Critical Animal Studies and Activism

Acknowledgements

Anthony and Richard would like to thank everyone who has assisted in the production and publishing of this book. We are especially grateful to Kim Socha for their contribution to the Introduction, and for making other key editorial interventions. Special mention must go to the authors for writing such tremendous chapters, and to Danni McGhee, S. Marek Muller, and Tony Quintana for their extremely thoughtful Foreword and Preface, respectively. We would like to thank all the contributors as well Nathan Grande, María Marta Andreatta, Anja Radaljac, Aljaž Krivec, Michael Allen, Erica Von Essen, Terry Hurtado, Michael Allen, Erica Von Essen, Alex Hinchcliffe, Carlos Garcia, and Kiana Avlon. We would like to thank Peter Lang Publishing particularly Dani Green, Jackie Pavlovic, and Naviya Palani. We are also indebted to the inspiration we draw more collectively from those involved with ICAS, Peace Studies Journal, Transformative Justice, Salt Lake Community College, Green Theory and Praxis Journal, Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies Academy, Critical Animal Studies Association, Critical Animal Studies Society, Wisdom Behind the Walls, Arissa Media Group, Eco-ability Collective, Arissa Media Group, Save the Kids, and Poetry Behind the Walls. Finally, we would like to thank our friends and family. We hope that this book helps bring forward a world deeply rooted in inter-species social and spatial justice: a world that we all so desperately desire.

Foreword

Danni McGhee

Years ago, I met a man who was vegan, and he suggested I give it a try. I thought he was illogical, and I was seriously confused. I could not wrap my brain around the thought of never eating chicken, seafood, cheese, or eggs since they were a large part of my daily diet. I even recall seeing his food, which was a plate full of leafy greens, sprouts, tofu, quinoa, and other vegetables. I immediately said, “I could never go vegan if I have to eat like that!”

Four years later, I was nearly 200 pounds, suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), joint pain, low energy, terrible sleeping patterns, depression, anxiety, and brain fog. I started the year off by attending group fitness classes 6 days a week and incorporating “healthier” meals according to a standard American diet. After about 5 months of dedication to my workouts and eating plan, I had lost 25 pounds, but then suddenly, my weight loss plateaued. I was still working out 6 days a week and not cheating on my meal plan, but the scale was not budging. Then my friend tagged me on a post on social media where a woman was promoting a 21 day plant based vegan challenge. The challenge host was a beautiful Black woman who was extremely fit and toned. I don’t want to reinforce body norms, glorify certain body types, or body shame, but for me, health and fitness are important, especially because I had IBS.

On July 14, 2014, I started the challenge ready to embrace all the amazing recipes that were given to the group. There was also an online community group to keep everyone motivated, share recipe ideas, and support each other as we embarked on a new way of eating. Within 3 days, I lost 4 pounds, and I could not believe it. How did this happen so quickly when I had been struggling for weeks? Then I learned more about digestion and realized some ←xi | xii→of the foods I thought were healthy were actually extremely harmful to my digestion. I had been suffering with digestive distress for seven years and had no idea that I needed to change my diet to improve the IBS symptoms I experienced daily. The doctors only provided me with a prescription instead of a solution to get to the root of my issue.

Like those documentaries I watched, this intersectional, grass-roots, total liberation book by scholar-activists is an eye opener for any who will read it. Veganism for me was initially just about my health, but quickly turned into much more—racial justice, environmental justice, social justice, animal justice, and economic justice. As a person who said they loved animals, I was not fully living up to that claim because of the choices I made on my plate, clothing, and lifestyle. This book takes you on a journey to understanding the depths of the importance of animal rights as the authors in the book share the views of individuals from different parts of the world who are making waves across the planet. I loved reading their inspiring words because ←xii | xiii→they show how us as humans can come together for total liberation and be in solidarity with those who are oppressed at the hands of human supremacy.

Preface

S. Marek Muller

The year is 2022 and everyone is tired. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged human cultures and brought to the forefront the intimate interconnections of human and nonhuman animal lives. Meat production has waxed and waned as slaughterhouse workers simultaneously kill nonhuman animals and find themselves in increased danger of death by contagion—all while their corporate supervisors go about their lives without risk to their health or livelihoods. Meanwhile, U.S. American news outlets decry East Asian “wet markets” as inhumane and unsanitary vectors for disease, with politicians dubbing COVID-19 the “China Virus” as a means of deflecting Western culpability in both the global pandemic and the cruelty of industrialized animal agriculture. For ordinary citizens worldwide, strolls into pristine “nature” have become the focal point of group activities to substitute close quarters, reminding humans of the mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and other species surrounding them at any given moment. Once inside their homes, “pandemic puppies” are all the rage as families, quarantined from public life, have sought friendship in the tiny paws, beaks, and tails of companion animals.

Critical animal studies (CAS) has never been unimportant. The fast and furious spread of COVID-19 has simply rendered the field more visible to a public traditionally disinterested in critical studies of more-than-human exploitation under capitalism. We can endlessly guess as to why. Perhaps the boredom of quarantine has led some to spend increased time spent online and find our radical vegan spaces. Perhaps the job losses, evictions, and other economic losses borne of the pandemic have led publics to the conclusion that unchecked capitalism is unsustainable. Perhaps the viral videos of and protests against police brutality pushed some to make the inevitable connection between racialization and ←xv | xvi→animalization, between how discourses of whiteness (combined with the speciesist depiction of not-quite-human-enough humans as disposable) justify violence against BIPOC populations. Perhaps populist political slogans that deem immigrants “vermin” and transgender people “unnatural” have forced some to confront how binaries such as human/animal and nature/culture are not only problematic, but also insufficient for understanding the complex relationships between humans and across species.