On this page you will find a non-exhaustive list of philosophical, scientific, historical and legal works (essays) scientific, historical and legal works, as well as a few novels and personal accounts that have had a lasting impact on the awareness of the speciesist animal condition in contemporary Western culture from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day and which are essential references for acquiring the tools needed to understand the struggle for political, legal and cultural liberation towards the abolition of speciesism (listed in order of publication).
142 pages and not one too many: this latest issue of L’Amorce papier is thicker than ever. The magazine against speciesism continues its momentum with its rigorous analysis, intellectual freshness and unwavering commitment. In this issue: a feature on the close links between speciesism—discrimination based on species—and ableism—discrimination based on physical or cognitive abilities. Also worth reading: a long interview with Brigitte Gothière, co-founder and spokesperson for L214, an article by Élise Desaulniers on xenotransplantation, and a reflection by Jeff McMahan on conscientious omnivorism. This second issue also features articles by Sarah Zanaz, Thomas Lepeltier, Sarah Fravica, Martin Gibert, Tom Bry-Chevalier, Frédéric Côté-Boudreau, Sunaura Taylor, and Victor Duran-Le Peuch. The icing on the cupcake is comedian Guillaume Meurice and author Kaoutar Harchi answering our five questions for an anti-speciesist. In short, this is another issue full of resources to help you learn about, denounce and combat speciesism.
In our affluent societies, threatened by obesity and diabetes, the consumption of animal flesh, or meat, appears to be an insane, cruel, wasteful and polluting phenomenon. This aberration is compared here to the many facets of fetishism, a concept that originated in ethnography and the history of religions, before being quickly appropriated by Marxism, sexology and psychoanalysis. Religion, superstition, magical thinking, violence, oppression, sex, denial of reality: despite its apparent triviality, meat has many connections with these characteristic notions of fetishism, connections that shed light on some of its ideological dimensions. Ultimately, both through its irrational overvaluation and other harmful aspects, meat can be seen as a paradigmatic fetish of Western culture, one that it is high time to exorcise. Marie-Claude Marsolier is a research director in genetics at the CEA and currently works at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.
Although it remains a minority lifestyle, in just a decade veganism has become a genuine social issue, a divisive topic that leaves almost no one indifferent. While the question of its morality has been the subject of major developments in international scientific literature, in France only a few books have been devoted to it, and virtually none of them deal with ethics. Faut-il être végane ? (Should we be vegan?) aims to fill this gap. François Jaquet and Malou Amselek begin by providing a definition of veganism, which they understand as a lifestyle that excludes the production, purchase and use of animal products. They then critically examine the arguments most often used in favour of and against these three practices. Written in a straightforward style, the book stands out for its clarity and rigorous argumentation. It offers an essential introduction to the contemporary debate on the ethics of veganism. François Jaquet is a lecturer and researcher in moral philosophy and deputy director of the Master’s programme in Ethics at the University of Strasbourg. He is the author of Le pire des maux. Ethics and Ontology of Speciesism (Eliott éditions, 2024) and, with Hichem Naar, Who Can Save Morality? Essai de métaéthique (Eliott éditions, 2024). A graduate in animal care, Malou Amselek is passionate about philosophy, biology and ethology. She teaches languages, writes poems and short stories, and has translated Valéry Giroux and Renan Larue’s Le véganisme (PUF, 2019) into Spanish.
Central to debates on social reproduction, racism, the state and ecology, this book is useful for any reader who wants to understand the current crises. Nancy Fraser traces capital from crisis to crisis to develop the idea that, in capitalist societies, the economy relies on ‘non-market zones’ such as unpaid ‘domestic labour,’ nature, politics, and racism (as a mechanism justifying expropriation). Her argument brings together Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg with voices from Marxist feminism (such as Eli Zaretsky, Lise Vogel and Nancy Flobre), Black Marxism and eco-Marxism (such as James O’Connor and Jason Moore). Affirming the intersectionality of race, gender and class is not enough to unpack them as characteristics of capitalism. Is gender-based oppression a structurally necessary feature of capitalism? Is racial discrimination embedded in the reproduction of racial capitalism? Nancy Fraser, born on 20 May 1947 in Baltimore, is a feminist, socialist and post-structuralist philosopher who has been teaching political science and philosophy at the New School in New York since 1995.
We often hear people say that our politicians are not up to the job. This is obvious in the case of environmental policy, since the government is doing little or nothing to stop the destructive machine. But its responsibility, like that of multinationals and the famous 1%, is (almost) beyond question. Clément Sénéchal sets out to understand the other, more subtle causes that are leading political ecology to failure: those rooted in its own camp. Structurally, ecology, the fruit of environmentalism, has become a cause of the elites. Since the 1970s, its activists, NGOs and certain politicians have turned it into a cause for the privileged, one that can be divided up, negotiated and, above all, profited from. In doing so, they reduced the struggle to a staged performance, an abstract morality, far removed from ordinary citizens. These actors of ‘B.C.B.G.’ ecology, while constantly hammering home scientific findings, are much less vocal about their own failure. To build the victories of tomorrow, however, we need to take a hard look at the dead ends of this ‘spectacle ecology’. A powerful essay that finally puts into words what is politically obvious. A graduate in sociology and political philosophy and an expert on climate issues, Clément Sénéchal was spokesperson for a major environmental NGO for several years.
