a competitive construal that is susceptible to the tendency of human agency to either displace, or project itself upon, all other agencies, inadvertently perpetuating the "human epoch." In their place, we critically develop the new direction in kenotic theology that speaks of divine self-realization in history through "deep incarnation." Our constructive proposal argues for a more thoroughgoing recognition of both the transcendence of divine agency and, as a corollary, the diverse agencies of our fellow creatures.

This essay is co-written by David Robinson and Jennifer Wotochek, and published in Studies in Christian Ethics

"...It is within this atmosphere [of widening consideration of nonhuman animals/nonhuman animal issues, changes in the field, divisions in the movement, and so on], and towards this fractured ‘movement’, that this book is conceived. The title of this anthology is Intervention or Protest: Acting for Nonhuman Animals, a somewhat simple heading but one that captures, and attempts to highlight and address, the main points brought out above. The aim of this book is to be both theoretical and practical, to be both a contribution to the scholarly debates but also to put forward positions that can, and intend, to be real-world practicable. Further, this book considers issues that are important in making a difference to nonhuman animals. With this practical aim, and the careful theoretical deliberations behind them, these two foci are intended to influence both the way the movement and the scholarly fields go forward. It is the hope that this not only bridges the gap between theory and action, and shows that this division need not be, but also that by working together an effective way forward for nonhuman animals can be reached. And so the aim of this book is twofold: first, to be both a contribution to theory and practice, and second, to highlight ways forward on actionable issues for nonhuman animals that are also critical for theorists to consider.

In line with these aims this book is focused on four key areas: (i) how can the movement for nonhuman animals be strengthened or how should it go forward?, (ii) how should we act for nonhuman animals?, (iii) ought we intervene for nonhuman animals, and if so how far and in which areas (e.g. direct action, violence, protest, in nature)?, and (iv) what other areas can we act for nonhuman animals in that we may not be considering already?

These four questions are large areas that have both theoretical and practical importance within interspecies ethics/studies and society/the movement. Within current political, social, and ethical debates – both in academia and society – activism and how individuals should approach issues facing nonhuman animals have become increasingly important ‘hot’ issues. Individuals, groups, advocacy agencies, and governments have all espoused competing ideas for how we should approach nonhuman use and exploitation. Ought we proceed through liberation? Abolition? Segregation? Integration? As nonhuman liberation, welfare, and rights’ groups increasingly interconnect and identify with other ‘social justice movements’, resolutions to these questions have become increasingly entangled with questions of what justice and our ethical commitments demand on this issue, and the topic has become increasingly significant and divisive. These four areas essential questions to be asked in regard to each of these, and within this volume they are answered by drawing on both theory and practice, theorists and activists, and interdisciplinary ideas in order to provide grounded, yet actionable, ways forward. The contributors within this volume offer new insights into all of these areas, and while allowing further debate to flourish they offer concrete suggestions for action and change in everyday practice; both on a large and small scale.

This book is therefore intended not only to provide new and interesting insight into the area and important contemporary discussions, but also to constructively aid the nonhuman movement and unite theory and practice on the crucial issues. With the nonhuman movement and its past approaches currently being questioned as a success, more nonhumans than ever being harmed and exploited, and a growing gulf between activists and scholars, this book attempts to be a bridge over these gaps and move both theory and practice – and thus the movement and field – forward.

The literature on interspecies ethics/studies is, if not as wide as other fields, still significant and growing daily. Within this literature questions on intervention have only recently been receiving attention. With the current ‘political turn’ in the field – i.e. a move away from more traditional ethical approaches to nonhuman animal issues to more politically-based positions – questions regarding how the field, and the movement as a whole, can be improved and have more impact have also begun to be raised. It is by regarding these recent debates that this book specifically fits within the literature.

As such, this book can be broken down into three areas. While each chapter covers various topics which often overlap others, the chapters have been arranged both in order to complement each topic with those that come before and after, and as they fit with these three themes. The first five chapters largely focus on broad issues that are of importance to interspecies ethics/studies and the movement as a whole. Questions such as how the movement can be improved, what can be learned from other social movements, and how activism in general should move forward can be found in this section of the book. Chapters six through eleven consider questions relating to intervention in various situations, differing scales, and in regard to different questions. Questions such as whether intervention is conceivable, how we should intervene, how far, in what circumstances, and whether we should recompense nonhuman animals for past wrongs are the focus of this section of the book. Finally, while all of the contributions to this volume offer new insights, chapters ten and eleven also provide new areas within the debate to consider, and new topics for activists to take into consideration...." (Excerpt from the book's introduction)

-Contents-

Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction

1. Saving Nonhumans: Drawing the Threads of a Movement Together
Andrew Woodhall & Gabriel Garmendia da Trindade

2. Putting Nonhuman Animals First: A Call for a Pragmatic and Realistic Turn in Normative Theorising
Jens Tuider

3. Animal Activism and Interspecies Change
Eva Meijer

4. The Role of Activist and Media Communication in Helping Humanity Establish its Responsibility toward Fellow Animals
Carrie Packwood Freeman

5. Beyond Complicity and Denial: Nonhuman Animal Advocacy and the Right to Living Justly
Kurtis Boyer, Guy Scotton & Katherine Wayne

6. Nonhuman Animals and Sovereignty: On Zoopolis, Failed States, and Institutional Relationships with Free-Living Nonhuman Animals
Josh Milburn

