What is Animals in the Room?
Begun during the pandemic, ‘Animals in the Room’ is an international collaboration of philosophers, scientists, and animal welfare specialists working together to devise and test models for representing non-human animals in decision-making. Crucially, this representation is founded on working with the animals. When we recognize the dignity of other species and the ability of animals to act for and communicate their interests, this then calls for their fair representation in a democracy. We seek to establish how best to do this.
Getting animals a seat at the table
and getting animals heard is revolutionary. It’s never been done.
And yet the idea that those who are affected by policy decisions should have some say over those decisions is a tried and tested principle of democratic theory and practice for centuries, if not millennia.
– Alasdair Cochrane
Getting animals a seat at the table
and getting animals heard is revolutionary.
It’s never been done.
And yet the idea that those who are affected by policy decisions should have some say over those decisions is a tried and tested principle of democratic theory and practice for centuries, if not millennia.
– Alasdair Cochrane
REPRESENTING NON-HUMAN ANIMALS
The question of how we represent non-human animals is now urgent, not only because of the biodiversity crisis and the consequences of climate change on the balance of life on Earth, but also in response to One Health approaches to global health in the wake of the pandemic. Human residents of our communities have many, well-established methods of political and legal representation to ensure our interests are sufficiently present when life-altering decisions are made. But there is no such recognition for other animals. We seek to address this imbalance.
In the 1960s, political philosopher Hanna Pitkin wrote that to ‘represent’ those who might be marginalized or ignored within a community is fundamentally to “make [them] present again.” By her definition, representation in this political sense makes the voices, perspectives, and interests of the less visible members of a community present in the decision-making spaces where they are otherwise absent.
'POLITICAL LISTENING'
HOW & WHEN OF REPRESENTING OTHER SPECIES
THE LANGUAGE CHALLENGE
TRAINED HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES
CULTURAL NUANCES
Fundamentally, once animals are empowered to speak for themselves, they become subjects of justice in a more just world.
Who are Animals in the Room?
“Procedural justice requires that in a democratic community everybody that is going to be affected by a law or action – the ‘all affected principle’ – has to be included in the construction of that law, however we end up instituting that.”
Danielle
Celermajer
Professor of Sociology, University of Sydney, Australia
“It is vital we attempt to listen to non-human animals in situations in which we are making choices and decisions that cause significant harm or transformation to their lives. The function of this listening is to recognize any ‘political’ signals that might emerge from the voices or behaviours of non-human agents.”
Melanie
Challenger
Writer and ethicist, RSPCA and Nuffield Council, UK
“Think about public transport or public health. All of these things affect animals in profound ways. If they’re being affected, then animals matter politically to some extent. More substantively, we might say if our policies govern them or change the way they behave, then they should also matter.”
Alasdair
Cochrane
Professor of Political Theory, University of Sheffield, UK
“It is vital we attempt to listen to non-human animals in situations in which we are making choices and decisions that cause significant harm or transformation to their lives. The function of this listening is to recognize any ‘political’ signals that might emerge from the voices or behaviours of non-human agents.”
Melanie
Challenger
Writer and ethicist, Nuffield Council on Bioethics & RSPCA, UK
“Think about public transport or public health. All of these things affect animals in profound ways. If they’re being affected, then animals matter politically to some extent. More substantively, we might say if our policies govern them or change the way they behave, then they should also matter.”
Alasdair
Cochrane
Professor of Political Theory, University of Sheffield, UK
"Necesitamos reinventar nuestras prácticas e instituciones políticas de manera que las múltiples formas de vida que coexisten en nuestras comunidades, cada una con sus propios matices y particularidades, sean genuinamente escuchadas y respetadas. Esto es algo que nos debemos a nosotros mismos y a otros animales."
Alfonso
Donoso
Associate Professor of Political Philosophy, Pontifical Catholic University, Chile
“Unfortunately, many of today's representatives of wild animals ultimately speak for their own human interests. Animals ought to be at the table not as our food but as moral equals with their interests and dignity considered authentically in all our actions and policies that affect them.”
Julius
Kapembwa
Lecturer of Philosophy and Applied Ethics, University of Zambia, Zambia
“Procedural justice requires that in a democratic community everybody that is going to be affected by a law or action – the ‘all affected principle’ – has to be included in the construction of that law, however we end up instituting that.”
Danielle
Celermajer
Professor of Sociology, University of Sydney, Australia
“We need to reimagine our political practices and institutions so that the multiplicity of life forms co-existing in our communities, each with their own nuances and particularities, are genuinely listened to and respected. This is something we owe both to humans and other animals.”
Alfonso
Donoso
Associate Professor of Political Philosophy, Pontifical Catholic University, Chile
Lucy
Parry
Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, UK/Aus
“What we do every day affects billions of animals, yet we are blinded by the way that we’re conducting the decision-making. We say we’re doing it on behalf of animals without acknowledging them or letting them have any say in it.”
Erin
Ryan
Animal Welfare Scientist, University of British Columbia, Canada
“There’s a failure of imagination. We haven’t done the hard work of trying to understand what is really important for those animals and taking those decisions seriously.”
Dan
Weary
Professor of Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, Canada
“Unfortunately, many of today's representatives of wild animals ultimately speak for their own human interests. Animals ought to be at the table not as our food but as moral equals with their interests and dignity considered authentically in all our actions and policies that affect them.”
Julius
Kapembwa
Lecturer of Philosophy and Applied Ethics, University of Zambia, Zambia
Lucy
Parry
Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, UK/Aus
“What we do every day affects billions of animals, yet we are blinded by the way that we’re conducting the decision-making. We say we’re doing it on behalf of animals without acknowledging them or letting them have any say in it.”
Erin
Ryan
Animal Welfare Scientist, University of British Columbia, Canada
“The first thing we have to do is de-genericize non-human life and listen to the vast differences between a bottlenose dolphin and dog. The science shows that the more we learn by listening about these creatures the more the heterogeneity of the non-human world has just exploded before our very eyes.”
Cary
Wolfe
Founding Editor, Posthumanities series, University of Minnesota Press, USA
“There’s a failure of imagination. We haven’t done the hard work of trying to understand what is really important for those animals and taking those decisions seriously.”
Dan
Weary
Professor of Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, Canada
“The first thing we have to do is de-genericize non-human life and listen to the vast differences between a bottlenose dolphin and dog. The science shows that the more we learn by listening about these creatures the more the heterogeneity of the non-human world has just exploded before our very eyes.”
Cary
Wolfe
Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English, Rice University, USA