From farm to plate, in the senseless wake of animal transport. Since the dawn of time, humans have moved animals to take them to lush pastures. In recent years, this transhumance has accelerated and globalised. Our animals are born in one country, fattened in another and slaughtered in a third, according to industrial and cultural logic. Calves, lambs and pigs are transported in often appalling conditions, despite European regulations. Fortunately, men and women are organising themselves. Surveillance, infiltration, all methods are fair game to obtain information about animal transport and enforce the law. Émilie Fenaughty followed these activists who denounce the absurd mechanisms of a dehumanised industry at a time of climate emergency. Émilie Fenaughty is a young French author who is dedicated to writing in all its forms. She contributes to literary magazines (Le Sabot), writes gonzo articles (Vice) and performs stand-up comedy. All these forms of writing can be found in Carcasse, her first story.
Our relationship with animals, exploited by human practices and suffering the destruction of their environments, is in crisis. This is the observation made by philosophers Alice Crary and Lori Gruen, which they argue requires us to rethink animal ethics. For the crisis is not only one of our relationship with animals and nature, but also of the theoretical tools we have at our disposal to think about and act upon it. Through seven case studies that introduce us to particular animals in crisis due to human activities, this original book offers an overview and critique of contemporary animal ethics and opens up new avenues for developing a philosophically sound and politically effective approach. Following in the footsteps of ecofeminism, the authors show that we must place animal ethics within a broader contestation of the inequalities on which capitalism is built, intersectional inequalities that call for the forging of new alliances between animals and humans.
Animals are everything. They are themselves, of course, but above all they are what we make of them. We, humans. Because every time we talk about animals, we are really only talking about their animality: the animal state that we deem inferior. Thus we animalise animals, we make them killable, and we kill them without remorse. This animal state, humans claim, is not unique to animals, but also belongs to certain humans. These others: women, proletarians, racial minorities who, being neither men, nor bourgeois, nor white, have been excluded from the moral community by rape, by the factory, by the whip, by being smoked out of caves, by persecution and by imprisonment. Because they have been animalised. As much a theoretical work as an autobiographical graphic novel, Ainsi l’animal et nous calls on us to recognise the totality of the animal question, in which all the questions of our world come together. It then becomes possible to hold together everything that belongs together, to undo everything that has been done. Then to remake everything. Kaoutar Harchi, born on 21 December 1987 in Strasbourg, is a writer and sociologist of French literature.
In the Anthropocene era, the legal personality of wild animals echoes the challenges involved in protecting nature. The research contained in this book addresses issues related to the legal status of wild animals, biodiversity, the environment and sustainable development. The authors also explore the protection of ecosystems. The legal personality of wild animals paves the way for the emergence of a genuine law of life that refers to, but is not limited to, animals and nature. The culmination of this work, the Charter of the Rights of Living Beings, proclaimed on 26 May 2021 in conjunction with the United Nations’ Harmony with Nature programme, calls for a balance between the interests of humans, animals and nature.
While animal protein is no longer necessary for the nutrition of the majority of humans, hundreds of millions of animals are killed every day to be eaten. This mass exploitation, established as a global system, raises not only a fundamental ethical question. It constitutes a crucial ecological risk that threatens the habitability of the planet. Livestock farming accounts for 77% of the world’s agricultural land, while fishing takes place in more than half of the world’s oceans. Both are undoubtedly the main drivers of biodiversity loss. But they are also set to become the biggest contributors to climate change: the meat sector already accounts for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and demand for livestock products could grow by another 144% by mid-century. Faced with this disaster, it is no longer the time to distinguish between or oppose industrial and artisanal practices. In reality, the two are combined by an insatiable appetite for animal protein that is devouring the planet.
This critical situation forces everyone to face up to their responsibilities. As attractive alternatives to meat consumption emerge, citizens, farmers, communities, businesses and governments now have the power to encourage a food transition that respects life and is crucial for the survival of humanity. Jean-Marc Gancille is the co-founder of Darwin in Bordeaux and the La Suite du Monde cooperative. After launching and experimenting with these two concrete utopias of resistance and resilience in rural areas, he decided to devote himself fully to the animal cause. Vice-president for six years of Wildlife Angel (an NGO fighting poaching of large African wildlife), co-founder of the anti-captivity collective Rewild, and active in several animal rights movements, he works daily to promote cetacean conservation in Réunion with the NGO Globice.
