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Home , Alasdair Cochrane, Priscilla Cohn, Robert Garner

The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Series

Series editors: and In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. This series explores the challenges that poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations. Specifically, the Series will: • provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out ethical positions on animals; • publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accomplished, scholars, and • produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary in character or have multidisciplinary relevance

Titles include

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND POLITICAL THEORY THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS Andrew Knight POPULAR MEDIA AND ANIMAL ETHICS Claire Molloy ANIMALS, EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY Siobhan O’Sullivan SOCIAL WORK AND ANIMALS: A MORAL INTRODUCTION Thomas Ryan AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND THE LAW Joan Schaffner

Forthcoming titles

HUMANS AND ANIMALS: THE NEW PUBLIC HEALTH PARADIGM Aysha Akhtar HUMAN ANIMAL RELATIONS: THE OBLIGATION TO CARE Mark Bernstein ANIMAL ABUSE AND HUMAN AGGRESSION Eleonora Gullone ANIMALS IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD: ETHICAL PERCEPTIONS Alastair Harden POWER, KNOWLEDGE, ANIMALS Lisa Johnson AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND SOCIOLOGY Kay Peggs

The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–57686–5 Hardback 978–0–230–57687–2 Paperback (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Animals, Equality and Democracy

Siobhan O’Sullivan University of Melbourne, Australia

Palgrave macmillan © Siobhan O’Sullivan 2011 Preface © 2011 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-24389-3 All reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-31863-6 ISBN 978-0-230-34918-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978023034 9186 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

109876543 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

Transferred to Digital Printing in 2012 Contents

List of Tables vi Series Preface vii Preface: Prof. Robert Garner, , UK ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1 Animal Inconsistencies 9 2 The Politics of Being a Nonhuman Animal 25 3 Animal Visibility 60 4 Out of Sight, Out of Mind 111 5 What’s Good for the Goose Should Also be Good for 159 the Gander Conclusion 172 Notes 175 Bibliography 196 Index 207

v List of Tables

3.1 Animal-Related News Stories over a One-Month Period 74 3.2 Captive Animal Visibility Levels 109 4.1 Animal Uses to be Analysed 113 4.2 Animal Uses and Associated Regulatory Instruments 117 4.3 Hens and the Provision of Exercise, Conditions of 128 Confinement and Availability of Health Care 4.4 Rabbits and the Provision of Exercise, Conditions of 130 Confinement and Availability of Health Care 4.5 Horses and the Provision of Exercise, Conditions of 132 Confinement and Availability of Health Care 4.6 Dogs and the Provision of Exercise, Conditions of 134 Confinement and Availability of Health Care

vi Series Preface

This is a new book series for a new field of inquiry: Animal Ethics. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. In addition, a rethink of the status of animals has been fuelled by a range of scientific investigations which have revealed the complexity of animal sentiency, cognition and awareness. The ethical implications of this new knowledge have yet to be properly evaluated, but it is becoming clear that the old view that animals are mere things, tools, machines or commodities cannot be sustained ethically. But it is not only philosophy and science that are putting animals on the agenda. Increasingly, in Europe and the United States, animals are becoming a political issue as political parties vie for the ‘green’ and ‘animal’ vote. In turn, political scientists are beginning to look again at the history of political thought in relation to animals, and historians are beginning to revisit the political history of animal protection. As animals grow as an issue of importance, so there have been more collaborative academic ventures leading to conference volumes, special journal issues, indeed new academic animal journals as well. Moreover, we have witnessed the growth of academic courses, as well as uni- versity posts, in Animal Ethics, , , , Animals and Philosophy, Human-Animal Studies, , Animals and Society, Animals in Literature, Animals and Religion – tangible signs that a new academic discipline is emerging. ‘Animal Ethics’ is the new term for the academic exploration of the moral status of the non-human – an exploration that explicitly involves a focus on what we owe animals morally, and which also helps us to understand the influences – social, legal, cultural, religious and political – that legitimate animal abuse. This series explores the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations. The series is needed for three reasons: (i) to provide the texts that will service the new university courses on animals; (ii) to support the increasing number of students studying and academics researching in

vii viii Series Preface animal related fields, and (iii) because there is currently no book series that is a focus for multidisciplinary research in the field. Specifically, the series will

• provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out ethical positions on animals; • publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accomplished, scholars, and • produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary in character or have multidisciplinary relevance.

The new Palgrave Macmillan Series on Animal Ethics is the result of a unique partnership between Palgrave Macmillan and the Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The series is an integral part of the mission of the Centre to put animals on the intellectual agenda by facil- itating academic research and publication. The series is also a natural complement to one of the Centre’s other major projects, the . The Centre is an independent ‘think tank’ for the advance- ment of progressive thought about animals, and is the first Centre of its kind in the world. It aims to demonstrate rigorous intellectual enquiry and the highest standards of scholarship. It strives to be a world-class centre of academic excellence in its field. We invite academics to visit the Centre’s website www.oxfordanimal- ethics.com and to contact us with new book proposals for the series.

