When Animals Speak

Using the argument that women are as rational as men therefore leads to two problems: the criterion is presented as gender-neutral, whereas it is actually masculinist, and secondly, women must be shown to be like men in order to gain moral or political standing.

democracy is not just about participating in existing institutions, it also implies being able to change those institutions.

human inconvenience almost always trumps non-human animal interests (including their right to life

Although we like to pretend otherwise, it is impossible to eradicate all risk from our society. We accept this in the case of traffic, and non-Western human communities who live close to large predators are also more willing to accept this in the case of non-human animals (Bakels 2003).

In the example of Schiphol Airport, the land and air around the airport are seen as human spaces, as expressions of human culture, and as belonging to humans. The geese are now portrayed as intruders into this area who pose a risk to humans.

Because other animals have largely disappeared from the cultural and political picture in anthropocentric and humanist societies, we need to begin to see them again. This “seeing again” takes place in situated encounters in which we are always already entangled with other animals. One of the “first obligations” in these relations is curiosity.13 Haraway also connects being polite to constituting the polis; treating other species respectfully not only opens the door to change in individual encounters, it also brings about a starting point for imagining new communities, including the promise of developing new forms of political interaction.

Haraway (2008) points our attention to the fact that the word “companion” comes from cum panis—“with bread”—which tells us something about the importance for relations of sharing food. According to Darwin, earthworms particularly like wild cherries and raw carrots—something to remember on your next picnic.

Worms exercise agency—Darwin calls these small agencies (1881, 1)—and their acts can have great effects. The lives of earthworms and humans are interconnected in several ways: they plough the earth, and humans till the land, which affects their lives.

More attention for non-human animal languages could contribute to a model in which domesticated animals might speak for themselves.

In challenging human supremacy, it is important to move from thinking about other animals to thinking and working with them.