Following This Is Vegan Propaganda, this new book from incredible vegan activist, educator, and influencer Ed Winters helps vegans effortlessly tackle one of the most challenging questions: how to argue with a meat eater. ‘A thought-provoking and deeply informative book.’ Challenge their beliefs; change the world. If you’re vegan, you know how provocative it can be; you never know when or how you’ll be challenged. But knowing how to confront and refute arguments against veganism is essential. Not only because many arguments lack substance, but also because every interaction is a pivotal moment to create change. How to Argue with a Meat Eater will not only teach you how to become a skilled debater by sharing the secrets of renowned vegan educator Ed Winters, but it will also provide you with hard-hitting facts and ideas that will make even the most ardent meat eaters think twice. By providing you with the knowledge you need to become a better conversationalist and critical thinker, as well as the motivation to create a more ethical, kinder, and more sustainable world, let this book be your guide and inspiration to know that, no matter what the argument, you can win every time.
An essay that sheds light on the links between the ecological crisis and colonialism, between the exploitation of nature and slavery. The world is in turmoil. Behind its claim to universality and its vision of a Noah’s Ark, environmental thinking has been constructed by obscuring the colonial, patriarchal and racist foundations of modernity. Thinking about ecology from the perspective of the Caribbean confronts this absence from a region where imperialism, slavery and ecocide violently intertwined the destinies of Europeans, Native Americans and Africans. The slave ship reminds us that some people were chained in the hold and sometimes thrown overboard at the mere thought of a storm. This is the unacknowledged aspect of the modern double divide that separates colonial domination from environmental destruction. Yet healing this divide remains the key to a form of ‘living together’ that preserves ecosystems as much as it preserves dignity. Faced with the storm, ‘decolonial ecology’ thus aims to design a common and just world for humans and non-humans: a world ship. Malcom Ferdinand is an environmental engineer at University College London (UCL), holds a PhD in political philosophy from Paris-Diderot University and is a researcher at the CNRS (IRISSO / Paris-Dauphine University).
” In exercising their respective powers, the federal state, the communities and the regions shall ensure the protection and welfare of animals as sentient beings.” The insertion of this sentence in Article 7bis of the Belgian Constitution significantly changes our legislative relationship with non-human animals. In Belgium, the adoption of such a proposal has now become a reality. It is also a divisive revolution. Some interpret it as opening up many positive prospects for animal welfare, even with a view to granting rights to non-human animals. Others believe that the constitutional provision will at best prevent their situation from worsening, or hope that it will have no concrete consequences, in the name of human interests. This book explores the following issues: the protection of non-human animals through the legal status granted to them in Belgium since the federal law protecting their welfare and the amendments to the Civil Code; their legal personification; and the constitutional recognition of their status as ‘sentient beings’.
It is quite rare for a philosophical concept to escape the academic arena. However, this is the case with the concept of speciesism, which has made a remarkable entry into the public sphere over the last decade. Unfortunately, this concept and the issues it raises are often misunderstood. Many authors contest its legitimacy without fully understanding it. Others use it more readily without understanding it any better. The confusion surrounding this notion prevents it from contributing to the discussion as much as it could. The worst evil seeks to remedy this situation by presenting the notion of speciesism in a way that is both precise enough to do justice to the philosophical discussions it is the subject of and clear enough to be accessible to anyone interested in the moral status of animals. François Jaquet is a lecturer and researcher in moral philosophy and deputy director of the Master’s programme in Ethics at the University of Strasbourg. His research focuses on animal ethics and metaethics.
Animal testing does not exist: the remarkable achievement of the industries that use it is that they have made it disappear. Every year in Europe, around 12 million animals are subjected to testing: a figure that has remained unchanged for twenty years despite growing public opposition and scientific discourse promoting a reduction in experiments. Rodents, fish, cats, dogs and monkeys are used in laboratories, sometimes for reasons that have little to do with health. What is the real life of these animals? Why is change so slow? What can be done? By setting up the Animal Testing association, Audrey Jougla has been able to gather information and testimonies that have never been published before. After years of field research punctuated by disappointments and victories, the author delivers an uncompromising overview that is as clear as it is enlightening. This intimate and committed account questions our humanity in the face of the animal condition. Audrey Jougla, born on 27 March 1985 in Saint-Cloud, is a French author, essayist and philosophy teacher.
” In exercising their respective powers, the federal state, the communities and the regions shall ensure the protection and welfare of animals as sentient beings.” The inclusion of this sentence in Article 7bis of the Belgian Constitution significantly changes our legislative relationship with non-human animals. In Belgium, the adoption of such a proposal has now become a reality. It is also a divisive revolution. Some interpret it as opening up many positive prospects for animal welfare, or even for granting rights to non-human animals. Others believe that the constitutional provision will at best prevent their situation from worsening, or hope that it will have no concrete consequences, in the name of human interests. This book explores the following issues: the protection of non-human animals through the legal status granted to them in Belgium since the federal law protecting their welfare and the amendments to the Civil Code; their legal personification; and the constitutional recognition of their status as ‘sentient beings’.
There is no shame in wanting to help animals. Nor is there any need to apologise for not being able to give up all practices that are harmful to them. Seeking to move beyond the all-or-nothing approach that often characterises anthropocentric views of animal relations, zooinclusivity is aimed at those who do not want to leave animals behind. It offers a progressive approach to taking positive and rapid action on behalf of other animals. It responds to demands from various sectors and proposes avenues for transition at the individual, collective and societal levels. The desire to build a zooinclusive world is real, but tangible improvements for other animals are slow and sporadic.
