Animals and the Politics of Suffering : Essays on Law, Care and Interspecies Relations

Sammanfattning: This compilation thesis aims to develop an understanding of the ethical, legal and political implications associated with different strategies to address the suffering of animals caused by industrialised agriculture. Based on qualitative analysis conducted in Denmark, the research explores how ethical commitment to the situation of farmed animals is negotiated across different domains. The thesis is shaped by socio-legal research combined with cross-disciplinary social analysis of human-animal relations and interspecies politics. Based on three analytical themes – invisible animals, witnessing suffering and care as an ethical obligation – the research analyses competing strategies to address the suffering of nonhuman animals. Paper I outlines the potential of socio-legal scholarship in developing new perspectives on anthropocentrism in law by creating a bridge between recent developments in ‘more-than-human’ scholarship and the field of animal law. Moreover, the paper suggests how the empirical tradition in the sociology of law can bring the study of law closer to a multispecies account of the world. Paper II focuses on recent regulatory schemes imposed on Danish farmers to improve animal welfare. Based on interviews with Danish animal welfare inspectors and inspection reports, the paper analyses how responses to suffering are negotiated at the intersection of law and bureaucratic procedures. Paper III examines a Danish case of a recent trend towards New Carnivorism and DIY slaughter against the backdrop of the growing discomfort with the killing of nonhuman animals. Drawing on Carol Adam’s concept of the absent referent, the paper calls for a more nuanced understanding of how the visibility and invisibility of animals play out in the promotion of responsible meat eating. Finally, Paper IV focuses on the embodied practices of providing sanctuary for previously farmed animals. Drawing on María Puig de la Bellacasa’s concept of ethical doings, the paper explores the challenges confronting the sanctuaries and their aspiration for multispecies flourishing. Each of the empirical studies that comprise the thesis foregrounds different aspects of the politics of suffering that characterise the main responses to the situation of animals reared for the purpose of industrialised food production. Finally, the thesis contributes to conversations about overcoming the current impasse by emphasising the need to develop alternative ideas about interspecies relations of care.