Being Animal: Beasts and Boundaries in Nature Ethics

235 Pages·2013·0.97 MB·English

by  Anna Peterson

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“In this provocative and beautifully written book, Anna L. Peterson challenges us to
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think about real animals, not abstractions of them, as part of nature and, therefore, s Beasts & Boundaries in Nature Ethics
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as a necessary consideration for a complete environmental ethic and theology. For
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too long, environmental and animal ethicists, philosophers, and theologians have
been taking different paths, rarely interacting directly with each other. Peterson calls
for an alternative nature ethic, one that is holistic and includes serious consider-
ation of animals. As she claims and supports through carefully researched examples
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and a fascinating reinterpretation of Marx, nonhuman animals are the ‘proletariat
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of environmental thought’ and as such they ‘demand and embody the negation of
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human exceptionalism.’ Peterson makes a powerful contribution to environmen-
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tal and animal ethics, building a necessary bridge between these two natural allies.”
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—LAurA Hobgood-oster, author of

The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity’s Compassion for Animals a
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“Peterson uniquely brings together divergent strands of philosophical inquiry and m
places competing ideas side by side, looking for areas of consensus. she brings into a
conversation a diverse span of thinkers and ideas, building upon the strengths of l
various philosophical approaches while avoiding weaknesses.”
—JessIcA PIerce, coauthor of Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals B
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“A wonderful and most welcomed book in which Anna L. Peterson convincingly &
argues that ‘the separation between nature and animals is both strange and destruc- B
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tive.’ the safety, well-being, and very lives of individual animals count, and these u
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beings must be factored into decisions that center more on holistic and broader d
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environmental matters.” ri
—MArc bekoFF, editor of e
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Ignoring Nature No More: The Case for Compassionate Conservation n
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AnnA L. Peterson teaches at the university of Florida. Her books include Being h
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Human: Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World and Everyday Ethics and Social Change: The s
Education of Desire.
crItIcAL PersPectIves on AnIMALs: tHeory, cuLture, scIence, And LAw
cover design: Jordan wannemacher c
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cover Image: Hillary kladke of Paw Prints charming Pet Photography. L
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coLuMbIA unIversIty Press | new york IIsSbBnN:: 997788--00--223311--1166222277--22 bI
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cuP.coLuMbIA.edu anna l. peterson
9 780231 162272
printed in the u.s.a.
being animal
Critical Perspectives on Animals: Theory, Culture, Science, and Law
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critical perspectives on animals:
theory, culture, science, and law
Series Editors: Gary L. Francione and Gary Steiner
The emerging interdisciplinary field of animal studies seeks to shed light on the na-
ture of animal experience and the moral status of animals in ways that overcome the
limitations of traditional approaches to animals. Recent work on animals has been
characterized by an increasing recognition of the importance of crossing disciplinary
boundaries and exploring the affinities as well as the differences among the approaches
of fields such as philosophy, law, sociology, political theory, ethology, and literary stud-
ies to questions pertaining to animals. This recognition has brought with it an open-
ness to a rethinking of the very terms of critical inquiry and of traditional assumptions
about human being and its relationship to the animal world. The books published
in this series seek to contribute to contemporary reflections on the basic terms and
methods of critical inquiry, to do so by focusing on fundamental questions arising out
of the relationships and confrontations between humans and nonhuman animals, and
ultimately to enrich our appreciation of the nature and ethical significance of nonhu-
man animals by providing a forum for the interdisciplinary exploration of questions
and problems that have traditionally been confined within narrowly circumscribed
disciplinary boundaries.
The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?
Gary L. Francione and Robert Garner
Animal Rights Without Liberation: Applied Ethics and Human Obligations
Alasdair Cochrane
Animalia Americana: Animal Representations and Biopolitical Subjectivity
Colleen Glenney Boggs
Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Animal-Human Encounters
edited by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell
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being animal
beasts and boundaries in
nature ethics
Anna L. Peterson
c o l u m b i a u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s n e w y o r k
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columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
new york chichester, west sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2013 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peterson, Anna Lisa, 1963–
Being animal : beasts and boundaries in nature ethics / Anna L. Peterson
p. cm. —
(Critical perspectives on animals : theory, culture, science, and law)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16226-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-16227-2
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53426-0 (ebook)
1. Animal welfare—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Animal rights.
3. Environmental protection. I. Title.
HV4708.P478 2013
179'.3—dc23
2012039912
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design: Jordan Wannemacher
Photo image: Hillary Kladke, Paw Prints Charming Pet Photography
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may
have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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And I, a materialist who does not believe
in the starry heaven promised
to a human being,
for this dog and for every dog
I believe in heaven, yes, I believe in a heaven
that I will never enter, but he waits for me
wagging his big fan of a tail
so I, soon to arrive, will feel welcomed.
—Pablo Neruda, “Un Perro Ha Muerto”
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contents
Acknowledgments ix
one
Introduction: Animals and Nature
1
two
Animals in Environmental Perspective
18
three
Animal Ethics
43
four
Wild Animals
65
five
Domesticated Animals
89
six
The Debate Between Environmentalism and Animal Advocacy
117
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seven
Between Animals and Nature: Finding Common Ground
141
eight
Being Animal
161
Notes 187
Bibliography 205
Index 219
viii—contents
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acknowledgments
It is always a pleasure to write acknowledgments, both because it means
the work of writing is finished and because it is an opportunity to thank
those who have made the work easier, better, or more enjoyable. I am
grateful, first and always, to my family for their support and patience. My
husband, Manuel Vásquez, listened to my endless worries and reflections
about the issues examined in this book, even while busy with his own writ-
ing. He also tolerated and supported the huge amounts of time I have
spent not only researching and writing this book but also immersed in the
activist worlds of both environmental and animal advocacy. I could not do
any of it without him.
There are many people in both those worlds who helped make this book
possible as well. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to collaborate with
smart, dedicated, and thoughtful people who care passionately about non-
human nature in various forms. My own moral and political commitments,
as well as my academic work, have been strengthened by my involvement
with these activists. I am grateful not only to those with whom I collabo-
rate at home in Gainesville but also to the good people from BAD RAP
(Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls), the Berkeley Humane
Society, Maddie’s Fund, and the Sierra Club, all of whom helped me think
through many of the issues addressed here. I am even more grateful for the
inspiration of their ongoing work.
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