No, hunters are not, as they claim, ‘France’s leading environmentalists’. No, hunting does not protect nature. Through a scientific, documented and relentless approach, this book demonstrates the extent to which hunting is an ecological disaster. The elimination of so-called ‘harmful’ animals that are not actually harmful, ‘regulations’ that are supposed to guarantee ecological balance but target certain endangered species, nature reserves managed by hunters, the real scandal of wild boar… In this new, updated edition, greatly expanded with numerous field investigations throughout France, the author provides all the scientific data and verified figures, revealing the hidden cost of hunting in terms of biodiversity loss, environmental impact and social division.
Our choices can help mitigate the most pressing problems we face today: the climate crisis, infectious and chronic diseases, human exploitation and, of course, animal exploitation. These issues and considerations are difficult, but they are a matter of life and death. By exploring how our current system of animal agriculture affects the world around us, including natural environments and exploited animals, as well as the cultural and psychological factors that shape our behaviour, this book answers the most pressing question of our time: is there a solution that is fairer to the environment and animals? Drawing on years of research with slaughterhouse workers, farmers, animal rights philosophers, ecologists and ordinary consumers, Ed Winters shows us the true scale of the problems at stake and, above all, what we can do to remedy them. Vegan Propaganda will leave no one indifferent, whether you are already vegan, on your way to becoming vegan, or still sceptical about these issues.
At the end of a life devoted to exploring the human soul, Freud asserted that those he referred to as ‘higher animals’, who had experienced a period of dependence in childhood, had the same psychic apparatus as humans. This assertion is made possible by a deeper understanding of the psyche than those that link the unconscious and language. It draws on the history of evolution and posits a common condition for all living beings, born and mortal. If Freud extrapolates his thesis of the unconscious, the ego and the superego to higher animals, it is not in any way anthropomorphic. Rather, it is an observation, now supported by ethology and veterinary psychiatry, which describe internal conflicts and deal with psychopathologies. Beyond the full recognition of conscious life, taking into account the unconscious of animals renews our philosophical understanding of the psyche, both human and non-human. Florence Burgat is a philosopher and research director at INRAE, assigned to the Husserl Archives (ENS Paris). She works on the condition of animals, particularly from a phenomenological perspective. She is the author of L’Humanité carnivore (Seuil, 2017) and Qu’est-ce qu’une plante ? (Seuil, 2020), among other works.
What is the current state of animal welfare? How can we improve the treatment of pets, farm animals and wildlife? Animal welfare is a hot topic that pits two opposing views against each other, with very different ideas about the status and rights of animals. This book takes stock of the situation regarding farming, experimentation, fishing, hunting, the sale of animals, zoos, animal trafficking, etc., and outlines the measures that have been or should be implemented to improve animal welfare. The author compares French legislation and practices in the field of animal rights with those in Europe and internationally. Florence Burgat, born in 1962, is a French philosopher and research director at the National Institute for Research in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), assigned to the Husserl Archives (ENS-PSL-CNRS) since 2012. She is particularly interested in animal life, animal welfare and animal rights.
In an inspiring book, Tobias Leenaert abandons the well-trodden paths of animal rights discourse and takes a fresh look at the strategies, goals and communication of the vegan movement and animal rights activism. What we need, he says, given the current situation in which entire societies are dependent on the exploitation of animals, is a highly pragmatic approach. Towards a Vegan World brings together many relevant ideas for both new vegans and more experienced activists. With a foreword by Brigitte Gothière, co-founder of L214, and Peter Singer, Australian utilitarian philosopher and author of Animal Liberation, among other works. Tobias Leenaert (born 3 August 1973) is a Belgian animal rights and vegan activist, author and educator. He advocates a pragmatic approach to activism. He has co-founded organisations defending the rights of vegans and vegetarians, including the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy, ProVeg International and Ethical Vegetarian Alternative. He is the author of the book How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach (2017) and writes the blog The Vegan Strategist.
They are said to be harmful, accused of all kinds of wrongdoing, or, on the contrary, their beauty fascinates us. Loved or hated, do we really know them that well? To get past preconceived ideas, Pierre Rigaux takes readers out into the field. Starting out as a narrative, the story gradually makes connections between observations in nature and more general knowledge from biology and ecology. Who are foxes really? Where do they come from? How do they live? The science-based text takes the side of informed wonder. It changes our view of foxes and, through them, of all unloved creatures. Pierre Rigaux, born on 25 February 1980, is a French activist for ecology, animal rights and the abolition of hunting. Passionate about nature observation since childhood, he spends a lot of time in the field, where he says he has done most of his training since his youth. He also holds a Master’s degree in biology and a postgraduate diploma in geography.
