Animals and Women Feminist The

by Carol J Adams

  3. Negative images created by speciesist practices and wielded against women are not restricted to images of living and nonhuman animals. As Carol Adams discusses in The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990, 39 – 62), "meat" images born of butchering are also commonly applied to women (also see Corea 1984). For example, the pornographic film industry calls women new to the business "fresh meat" (see Corea 1984, 37).

  4. In 1993 I visited a "state-of-the-art" Maryland egg-production facility. Four windowless warehouses imprisoned a total of half a million hens, squeezed nine to a cage. Row after row, four tiers of cages extended into the distance, disappearing into the dimly lit haze. From manure pits directly below, huge mounds of excrement saturated the air with eye-stinging ammonia. Cagemates shared a single water nipple and were forced to climb over one another to reach the food trough in front of their cage. In bursts the birds gave frantic cries, worlds away from the soft clucking of contented hens. With a dazed look, they stared outward — as if into empty darkness. As of 1 March 1995, the U.S. egg industry ’ s captive laying hens numbered approximately 244 million (see Chickens and Eggs 1995, 5).

  5. Most "broiler" operations allot each chicken floor space of only 0.7 to 0.8 square feet (see Acker and Cunningham 1991, 636; North and Bell 1990, 458). As expressed by the Commercial Chicken Production Manual (North and Bell 1990), "the question has always been and continues to be: What is the least amount of floor space necessary per bird to produce the greatest return on investment?" (456).

  6. In the U.S. in 1994, the number of chickens slaughtered for their flesh exceeded 7.2 billion (see Poultry Slaughter 1995, 15).

  7. The textbook Dairy Cattle states that cows on California ’ s large feedlot dairy operations are denied access to pasture and "are fed stored feeds year round" (Bath et al. 1985, 303). What ’ s more, an industry researcher recently remarked that "most" U.S. dairy operations have now "evolved from pasture grazing" to "feeding out of storage" (Howard Larsen, quoted in Don ’ t Send 1990).

  8. Dairy-industry publications acknowledge the existence of "numerous total confinement, free-stall operations" (Bath et al. 1985, 365 – 66), many of which keep cows on concrete "throughout their productive lifetimes" ( Guide 1988, 28).

  9. As of 1 January 1995, the U.S. dairy industry was exploiting over 9.5 million milking cows (see Cattle 1995, 1).

  10. The Complete Dog Book (American Kennel Club 1992) contains the American Kennel Club ’ s official standards for AKC-recognized dog breeds. Each standard specifies a particular "conformation" (structural arrangement of body parts). The bulldog standard decrees, among other features, an "extremely short "face and a nose "set back deeply between the eyes" (487).

  11. On average, each breed of "purebred" dog harbors over a dozen genetic defects (see Padgett 1988); most purebred dogs suffer from at least one such defect (see McKeown et al. 1988).

  13. Over the years, seventeen rats have been my adopted friends. All were highly sensitive to their surroundings, loved to explore, and revealed a wide range of emotions. Rufus, I ’ ll always remember, reacted to his first piece of cantaloupe with a somersault of joy. The ten rats I knew since they were pups enjoyed being petted. Some of them liked perching on my shoulder or sitting in my lap and would, if I sat on the floor, scurry to me from across the room. Five brothers who were full-grown when I adopted them regularly cuddled, and sometimes play-wrestled, with each other. When I talked to them, they responded with a look of friendly curiosity — an attentive expression different from the determined one with which they investigated their room or the tentatively accepting one they showed when petted. Vegan and Nori (both male) were already adults when brought, as a pair, to a humane society. For some time after I adopted them, they remained wary of humans; yet, even when handled, they never showed aggression. Eventually they welcomed being petted. Although their cage extended eight feet, they usually stayed side by side, snuggling. Vegan — the older and larger — was very protective of Nori, who was blind. Once, my cat China peered inquisitively into their cage while only Nori was near the front. I saw Vegan, startled, rush forward. Pushing Nori behind him, Vegan positioned himself as a shield. His eyes glittering, he confronted China directly. Rebuffed, China left the room. When Vegan died two years later, Nori drastically changed, becoming lethargic and withdrawn. For the rest of his life, he visibly mourned Vegan. Humans ’ gross misunderstanding and relentless persecution of rats causes me particularly sharp anger and grief.

  14. Through metaphors that convey false images of other species, Adams (1990) notes, humans distance themselves from those species (see 64 – 65).

  15. In the May 1993 issue of Feed Situation and Outlook Report, a U.S. Department of Agriculture economist concedes, "Most hogs are now raised in confinement" (Baker 1993, 12).

  16. Approximately 96 million pigs were slaughtered in the U.S. in 1994 (see Livestock Slaughter 1995, 3).

  17. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) provides these conflicting definitions of animal : "a multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia" and "an animal organism other than a human being" (72).

  18. Writing before the word speciesism gained currency, Frye (1975) termed humans ’ assumption of superiority "humanism" (72).

  19. Since the 1970s, Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona has studied Alex ’ s ability to learn English. In a 1993 Time magazine article, Eugene Linden relates: "When the parrot, who lives with Pepperberg, became sick a few years ago, she had to take him to a vet and leave him overnight in a strange place for the first time in his life. As she headed for the door she heard Alex calling in his plaintive child ’ s voice, ‘ Come here. I love you. I ’ m sorry. Wanna go back ’ " (59).

  20. Asked when gorillas die, Koko reportedly responded with the gestures for "trouble" and "old." Asked how gorillas feel when they die — Happy? Sad? Afraid? — she answered, "Sleep" (see Kowalski 1991, 11 – 12).

  21. For example, Aristotle — a founding father of Western patriarchy — defined humanity as animality ’ s opposite and claimed humanity for men, leaving women in between as a psychological buffer zone (see Brown 1988, 55 – 56).

  12. In keeping with popular usage, rat here refers to the single rat species predominant in Europe and the U.S. — the Norway rat, also called the brown rat, common rat, and (pejoratively) sewer rat. Nearly all domesticated rats belong to this species, including the docile albinos routinely burned, poisoned, maimed, electrically shocked, and otherwise caused to suffer in vivisection.

  — — — . 1971. Behaviour of Wolves, Dogs and Related Canids . New York: Harper & Row.

  22. In our ancestry and genetic composition, we are not merely like apes; we are apes. Conventionally the classification "apes" includes two chimpanzee species (common chimpanzees and pygmy chimpanzees), gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons — but excludes humans. According to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (1993), this classification misleads. The African apes (chimpanzees and gorillas) share a more recent common ancestor with humans than with Asian apes (orangutans and gibbons). Therefore, Dawkins explains, no natural ape category includes African and Asian apes yet excludes humans. Physiologist Jared Diamond (1993) agrees: "The traditional distinction between ‘ apes ’ (defined as chimps, gorillas, etc.) and humans misrepresents the facts" (95). DNA studies, he points out, have revealed that both chimpanzee species share a higher percentage of their genes with humans (about 98.4 percent) than with gorillas (about 97.7 percent). How, then, can "African ape" include chimpanzees and gorillas but not humans? The DNA evidence, Diamond says, indicates that humans are most accurately classified as a third species of chimpanzee.

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