Factory Farming and Animal Abuse

The patriarchy continues to enforce it’s domination over the earth in the ways animals are tortured in factory farming. Animals are routinely tortured and lead miserable lives all centered around the cheapest possible ways the corporation can make more money. This is done at the expense of an animals rights (ASPCA, Mercy for Animals, PETA). The same structures that enforce women’s oppression enforce the oppression of the animals that are born of this earth.

According to Karen Warren, a feminist philosopher, there is a symbolic association of the degradation of women and the environment in many religions as well as literature and art. Western society draws a great number of influences from the Christian bible and uses key verses from the Book of Genesis to support the idea of using the environment for human uses. Genesis 1:28 states that “…God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

This idea of man’s dominion over all the creatures of the earth is in direct contrast with ecofeminist principles. Ynestra King believed that life on earth, rather than having a natural hierarchy as mentioned in the bible, is instead an “interconnected web”. Mankind’s relationship to nature has been to subdue it, control it. Just as men have continued to subdue and control women throughout history. The two are interconnected for they are being controlled in much the same manner, as stated by Hobgood-Oster. This control of nature harkens back to the Industrial Revolution when scholars such as Francis Bacon wrote extensively of controlling nature (Hobgood-Oster 8).

In order for either ecology of feminism to advance, they both must consider each other. As feminism has taken on the perspectives of racism, classism and ableism, so it must also take on naturism (Hobgood-Oster 2). Dualistic hierarchies have supported the patriarchal structures and this is what ecofeminism seeks to address. The assumptions of these hierarchies continue to justify the oppression of humans and nature. In order for humanity and nature to realize a point where all is equal, where everything of this earth is seen as having equal rights to its natural state, these dualisms must be destroyed (Hobgood-Oster 3).

In Warren’s Introduction to Feminism Karen Warren illustrates eight points linking women to nature. One of these is Conceptual Connections which addresses that “historical and causal links between the dominations of women and nature are located in conceptual structures of domination that construct women and nature in male-biased ways (Warren)”. The human/nature and man/woman dichotomies prescribe higher values to one or the other, in this case, human and men are seen as more valuable than nature and women. Much like throughout history the rights of women have been taken away, so have the rights of nature and of animals. Today in the U.S. women have the right to vote, but that was only granted in the United Statesin 1919, similarly spousal rape was legal until it began working it’s way out of state laws in the 1970’s. There are very few laws protecting the rights of the animals of this earth. Despite being living, breathing creatures, they are housed in slaughterhouses that don’t allow them to live their lives in a natural manner. Instead they are kept locked in cages, unable to sit or turn around for the duration of their lives, ultimately slaughtered and sent to your local Wal-Mart to be picked up and brought home for dinner. These living conditions reflect those of women throughout history and with the efforts of ecofeminism, will hopefully one day change.

Works Cited

Brendan. “Warren’s Introduction to EcoFeminism.” There It Is, 21 Jan. 2014, thereitis.org/warrens-introduction-to-ecofeminism/.
“Factory Farming: The Industry Behind Meat and Dairy.” PETA, 22 June 2010, www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/.
“Factory Farms: Hell on Earth.” Mercy For Animals, 2 Jan. 2015, mercyforanimals.org/the-problem.
“Farm Animal Welfare.” ASPCA, www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/farm-animal-welfare.
Hobgood-Oster, Laura. Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution . 18 Aug. 2002.
King, Ynestra. The Ecology of Feminist and the Feminism of Ecology. 1989.
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4 Responses to Factory Farming and Animal Abuse

  1. tari brand says:

    Very thoughtful. I too have struggled with the way our society treats animals. It has only been since the reading for this course that I am beginning to see and identify the correlation between how animals are treated and how women are treated in the same manner. My daughter, at the age of 8, became a vegan. At the time all I could think of was, “how am I going to make meals for us?” She would beg me to watch the PETA videos depicting how outrageously cruel we grow (I use the word ‘grow’ and not raise or care for) animals and how they are slaughtered for food, without any concern for their well-being, their lives, their anything. She is still vegan and I have been vegetarian for decades. But that doesn’t address the so-called scientific use of animals for the cosmetic industry, the pharmaceutical industry and many other inhumane reasons.
    In the article by Aph Ko in Everyday Feminism, https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/12/animal-rights-feminist-issue/, writing from an intersectional feminist perspective, she states that there are five reasons why we should connect animal abuse with human abuse:

    1. Animal Bodies Are Objectified, Too
    Animal and women’s bodies exist for the pleasure of others
    Animals and women become things, with no humanity

    2. Animal Bodies Are Used to Normalize R@pe Culture
    Female animals are used to breed and then are discarded, rejected, killed
    Women are often seen in the same light, to procreate and control

    3. Domestic Violence Harms Animals
    88% of child abuse also includes animal abuse by the perpetrator
    Animal and child/women abuse is a patriarchal construct, artificial at its core

    4. Intersectionality Must Include All Oppressed Groups
    Oppression of every sort is interconnected and must be seen and tackled as one

    5.Our Society Spreads Lies About Animals, Too
    “Cultural scripts perpetuate myths and traditions”
    ‘I love the taste. I need it for protein. They don’t feel. I would miss it.’

    If we see this connection, what is the next step? Choosing to stop eating meat is just the beginning. Not purchasing leather, no fur, no cow skin rugs, nothing made of an animal skin is the next step. Writing to our congress people regarding animal cruelty and women’s rights is another. Standing up and protesting animal cruelty and women’s abuse, in front of big business who use animals for experimentation. Writing to those corporations, stating that we will no longer buy any products associated with animal cruelty in any way is another step. Report animal cruelty. Demand stricter laws protecting animals and women. I see now that they go hand in hand.
    https://www.four-paws.org/campaigns-topics/topics/companion-animals/preventcrueltytoanimals/ways-to-prevent-cruelty-to-animals

    The above link has 10 ways to help end the abuse of animals. I am now a firm believer that animal rights and women’s rights are directly tied as one issue. One cannot look at women’s place in society without also seeing abuse toward animals.

    disclaimer: @ had to be used as the post would not be allowed if the word was written out as it’s spelled.

    • Kiera Janoski says:

      That was a really thoughtful reply Tari, I appreciate it. Your comment about the perpetuated myths of “They don’t feel” brought me back in time. Have you ever heard thirty cows screaming and crying? It is an awful, soul wrenching sound. The dairy farm next door burnt down a few years back and hearing them crying out in pain and fear broke my heart and changed my mindset on a lot of things. Ko’s article was enlightening and I enjoyed reading the ten ways to end the abuse of animals and looking to see what I am doing and not doing in order to protect them. I actually just took my dads dog from him last week because he was severely neglecting him with his workload (he works one 60 hour a week job and then works maintenance to apartment buildings on top of that). My house is becoming the go-to place for all pets in my family that aren’t being taken well care of.

      • tari brand says:

        What a horrible yet enlightening experience! So helpless to hear animals dying. I can’t imagine. On a lighter note, our home has often become a foster kennel for unwanted and lost dogs. Some we keep, some we don’t. Knowing how much we love our pets causes me to wonder how we can treat a human worse than our dog or cat.
        Enjoy your new found friend!

  2. lparadis says:

    Hi Kiera,
    I have just recently been starting to understand the horrible lives animals who are raised for meat. Even cows who are raised for milk and chickens for eggs most often experience abuse and neglect. I think that there are a lot of people who do not understand what factory animals go through and to hear you express your thoughts on it could inspire others to look into it more. I think you brought up some great points in your post and though I did not choose to write about this one I also found conceptual connections interesting. Based on Warrens reading the different views of ecofeminism can come from a number of different beliefs, practices, ideas and so on. There are a lot of different approaches to ecofeminism and I think part of how a particular person views it is based on where they’re from and what they believe. Like you mention the link back to women and nature being placed below men can come from history and what they believed back then. A lot of what we believe and practice today has been carried through generations. Times can change and people can change, but they can also just as well stay the same.

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