This book tells the story of the very special bond we have with animals. Since the dawn of time, they have fascinated and terrified us in equal measure. They have played a central role in past civilisations and continue to play a fundamental role in human life today. Many people invest all their affection and emotions in them. This book also paints a broad picture of our relationship with animals, drawing on the latest research. To uncover what binds us together, it takes a new approach that reveals our attachments and their ambivalence. By revisiting Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on obedience to authority, in which ordinary men and women are led to harm a laboratory animal (actually a robot) for science, Laurent Bègue-Shankland renews the analysis of the influences on our behaviour towards animals. He reveals the individual profiles and circumstances that lead to a decrease in our empathy towards them. This book shows that our relationships with animals, from attachment to abuse, shed light on our identity and our relationships with others. A striking dive into the heart of our emotional relationships with animals. Laurent Bègue-Shankland is a professor of social psychology at the University of Grenoble-Alpes and a member of the Institut universitaire de France. A visiting researcher at Stanford University, he currently heads the Maison des sciences de l’homme-Alpes (CNRS/UGA).
For the first time in history, humanity is on the verge of being able to produce meat without animals. This technical feat would spare the billions of animals we raise and kill each year, often in very violent conditions. Even though, from a taste and nutritional point of view, this ‘cultured meat’ promises to be exactly the same as the meat we currently consume, and even better in terms of health, it is already facing strong opposition, mainly from livestock farmers. Given the need for a balanced debate on this major innovation, this book presents the main arguments from the perspective of animal welfare and the environment. David Chauvet, Doctor of Private Law and Criminal Sciences, is an animal rights essayist. Thomas Lepeltier, Doctor of Astrophysics, is an essayist specialising in the history and philosophy of science and animal ethics. He is the author of L’Imposture intellectuelle des carnivores (Max Milo, 2017), La révolution antispéciste (2018), and Les Véganes vont-ils prendre le pouvoir ? (Le Pommier, 2019).
Tous véganes ? (Are we all vegan?) is a short text that defends a simple thesis: it aims to explain why veganism is necessary today. It is a committed book that seeks to convince readers of the need to adopt this way of life, while acknowledging that this change cannot happen overnight and will require significant support measures and restructuring. A concise and serious work aimed at the general public, with indisputable sources. A committed and unique book, which does not seek to demonise the consumption of animal products, but rather to open minds and raise awareness. By the author of Animal radical: Histoire et sociologie de l’antispécisme (Radical Animal: History and Sociology of Anti-Speciesism), published by Éditions Lux in 2020.
‘The more ferocious man is towards animals, the more he grovels before men who dominate him.’ Louise Michel. The end of wild animals in circuses, the questioning of livestock farming (greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation), the recognition of health risks linked to animal exploitation (zoonoses), videos exposing the reality of slaughterhouses… All of this lends credence to the so-called ‘anti-speciesism’ movement. The word ‘speciesism’ has only recently entered dictionaries, but its use is spreading rapidly to refer to discrimination based on species. One of the consequences of anti-speciesism is veganism, seen as a refusal to participate in the exploitation of sentient animals capable of subjective experience of life. This concise and powerful book helps us understand the links between this movement and other schools of thought such as socialism, anarchism and feminism. It examines its relationship with ecology, religion and criticism of capitalism, and finally addresses the question of the convergence of struggles, but also of a redefinition of the place of humans on our planet. Jérôme Segal is a lecturer and researcher. He is the author of Animal Radical (Lux, 2020), Athée et Juif. Fécondité d’un paradoxe apparent (Matériologiques, 2016) and L’Armoire (Ed. Valensin, 2020).
In 1903, at a London university, a professor conducted an experiment on a live dog. Revealed by two young women, the case soon divided the whole of Great Britain. In 1985, on a Californian campus, a baby monkey was blinded as part of research into sonar. A rescue operation was organised by the Animal Liberation Front. In 2014, in Charleville-Mézières, a cow and her calf accidentally fall from a livestock truck onto a three-lane road, triggering a police chase throughout the city. In this three-panel fresco spanning a century, where animal, social and feminist causes intertwine, the evocation of the relationship between animals and humans in the industrial age reveals the nature of our ordinary relationships with the rest of the living world.
Even though animal welfare has never been so widely accepted in our society, more than a billion land animals are killed every year in France to meet the demand for meat, eggs and milk, while millions more are fished, hunted, exhibited in circuses or kept in enclosures. Why is there such a gap between our concern for animals and the way we exploit them? How can we bring about a society where animal exploitation is the exception rather than the norm? Romain Espinosa draws on the latest research in behavioural economics as essential tools for understanding our reluctance to change our habits and, at the same time, the unease we feel when we think about what goes on behind the walls of slaughterhouses. In doing so, he gives everyone the means to contribute, individually and collectively, to saving animals. Romain Espinosa is an economics researcher at the CNRS, specialising in decision-making mechanisms and experimental methods. His work focuses on plant-based diets and animal welfare: food choices, cognitive biases, and political and social preferences.