7. Are Nonhuman Animals owed Compensation for the Wrongs Committed to Them?
Julia Mosquera

8. And the Animals Show Their Veins: Predation, Vivisection and Moral Innocence
Wayne Williams

9. The Limits of Intervention in Nature on Behalf of Wild Animals and the Limits of Ethics
Patrizia Setola

10. A (Human) Rights-Based Approach to Natural Disaster Intervention for Nonhuman Animals
Lauren Traczykowski

11. Climate Justice for Wildlife: A Rights-Based Account
Julius Kapembwa & Joshua Wells

Index

**Due to the publisher holding the copyright to the book, drafts of the book unfortunately cannot be circulated. This includes the introduction. Upon release of the book the freely available front matter will be made accessible online and here. Until this changes, which is beyond my authority, all I can do is direct you to the book's site and Amazon. Abstracts of the chapters will be available. Apologies, and thank you for being interested. A.**

This book offers ethical and political approaches to issues that nonhuman animals face. The recent ‘political turn’ in interspecies ethics, from ethical to political approaches, has arisen due to the apparent lack of success of the nonhuman animal movement and dissatisfaction with traditional approaches. Current works largely present general positions rather than address specific issues and principally rely on mainstream approaches. This book offers alternative positions such as cosmopolitan, libertarian, and left humanist thought, as well as applying ethical and political thought to specific issues, such as experimentation, factory farming, nonhuman political agency, and intervention. Presenting work by theorists and activists, insights are offered from both ethics and politics that impact theory and practice and offer essential considerations for those engaging in interspecies ethics within the political turn era.

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CONTENTS:

Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
List of Figures
Foreword (by Richard D. Ryder)

1. Introduction
(Andrew Woodhall & Gabriel Garmendia da Trindade)

2. Making Light of the Ethical? The Ethics and Politics of Animal Rights
(Mark Rowlands)

3. Far-persons
(Gary Comstock)

4. Evolution to Liberation: Political Reflections on Morality and Nonhumans
(Steve F. Sapontzis)

5. Robert Nozick on Nonhuman Animals: Rights, Value and the Meaning of Life
(Josh Milburn)

6. Reinventing Left Humanism: Towards an Interspecies Emancipatory Project
(Zipporah Weisberg)

7. Justice for Animals in a Globalizing World
(Angie Pepper)

8. Animal Rights and the Distorting Power of Anthropocentric Prejudice
(Gary Steiner)

9. Interspecies Encounters and the Political Turn: From Dialogues to Deliberation
(Eva Meijer)

10. Gandhian Satyagraha and Open Animal Rescue
(Tony Milligan)

11. Shame: From Defensive Fury to Epistemological Shifts and Political Change
(Elisa Aaltola)

12. Are We Smart Enough to Know When to Take the Political Turn for Animals?
(Kim Stallwood)

13. Interspecies Atrocities and the Politics of Memory
(Guy Scotton)

14. Animal Research and the Political Theory of Animal Rights
(Gardar Arnason)

15. Cross-Species Comparisons of Welfare
(Tatjana Višak)

16. Population Dynamics Meets Animal Ethics: The Case for Aiding Animals in Nature
(Oscar Horta)

17. Afterword
(Carol J. Adams)

Index

**This is the draft version of the chapter published in the book, Intervention or Protest: Acting for Nonhuman Animals, edited by Gabriel Garmendia da Trindade & Andrew Woodhall, (Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2016). The book can be found here: https://www.vernonpress.com/title?id=76#.V_kumuArKUk **

Within our chapter, we consider the divide between theorists and activists within the nonhuman animal movement. We consider the recent reflections on the successes and failures of the movement before arguing that instead of a methodological reason that perhaps the source of the movement’s overall lack of success is the result of this theory/practice gulf. In the first part of the chapter we consider how both theory and practice must be linked together in order for the nonhuman movement to become more effective, and argue that activists ought to ground their action more than currently occurs while theorists must focus more on actual, practical ways to aid nonhuman animals while also actively partake in action themselves. In the second part we consider this approach in regard to anthropocentrism and the poorly explored intersection between interspecies ethics and the ethics of war and self-defence. We argue that with the former, anthropocentrism when understood correctly not only results in problems for the movement that need to be confronted but that rejecting anthropocentrism has important implications on theoretical and practical issues, such as intervention. With the latter, we argue that questions concerning direct action and the moral permissibility of using violence to protect nonhuman animals from human oppression cannot be answered within interspecies ethics alone. It is necessary to make use of a more sophisticated and accurate terminology, which can only be found in the ethics of war and self-defence literature.

This article presents an empirical reflection on how the prototyping of an
environmental enrichment device for chimpanzees at the National Zoo of
Chile precipitates a cosmopolitical encounter. Using material produced by
design students, zookeepers and the chimps Judy and Gombe, we
describe how prototyping iterations establish open processes of
dialogue and encounters among humans and nonhumans. The case will
demonstrate how prototyping can go further than the generation of
models of an original. On the contrary, the cosmopolitical encounter
emerging from the prototyping process makes evident a truly
ontological vocation, acknowledging humans and other-than-human
beings as singular entities. Its provisional and malleable nature turns this
device into a privileged locus for the exploration of interspecies
entanglement. Although zoos are scientifically organized institutions, in
this case we observe how its anthropocentric hierarchy was
performatively reshuffled at certain moments of the prototyping
process. The cosmopolitical qualities of the prototyping process
analyzed derive from its capacity to deploy an ethics of attention and
care between the agencies at play, that is, for unfold gestures of mutual
vulnerability. Finally, we propose prototyping as a device for moving
from cosmopolitics as a way of understanding the world to
cosmopolitics as a matter of design.