Reproducing Dairy: Embodied Animals and the Institution of Animal Agriculture Kathryn A. Gillespie A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the partial requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Reading Committee: Michael Brown, Chair Victoria Lawson Lucy Jarosz María Elena García Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Geography © Copyright 2014 Kathryn A Gillespie University of Washington Abstract Reproducing Dairy: Embodied animals and the institution of animal agriculture Kathryn A. Gillespie Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Michael Brown Department of Geography This text draws on the United States dairy industry as a case study to understand how the institution of animal agriculture is continually reproduced through a repressive political climate, through routine agricultural practices, and through teaching new generations of young people to farm. Framed by the global intimate, I argue that we can learn much about human-animal relations by attending to the relationship between the individual, intimate animal, and global economic processes of commodification. I argue that bovine animals in the dairy industry are subject to a gendered commodification of their bodies based on their sex at birth and that routine practices and industry discourses reveal the violence against these bodies. The conditions under which animals are raised for food in the U.S. are determined by a political climate where animals’ legal protections are lax and efficient and scholars, activists and consumers are barred from accessing information about the conditions under which animals are raised and slaughtered. Paired with this political climate, powerful educational institutions work to normalize the current institution of animal agriculture through educating young people in ‘proper’ human-animal relations. Telling the stories of individual animals and humans throughout the text, I draw attention to the grievability of animals’ lives and deaths in the food system in an act of making the personal – the intimate – political. Preface This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Kathryn A. Gillespie. The work presented in this dissertation has, thus far, led to the following publications: Gillespie, Kathryn. 2014. Sexualized violence and the gendered commodification of the animal body in Pacific Northwestern US dairy production. Gender, Place and Culture. Work appears in Chapters 4, 5, and 8. iv Table of Contents Preface .............................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v List of Figures ................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1. Introduction. Sophie: Centering the Individual Animal .........................1 PART 1. A Politics of Law and (In)access ...................................................................59 Chapter 2. A ‘Downer’ Cow and Amy Meyer: Access-limiting Agricultural Policies .......................................................................................................59 Chapter 3. The Cow with Sticker #743: Animal Welfare Laws in Action ..............72 PART 2. Gendered Commodification and Sexualized Violence: Appropriating Animal Lives and Bodies ....................................................................85 Chapter 4. The Heifer with Ear Tag #6490: Of Calves, Milk and Meat: Commodifying the Female Body ..................................................................................85 Chapter 5. The Bull with Ear Tag #7050: Of Semen and Meat: Commodifying the Male Body ....................................................................................103 Chapter 6. The Calf with Ear Tag # 604: Of Veal and Dairy: Transforming the Newborn Body ..............................................................................115 PART 3. Material and Discursive Places of Commodification ..............................142 Chapter 7. The Cow with Ear Tag #1389: Containment and Mobility at the ‘Livestock’ Auction ............................................................................................142 Chapter 8. Betsy: Industry Discourses of Gendered Commodification and Sexualized Violence at the World Dairy Expo ..................................................162 PART 4. Educational Paradigms of Human-Farmed Animal Relations ..............198 Chapter 9. Daisy and Daniel: Teaching Children to Farm .....................................198 v Chapter 10. A Cow, Her Calf, and Maggie Lake: Redefining Education in Human-Farmed Animal Relations .............................................................................216 Chapter 11. Conclusion. A Steer at Auction: On Mourning ...................................237 References......................................................................................................................254 vi List of figures Figure1 Sophie at Animal Haven, California ...............................................................1 Figure 2 Differential bovine lifecourses by sex at birth in the dairy industry .......11 Figure 3 Gold’s Continuum ...........................................................................................39 Figure 4 Cow with sticker #743, Auction yard in California’s Central Valley ......72 Figure 5 Heifer with Ear Tags #6490 at Ansel Farm ..................................................85 Figure 6 Milking parlor with machines (one row) at Ansel Farm ...........................95 Figure 7 Milking demonstration at the Washington State Fair ................................95 Figure 8 Electro-ejaculator ...........................................................................................110 Figure 9 Calf hutches by Calf-Tel® ............................................................................128 Figure 10 Calf hutches by Calf-Tel® ..........................................................................128 Figure 11 Cow with docked tail at auction in California; selling for slaughter ...130 Figure 12 Newberry castrating knife .........................................................................133 Figure 13 Burdizzo/emasculatome (castration pliers) ............................................134 Figure 14 Horn growing back from incorrect dehorning .......................................136 Figure 15 Hot iron brand on hip of cow ....................................................................137 Figure 16 Front view of ear tags .................................................................................138 Figure 17 Rear view of ear tag ....................................................................................139 Figure 18 Hole in ear years after ear tag removal ....................................................139 Figure 19 Cows awaiting auction in outdoor holding pen, WA auction yard ....148 Figure 20 California auction yard layout ..................................................................150 Figure 21 Movement through auction yard #1 ........................................................151 Figure 22 Movement through auction yard #2 ........................................................152 Figure 23 Movement through auction yard #3 ........................................................153 vii Figure 24 Bovi-Shield Ad #1 .......................................................................................179 Figure 25 Bovi-Shield Ad #2 .......................................................................................180 Figure 26 “Alexander” in Select Sires Catalog ........................................................185 Figure 27 “Sanchez” in Select Sires Catalog .............................................................186 Figure 28 “G.W. Atwood” in Select Sires Catalog ...................................................186 Figure 29 “Governor” in Select Sires Catalog ...........................................................189 Figure 30 “Arrival” in TAG Catalog .........................................................................190 Figure 31 “Sammy Semen” T-Shirt ............................................................................192 viii Acknowledgements To my bright and shining inspirations at UW and beyond: Stefano Bettani, Andrew Childs, Katherine Cofell, Kristy Copeland, Annie Crane, Michelle Daigle, Annie Dwyer, Moníca Farias, Jessica Garcia, Sara Gilbert, Elyse Gordon, Jesse McClelland, Tamar Scoggin McKee (UBC), Will McKeithen, Skye Naslund, Lauren O’Laughlin, Magie Ramirez. To Sarah Elwood, your kindness, warmth and support made graduate school livable. Joe Eckert, thank you for your earnestness, your kindness, and your amazing help with conceptualizing the visuals in this text. Amy Piedalue, you have become a dear friend, support and inspiration through this process. To Tish Lopez, for your friendship, for your endless hours of conversation about this work, and for accompanying me into places I did not want to go. To Rosemary-Claire Collard, my intellectual comrade, your friendship is one of the best things to come out of this process; thinking, laughing, and talking with you has taught me so much. To the anonymized people who were interviewed for this work at the sanctuaries and lone dairy