Whether you love them or hate them, wolves are, above all, very poorly understood. This book aims to go beyond the clichés that portray wolves as devils or angels, drawing on their biology and history. Living in the southern Pre-Alps, in the heart of wolf territory, Pierre Rigaux combines history, general scientific knowledge and a few anecdotes from his own experience to shed light on wolves in France and around the world. The text progresses like a narrative based on field observations, which serve as starting points for explanation and reflection. To help us better share our space with these animals, which are increasingly present in France, and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, this book takes an unnaive look at the beauty, complexity and fragility of the wild. Pierre Rigaux is a field naturalist. After studying biology, he worked for eleven years in nature conservation organisations, carrying out expert assessments, monitoring and protecting mammals, birds and plants. He now works as a freelancer with the same passion: combining scientific rigour and activism, ecology and animal protection, field expertise and knowledge sharing. He is very active on social media, where he has a community of over 100,000 followers.
This book is the first to offer an overview of animal studies in French. This multidisciplinary field of research, rooted in the humanities and social sciences, studies representations of non-human animals and the relationships that humans have with them (in other words, ‘anthropozoological’ relationships). This field also puts into perspective the opinions, beliefs and attitudes that underpin these representations, and the tropisms that operate at the heart of these relationships; anthropocentrism is a striking example of this. The anthropozoological exploration proposed here addresses domestication and breeding, the uses and categorisations of other animals, as well as animal ethics, animal law, animal rights movements and the cultural representation of non-humans. In particular, we discover that the identity and history of other animals, the roles we assign to them, and the representations of them are the result of social, philosophical, cultural, and linguistic constructs. Emilie Dardenne is a lecturer in English at the University of Rennes 2, where she is the academic coordinator of the university diploma course ‘Animals and Society’. Her work focuses on animal ethics and utilitarianism.
Anti-speciesism – the fight against all discrimination based on species membership – is more explicitly political than vegetarianism or veganism, which are essentially lifestyles. Since the late 19th century, vegetarian communities and pressure groups have fought against animal exploitation, but it was in Great Britain in the mid-20th century that another form of radical activism emerged, notably with the creation of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). This book traces the origins of the animal cause and analyses the diversity of the movements that claim to represent it, taking a closer look at anti-speciesism in France, Canada and Israel. The author addresses the most sensitive points of this discourse, such as the comparison between slaughterhouses and extermination centres, and the links with slavery and sexism. He also discusses veganwashing, which is the use of veganism to obscure injustices. The book assesses the progress of the animal cause and, more broadly, the openness of our societies to issues related to our relationship with animals. It was written by an anti-speciesist activist, but it is not a manifesto. It is an honest portrait based on some thirty interviews, which does not shy away from addressing the less glamorous aspects of the movement. Jérôme Segal, born on 26 December 1970, is a French-Austrian teacher and researcher specialising in the history and philosophy of science. The author of several articles and books, he is known for his contributions in the fields of information and communication sciences, Judaism and animal rights.
The welcome and necessary revision of anthropocentrism is now being paid for with a tendency towards confusion and indistinctness. This reign of indistinctness crosses a line that nothing justifies crossing with loving and suffering plants. Plants do not suffer; suffering is an experience felt by a physical body. And they only die in a very relative sense. Theophrastus already noted that ‘an olive tree that had been completely burned one day came back to life, its body and foliage intact’. But dying in a relative sense is not dying, because death is the absolute and irreversible end of all possibilities. An animal, or a human being, is either alive or dead. The inexhaustible variety of plants, the beauty of the smallest wild flower by the roadside, the magic of what springs from a dry seed, offer the image of a peaceful life, a life that does not die. This life that dies only to be reborn is the opposite of a tragedy. Dazzled by discoveries about communication in plants, we tend to think of everything on the same level. Florence Burgat proposes a phenomenology of plant life that reveals the radical difference between this mode of being and animal and human life.
Florence Burgat is a philosopher and research director at INRAE, assigned to the Husserl Archives (ENS Paris). She works on the condition of animals, particularly from a phenomenological perspective. She is the author of L’Humanité carnivore (Seuil, 2017), among other works.
Despite the growing visibility of the ‘animal issue’, confusion reigns among its various commentators. The terms in which the debate is framed, even in progressive circles, prevent a proper understanding of what is really at stake. This is particularly true of the concept of ‘speciesism’, which refers to discrimination based on species and posits the superiority of humans over other animals. This hierarchy of individuals according to their species has very concrete effects: today, more than 1,000 billion animals are exploited and killed each year for their flesh, the vast majority of which are aquatic animals. How is it possible to continue to justify all this suffering and death of sentient beings? This book reveals the theoretical, ethical and political impasse in which speciesist society has trapped us and clarifies the ideas developed by the anti-speciesist movement in France. Offering a clear and accessible summary, Axelle Playoust-Braure and Yves Bonnardel show how speciesism is a fundamental social issue and argue for a truly revolutionary change in civilisation. Yves Bonnardel is a libertarian and egalitarian activist. A long-time contributor to Cahiers antispécistes, he is the author, with David Olivier, of Manifeste pour l’abolition de l’apartheid international (Manifesto for the Abolition of International Apartheid, 1994) and co-editor of La Révolution antispéciste (The Antispecist Revolution, PUF, 2018). Axelle Playoust-Braure studied sociology and trained in science journalism at the ESJ in Lille. She is also co-editor-in-chief of L’Amorce, an online magazine against speciesism, and a member of the board of directors of OPIS (Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering).