Andrew Linzey and Priscilla N. Cohn General Editors Preface

This book is a breath of fresh air, offering us an alternative to the, now rather staid, debate in animal ethics in which positions have become solidified and the practical impact has been limited. As Siobhan O’Sullivan points out, the bulk of the ethical literature on animals focuses on what she calls the external inconsistency, whereby it is argued that many of the ways we currently treat animals are illegit- imate morally because they are not based on morally relevant differences between humans and animals. demands, it is argued, that we ought to consider the interests of animals equally, and since animals are sentient, and have at least some cognitive capacities – the degree depending on the species – then these ought to be taken into account morally. For some, this means that animals ought to be accorded rights making it illegitimate to inflict suffering on them and, in some versions, to even use them at all. O’Sullivan questions the utility of this traditional ethical approach. And she is right to do so. For why, despite the work of many animal ethicists, and the strength of their arguments that animals deserve to be regarded as morally considerable, is it that the message has tended to have so little influence? Animals are still exploited mercilessly and made to suffer in innumerable ways and not, in short, treated as if they are morally considerable. O’Sullivan provides us with both an explanation for this situation, together with an alternative solution. Rather than focus on the external inconsistency that has occupied animal ethicists, O’Sullivan suggests that we should concentrate instead on an internal inconsistency in the way that animals are commonly treated. This internal inconsistency relates to the fact that the same species of animals receive entirely different levels of protection depending on prevailing circumstances. For nonhuman animals, life is a lucky-dip or lottery. How well a particular animal is treated will depend, not on any morally relevant characteristics, but on pure chance. For example, a dog loved and well-cared for by a family will have a quality of life that is infinitely preferable to a dog in a research laboratory. O’Sullivan employs primary research, drawing on contemporary and historical data, to show that this internal inconsistency can be best explained by the variable of visibility. Those animals that are well out of site, in factory farms and laboratories, tend to endure more suffering, and

ix x Preface less legal protection, than those animals – such as companions and zoo animals – which are visible. O’Sullivan therefore calls for this inconsist- ency to be addressed. And, indeed, she argues that once what is done to animals in secret, behind windowless sheds and laboratories, is revealed fully, then action to legally protect these animals is more likely. This book offers an innovative approach to animal ethics and politics. It is a clarion call for fairness to be applied in our treatment of animals, and a manifesto for opening up to public gaze the suffering inflicted on animals in our name. Reading it is highly recommended.

Robert Garner Leicester February 2011 Acknowledgements

First and foremost I must thank Andrew Linzey and the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics for affording me the opportunity to write this book. I am also indebted to Robert Garner and Sheila Jeffreys, both of whom offered me invaluable advice as I traversed the complex world of book publishing. Robert Garner further supported me throughout the writing process and for that I thank him very much. I am grateful to the anony- mous referees at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and Palgrave Macmillan who challenged me by providing insightful and detailed feed- back on my work. I must also thank who kindly read the manuscript and who pushed me to think about the issues from a different perspective. I must acknowledge my colleagues at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne who supported me through- out and who allowed me to take valuable time off work to complete the manuscript. I would especially like to thank my supervisors Mark Considine and Jenny Lewis; my research assistant David Mence; and Sandy Ross who read the manuscript. The University of Melbourne’s School of Social and Political Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts’ Publication Subsidy Scheme, provided financial assistance. The research this book draws on was originally conducted at the University of Sydney, and I would like to thank all my former col- leagues at the Discipline of Government and for their support over a four year period. Most importantly I must thank my supervisor Lyn Carson. Research for this book was also partly funded by the University of Sydney’s US Studies Centre. I am very grateful to the centre as their funding allowed me to address US animal welfare standards in a way I had not done previously. I wrote much of this book while on the Human-Animal Studies Fellowship program run by the Animals & Society Institute and hosted by Clark University, Massachusetts. The program provided me with a wonderfully rich intellectual environment in which to write and I would like to thank everyone involved with the program for pro- viding endless feedback and suggestions: Jane Harris, Bill Lynn, Robert McKay, Krithika Srinivasan, Jenny Vermilya, Dita Drazilova, Jody Emel, Connie Johnston, Ken Shapiro, Lisa Stoddard, Susan McHugh, Tom Tyler, Margo DeMello and Michael Markarian. Thanks also goes to the

xi xii Acknowledgements many Australian and American activists who agreed to be interviewed for the book. I also have countless family and friends I would like to thank. I will start with my family: Dan, Kathy, Aaron, Andrea, Grace and Thomas O’Sullivan. Numerous friends and colleagues have helped along the way, especially by reading my work and listening to me talk about it at length: Clare McCausland, Elizabeth Usher, Peter Sankoff, Sally Dingle Wall, John Hadley, Doug Davison, Alasdair Cochrane, Mauro Grassi, Joan and Cliff Papayanni – who allowed me to live in their house in Blackheath while I undertook the research for this book – and Brendan O’Connell who patiently read and re-read many drafts. Artist, scholar and activist, Yvette Watt, kindly granted me permission to use ‘This Little Piggy….’ as the cover art. This book is dedicated to the next generation of political scientists who I trust will take seriously questions concerning how we properly incorporate animals into political society. And finally, in 1983, philosopher Midgley wrote: ‘People in general have perhaps thought of animal welfare as they have thought of drains – as a worthy but not particularly interesting subject’.1 My hope is that readers will find this book both worthy and interesting.

1M. Midgley (1983) Animals and Why They Matter (Athens: University of Georgia Press), p. 13.