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Animal Equality: Language and Liberation
The first book on language and nonhuman oppression, Animal Equality shows that deceptive, biased words sustain injustice toward nonhuman animals. Speciesism, the failure to accord other animals equal consideration and respect, survives through misunderstanding and ignorance.
Contrasting evolutionary reality with popular notions of human uniqueness and superiority, Animal Equality discredits the term "lower animals." Compelling evidence of nonhuman thought and emotion debunks language that characterizes other animals as unreasoning or insensitive.
Vivid exposes of hunting, sport-fishing, zoos, aquariums, vivisection, and "animal agriculture" reveal the cruelty that misleading words legitimize and conceal. Animal Equality leaves no doubt: speciesist abuse relies on euphemism, doublespeak, and other linguistic ploys.
283 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2015
ANIMAL EQUALITY is a book that has been on my to-read list for quite a while. Though the everyday abuse and exploitation of animals in a variety of industries are likely to be already familiar to animal advocates, the bizarre language that shrouds their practices may not be. It’s a story of PR and denial running amok, and you never imagined there would be so many words for “kill.”
Sport hunting, in particular, has a disturbing, rape-y language among its adherents. The author writes:
Hunters also claim to "interact" with their victims. They call “game animal's” birth and death “recruitment” and “attrition,” as if the animals signed up to be hunted and turned in letters of resignation from life. After slaying a deer, Richard Nelson “whisper[s] thanks to the animal for giving itself to me,” even if the deer had started to flee. Ted Kerasote likes to believe that hunted animals “sacrifice” themselves as part of an “accord” with him and “permit themselves to be taken.”
I recall seeing a “hunting” show set on a canned shooting preserve; after shooting an arrow through a deer of an exotic, captive-bred species, the shooter told the camera, “She presented herself to me.” What does that sound like?
Everyday language erases animals as not only living beings, but even being present in the world at all. A news anchor on my local newscast read, “No one was hurt, but the family did lose two pet cats in the fire.” “Well, then, someone was hurt!” I shouted at the screen. Dunayer has plenty of examples such as this. She also waves her finger at people who refer to animals as “things” and “it,” even though I think she is being a little too harsh when someone truly does not know an animal’s sex; we also refer to human infants as “it” when we are unsure of the gender. However, it is a regular pet peeve of mine when people refer to their own animal companions as “it”—you can’t tell me you don’t know Fido’s gender!
There, were, however, a few aspects of this book I disliked. Dunayer takes up the cause of animal breeding and dangerous dog enthusiasts when she piles hate upon animal shelters, uses the word “shelter” in quotation marks and suggests that they instead be called “adoption-and-killing facilities.” Yet shelters are an entirely different entity than animal agribusiness, vivisection, puppy mills and so on. They exist to help animals and society, rather than simply profit from them. The reason we have euthanasia in shelters isn’t difficult to imagine—because people breed more pets than there are good homes, because people abuse, neglect, and abandon pets, and because people insist on continuing to breed lines of genetically aggressive dogs who wreak havoc upon innocent people and other animals. Shelters would become hideously overcrowded places filled with fights and disease quite quickly in many areas, and indeed, some have. If the author is going to attack anyone, it should be the pet breeders and irresponsible pet keepers who keep the shelter cages filled, rather than the shelters forced to do their dirty work.
Also, I was disappointed that the author waited several chapters into the book to talk about animal agribusiness. Let’s face it, human beings’ meat habit is the major injustice from which all others emanate. Eating animal-based foods allows people to deny animals’ interests and very existence for the most trivial of reasons. If people accept that it’s ok to torment and kill billions of animals just because they like the way they taste, of course they aren’t going to object when, for example, a vivisector says we need to torment and kill millions of animals for science.
Sport hunting, in particular, has a disturbing, rape-y language among its adherents. The author writes:
Hunters also claim to "interact" with their victims. They call “game animal's” birth and death “recruitment” and “attrition,” as if the animals signed up to be hunted and turned in letters of resignation from life. After slaying a deer, Richard Nelson “whisper[s] thanks to the animal for giving itself to me,” even if the deer had started to flee. Ted Kerasote likes to believe that hunted animals “sacrifice” themselves as part of an “accord” with him and “permit themselves to be taken.”