The law of 16 February 2015 defined animals as ‘sentient beings’, marking a change in French law. Although they do not have legal personality or a new legal status, animals remain subject to property law, subject to the laws that protect them. In view of this inconsistency, the authors suggest redefining the category of persons, in the legal sense, to include animals. The law distinguishes between natural persons and legal persons. The book proposes to include animals in the category of natural persons, making a clear distinction between human and non-human persons. This doctrinal proposal would give animals, with their new legal personality, a coherent and effective status. It also paves the way for the creation of an autonomous law of life. The first book focused on pets. The focus now shifts to animals linked to property in the broad sense, i.e. animals used for farming, entertainment and experimentation. This second book aims to demonstrate that the law must, to a certain extent, adapt to evolving scientific knowledge about animals. This volume contains the Declaration on the Legal Personality of Animals of 29 March 2019, known as the Toulon Declaration. With an international scope, it has already been widely adopted in Latin America, Central America and India. Based on scientific advances, it is the legal extension of the Declaration made on 7 July 2012 in Cambridge recognising a form of consciousness in animals.
Veganism is gaining momentum in the West. It is part of a rich philosophical tradition and reflects two psychological dispositions shared by most of us: a reluctance to cause suffering to animals and a desire to preserve the planet (livestock farming is now a serious threat to the environment). However, as it remains a minority view and goes against deeply ingrained habits, veganism faces a barrage of criticism from both the food industry and intellectuals. However, the debates do not always live up to the issues at stake; disagreements between supporters and opponents are often based on misunderstandings. This book fills the gaps and fuels a social debate that has become unavoidable.
How are non-human animals represented in our everyday language? This book exposes the mechanisms of segregation that pit humans against non-humans by grouping the latter into the negative category of ‘animals’ or ‘beasts,’ denying them a face, a personality, feelings, the ability to reason or to want. It then examines how our language devalues non-humans through the pejorative connotations attached to the terms used to describe them. Numerous metaphors and expressions present other animals as essentially stupid, evil, dirty and obscene (‘a pig’, ‘a dog’s character’). Finally, other mechanisms are used to euphemise or even deny the physical violence to which they are subjected. Faced with this ‘misothery’, or contempt for non-human animals, which is embedded in our language, critical thinking and rationality remain our best resources for putting an end to this symbolic violence. Biologist and former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Marie-Claude Marsolier is a researcher at the CEA. In the field of linguistics, she has previously published Ich liebe dich/I love thee: grammaire et lexique de l’allemand comparés à ceux de l’anglais (CreateSpace, 2015).
“The human species consciously and deliberately kills more than 2 million animals every minute around the world. In other words, in one week, it slaughters 50 times more animals than all the human victims of all the wars in the history of mankind. In this new essay, Jean-Marc Gancille paints an uncompromising picture of the relationship that human beings have forged with the animal world, based on domination and exploitation, since before the dawn of agriculture. Religious sacrifices, collections and trade in wild animals, domestication, use of animals for military purposes or laboratory experiments, forced captivity in zoos and aquariums, recreational hunting and fishing, intensive farming and overfishing… The list of forms of anthropocentrism is endless. The author does not stop at this sad assessment. He demonstrates that this carnage is not only an eternal hell for animals but also a tragedy for the human species because of the destruction of ecosystems it causes, an immoral denial of animal sentience and a deception by the agri-food industry, which perpetuates the public’s need to consume animal protein. Finally, he outlines a course of action to ‘end anthropocentrism’ in the legal, food and agricultural spheres, and discusses methods for waging this struggle.
Trophies, food, subjects for experimentation, resources, whipping boys, toys, clothing… Since at least the Neolithic era, humans have viewed animals as means to an end. Yet this hegemony of our species, most clearly manifested in hunting and industrial farming, deliberately ignores the ethical implications of the Darwinian revolution. It is this human supremacism that anti-speciesism seeks to criticise. However, taking advantage of the rise of vegetarianism and veganism since the mid-2010s, the indignant discourse of anti-speciesists is finding increasing resonance, although it is often met with amusement or hostility. In this short essay, Valéry Giroux debunks the caricatures and shows that anti-speciesism is above all a basis for ethical and political reflection. By asserting that humanity must renounce some of the privileges it has unjustly granted itself at the expense of animals, she defends the idea that a world free of speciesism would not be perfect, but it would undoubtedly be more just. Valéry Giroux is a Doctor of Philosophy (animal ethics), coordinator of the Centre for Research in Ethics (CRE) and associate professor of law at the University of Montreal. She is the co-author of Le Véganisme with Renan Larue (Que sais-je ?, 2017; reprinted in 2019).
Vegans: for many, a ‘trendy’ utopia rather than a realistic political movement. It must be said that the subject is often approached from a narrow perspective. But let’s take a step back and imagine, in its entirety, a world in which we do not consume animal products: could such a social project ever come about? This is the question that Thomas Lepeltier has chosen to explore, in order to allow everyone to form their own opinion. Abolition of slaughterhouses, in vitro meat, a change of direction for agriculture, compensation for the meat industry… What politically organised societal choices could tip us into the vegan era? Choices that would not only meet fundamental ethical requirements but would also be realistic in practical terms. This book provides valuable food for thought for citizens of a society at a crossroads.
When he resigned from his position as Minister for Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Nicolas Hulot had the wise insight to recognise that political ecology could no longer be satisfied with ‘small steps in the right direction’, that this hope is futile when it comes to opposing a capitalist system that is inherently indifferent to the limits of our planet. In this short, powerful and persuasive book, Jean-Marc Gancille goes further and calls for radical activism. According to him, the elements that underpin the Great Productivist Myth – the ideal of the enlightened consumer-citizen, the alternative of green growth, the imminent advent of the ecological transition – are ideological pipe dreams that cause us to waste precious time and expend energy in vain. A lucid analysis of the state of the planet and the extent of the damage caused by ‘market fundamentalism’ calls for radical responses and an end to illusions. Today, turning to political leaders, who are largely subservient to the system, is unproductive, and mainstream environmental activism is lost in a form of naive magical thinking, blind to physical realities, social inertia and economic constraints. Faced with this situation and contrary to the new narratives that foster false hopes, Jean-Marc Gancille calls for an end to self-deception and for the facts to be considered as they are in order to develop responses that are equal to the challenges we face. He points us towards a radical, invigorating and ambitious path: combative action and the demonstration of our collective strength in the face of special interests. For, in order to save what can still be saved, we have little choice but to exercise ‘legitimate defence against the system’ and abandon hope in favour of courage. Jean-Marc Gancille is the co-founder of Darwin in Bordeaux and the cooperative La Suite du Monde. After launching and experimenting with these two concrete utopias of resistance and resilience in local communities, he decided to devote himself fully to the animal cause. Vice-president for six years of Wildlife Angel (an NGO fighting poaching of large African wildlife), co-founder of the anti-captivity collective Rewild, and active in several animal rights movements, he works daily to promote the conservation of cetaceans in Réunion with the NGO Globice.
By Léon-Patrice Célestin, Smadar Célestin-Westreich, François Glansdorff, Valérie Glansdorff, Evelyne Langenaken, André Ménache, Marie-Geneviève Pinsart, Thibaut Radomme, Elvira Saitova, Jorien Van Belle, Kris Wauters, coordinated by Florence Dossche.
Humanity is evolving, and with it, its perceptions, values and concerns. At a time of widespread animal exploitation and industrialised animal production, the question of the relationship between humans and animals is becoming increasingly important. Some people are seriously questioning the way humans perceive (and treat) animals and their place in our society. This book aims to contribute to this reflection by bringing together professionals from different disciplines to enable a multidisciplinary approach to the issue. A debate on the legal status of animals can only be informed if it is conducted in the light of history, knowledge and the challenges of the society in which it is taking place.
With this in mind, legal discussions on animals and their rights within the Belgian legal framework have been framed by historical, philosophical, bioethical and scientific considerations. After reviewing the state of “human-animal” relations in various fields (history, art, science), the examination focuses on neurology and bioethics, which objectify the “sentience” of animals, from which derives the need to recognise them as rights holders. This is followed by legal discussions: first, an examination of a few foreign legal systems, then an in-depth look at the Belgian legal framework and its implementation by those working in the field, and finally, the thorny issue of changing the legal status of animals.
This book is a history of zoos through the stories of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and the zoological gardens in London and Antwerp, from their foundation in the early 19th century to the present day. Written from the animals’ point of view, but without losing sight of the humans who make and break the institution, it reveals the weight of control, in the cages that shape bodies and behaviour, and beyond. For the zoo draws up sprawling networks of capture backed by imperial power and, from the 20th century onwards, a conservationist stranglehold, imprisoning animals from all over the world on the grounds of their protection. The zoo microcosm therefore does not only speak about the zoo, it sheds light on the history of powerful institutions, such as animal protection associations and wildlife conservation organisations, whose policies, now globalised, constrain those they seek to protect. But the story is also one of animals and humans who, within the straitjacket and in the face of it, resist and fight together to open up other possibilities. Violette Pouillard, PhD in history, associate researcher at LARHRA, Université Jean Moulin-Lyon 3, is a research fellow at the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS at the Université libre de Bruxelles – and the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique Flandre – FWO at the University of Ghent, where she teaches environmental history.
Slaughterhouse scandals, various forms of pollution, the explosion of lifestyle diseases… In recent years, meat consumption has been called into question. But could we really do without meat and animal products on a society-wide scale? What would be the consequences for health, agriculture and the economy of a transition to a vegan world? Drawing on philosophical and forward-looking reflections, this thought-provoking book attempts to answer these questions and outlines ways to invent a different world that is sustainable and respectful of animals.