I recall seeing a “hunting” show set on a canned shooting preserve; after shooting an arrow through a deer of an exotic, captive-bred species, the shooter told the camera, “She presented herself to me.” What does that sound like?
Everyday language erases animals as not only living beings, but even being present in the world at all. A news anchor on my local newscast read, “No one was hurt, but the family did lose two pet cats in the fire.” “Well, then, someone was hurt!” I shouted at the screen. Dunayer has plenty of examples such as this. She also waves her finger at people who refer to animals as “things” and “it,” even though I think she is being a little too harsh when someone truly does not know an animal’s sex; we also refer to human infants as “it” when we are unsure of the gender. However, it is a regular pet peeve of mine when people refer to their own animal companions as “it”—you can’t tell me you don’t know Fido’s gender!
There, were, however, a few aspects of this book I disliked. Dunayer takes up the cause of animal breeding and dangerous dog enthusiasts when she piles hate upon animal shelters, uses the word “shelter” in quotation marks and suggests that they instead be called “adoption-and-killing facilities.” Yet shelters are an entirely different entity than animal agribusiness, vivisection, puppy mills and so on. They exist to help animals and society, rather than simply profit from them. The reason we have euthanasia in shelters isn’t difficult to imagine—because people breed more pets than there are good homes, because people abuse, neglect, and abandon pets, and because people insist on continuing to breed lines of genetically aggressive dogs who wreak havoc upon innocent people and other animals. Shelters would become hideously overcrowded places filled with fights and disease quite quickly in many areas, and indeed, some have. If the author is going to attack anyone, it should be the pet breeders and irresponsible pet keepers who keep the shelter cages filled, rather than the shelters forced to do their dirty work.
Also, I was disappointed that the author waited several chapters into the book to talk about animal agribusiness. Let’s face it, human beings’ meat habit is the major injustice from which all others emanate. Eating animal-based foods allows people to deny animals’ interests and very existence for the most trivial of reasons. If people accept that it’s ok to torment and kill billions of animals just because they like the way they taste, of course they aren’t going to object when, for example, a vivisector says we need to torment and kill millions of animals for science.
April 24, 2012
Language has the power both to reflect our attitudes and to determine them, as we know from the battle for language that is inclusive of women. This book looks at the way our language choices enable us to disregard the interests, sentience and consciousness of non-human animals so that we can exploit them for our own ends. The book challenges our prejudices and our ability to turn beings, whether human or non-human, into "others" whose rights we can ignore.
July 20, 2014
Love this author: Joan Dunayer. I have read _Speciesism_ a while ago... many of the same examples are in this book, tho here they seem more complete and there are many More examples. I think the newer book is better, but this book is where the foundation is. A very important read!
December 30, 2008
not well that well written, but I agree with it.
April 10, 2017
A well researched and organised book using the chapters to discuss domains of human animal / non-human animal interactions to reveal how language effects perception of relationships toward animals.
The book contains a useful style-guide for anyone wanting to ensure fair presentation of animals in texts. Even as an established plant-based eater, and as an ethical vegan, the book revealed domains I'd not encountered such as hunting and zoos.
Whatever one's attitude to animals, this book provokes thought about how language might be used to shape opinion. Although focusing on language, the text is easily accessible to general readers.
Analysis shown in the book might also encourage to critically read in other domains.
I would like to see an e-format book for ease of referencing, and for wider distribution.
The book contains a useful style-guide for anyone wanting to ensure fair presentation of animals in texts. Even as an established plant-based eater, and as an ethical vegan, the book revealed domains I'd not encountered such as hunting and zoos.
Whatever one's attitude to animals, this book provokes thought about how language might be used to shape opinion. Although focusing on language, the text is easily accessible to general readers.
Analysis shown in the book might also encourage to critically read in other domains.
I would like to see an e-format book for ease of referencing, and for wider distribution.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews