Sue Donaldson
Queen's University at Kingston, Philosophy, Department Member
- I am a writer, philosopher and animal advocate living in Kingston, Canadaedit
For many years the lives of animals used for research in Canadian universities have been hidden from public view, due both to physical concealment (e.g., security procedures and impenetrable labs), and administrative concealment... more
For many years the lives of animals used for research in Canadian universities have been hidden from public view, due both to physical concealment (e.g., security procedures and impenetrable labs), and administrative concealment (non-disclosure of information). Their lives unfold out of sight both physically and discursively, unavailable to the Canadian public for ethical consideration and democratic oversight. Recently, in response to calls by the public to end this secrecy, Canadian universities and the Canadian Council on Animal Care have embraced the language of 'transparency' and have begun releasing documentation about animal research practices and procedures. This paper argues that this new 'transparency' acts as its own kind of concealment practice, obscuring and displacing meaningful information while constructing highly selective ways of seeing animals in science, and manufacturing acquiescence/consent on the part of the public.
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forthcoming in Social Research, Vol. 90/4 (Winter 2023), pp. 621-47
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published in Kristin Voigt, Valéry Giroux, and Angie Pepper (eds) The Ethics of Animal Shelters (Oxford University Press, 2023), 284-308.
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forthcoming in Solidarity with Animals, ed. Alasdair Cochrane & Mara-Daria Cojocaru, (Oxford University Press).
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Many theorists of the 'political turn' in animal rights theory emphasize the need for animals' interests to be considered in political decision-making processes, but deny that this requires self-representation and participation by animals... more
Many theorists of the 'political turn' in animal rights theory emphasize the need for animals' interests to be considered in political decision-making processes, but deny that this requires self-representation and participation by animals themselves. I argue that participation by domesticated animals in co-authoring our shared world is indeed required, and explore two ways to proceed: 1) by enabling animal voice within the existing geography of human-animal relationships; and 2) by freeing animals into a renewed public commons ('animal agora') where citizens encounter one another in spontaneous, unpredictable encounters in spaces that they can reshape together.
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Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in... more
Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in their relations with us to allow for a rich and meaningful study of inter- species ethics and the possibilities of just multispecies societies. Using multispecies ethnography and feminist accounts of the self as a springboard, we investigate animal agency in a sanctuary for formerly farmed animals, considering how a careful exploration of dimensions of agency in this setting might inform ideas of interspecies ethics and politics. This innovative extension of multispecies ethnography explores individual and collective dimensions of animals’ agency through space and place, through practice and routine, and through social roles and norms, to learn about whether/how animals might want to live with us, and how we can recognize and support their agency through our relationships.
Research Interests: Animal Studies, Animal Ethics, Animal Law, Animal Rights/Liberation, Interspecies Communication, and 7 moreAnimal Rights, Animals, Sanctuaries, Sanctuary, Animal Rights, Animal Ecology, Animal Studies, Animal Ethics, Animal Cognition, Animal Liberation, Animals in Culture, Philosophy Of Animals, Animals & Society studies, Ethics of Animals, and Laboratory Animal Welfare, Animal Law, Zoopolis. A Political Theory of Animal Rights Donaldson and Kymlicka, and Interspecies Ethics
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Rainer Bauböck's essay argues persuasively that our account of democratic inclusion needs to be more complex than is standardly recognized. Whereas most authors attempt to identify a single fundamental principle of democratic inclusion –... more
Rainer Bauböck's essay argues persuasively that our account of democratic inclusion needs to be more complex than is standardly recognized. Whereas most authors attempt to identify a single fundamental principle of democratic inclusion – whether it is the " all-affected interests " principle or the " all-subjected to coercion " principle or some social membership/stakeholder principle – Bauböck shows that there are different types of polities, with different principles of inclusion, and that the appropriate principles for inclusion at one level depend in part on the principles operative at other levels. Birthright citizenship at the national level, for example, makes possible both residency-based citizenship at the local level and derivative or nested citizenship at the federal level, just as the latter two modes of citizenship help to correct potential injustices or forms of domination generated by birthright citizenship at the national level. We are in broad agreement with Bauböck's general story about the need to complicate theories of democratic inclusion by recognizing multiple principles of democratic inclusion tied to multiple types of polity. The aim of this commentary is to push his project one step further, by adding another layer of complexity to our thinking about democratic inclusion. We will focus on a range of cases that fall outside our normal assumptions about who is eligible for, or capable of, citizenship, including children, people with cognitive disability and domesticated animals.
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in Linda Kalof (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies (Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 43-64.
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Donald Broom (2014) argues that theories of animal ethics need to be better informed by the findings of animal welfare science. We agree, but argue that animal welfare science in turn may need to ask different questions. To date it has... more
Donald Broom (2014) argues that theories of animal ethics need to be better informed by the findings of animal welfare science. We agree, but argue that animal welfare science in turn may need to ask different questions. To date it has largely assumed that society will continue to treat domesticated animals as a caste group that exists to serve us, and that animal welfare is to be improved within that legal and political framework. We offer an alternative model of human-animal relations, and discuss what kind of animal welfare science it would require.
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Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of... more
Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of nonhuman animals in political institutions-a revolutionary task; Vink argues for changes to the law that would cover nonhu-man animals with inviolable political rights; and Gagnon advises a personal change to dietary choices (veganism) and ethical orientations (do no harm). Together, the three proposals point to a future position where humans can participate in a multispecies world in which nonhuman others are freed from our tyrannical grasp.
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Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of... more
Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of nonhuman animals in political institutions-a revolutionary task; Vink argues for changes to the law that would cover nonhuman animals with inviolable political rights; and Gagnon advises a personal change to dietary choices (veganism) and ethical orientations (do no harm). Together, the three proposals point to a future position where humans can participate in a multispecies world in which nonhuman others are freed from our tyrannical grasp.
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Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of... more
Sue Donaldson, Janneke Vink, and Jean-Paul Gagnon discuss the problem of anthropocentric democratic theory and the preconditions needed to realize a (corrective) interspecies democracy. Donaldson proposes the formal involvement of nonhuman animals in political institutions-a revolutionary task; Vink argues for changes to the law that would cover nonhu-man animals with inviolable political rights; and Gagnon advises a personal change to dietary choices (veganism) and ethical orientations (do no harm). Together, the three proposals point to a future position where humans can participate in a multispecies world in which nonhuman others are freed from our tyrannical grasp.
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In August 2014, the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) and the Human Animal Research Network hosted a successful visit from Will Kymlicka, Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University.... more
In August 2014, the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) and the Human Animal Research Network hosted a successful visit from Will Kymlicka, Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University. Dinesh Wadiwel caught up with Sue Donaldson, co-author with Will Kymlicka, of the 2011 work Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights.
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In this interview, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka reply to some questions and objections to their book Zoopolis (Oxford 2011). A distinctive feature of their approach is the idea that domesticated animals should be seen as co-citizens of... more
In this interview, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka reply to some questions and objections to their book Zoopolis (Oxford 2011). A distinctive feature of their approach is the idea that domesticated animals should be seen as co-citizens of our political community. Donaldson and Kymlicka discuss how this view of animal citizenship relates to issues regarding the right to vote, the right to political representation, and rights to residence and membership. The authors also explore how their political account of animal rights theory relates to theories of multiculturalism as well as conflicts between individual and group rights. Addressing these issues, they argue, requires attending to the agency of animals themselves, and not just treating them as passive moral patients.
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In December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee living alone in a cage in a shed in rural New York. Under... more
In December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee living alone in a cage in a shed in rural New York. Under animal welfare laws, Tommy’s owners, the Laverys, were doing nothing illegal by keeping him in those conditions. Nonetheless, the NhRP argued that given the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities of chimpanzees, Tommy’s confinement constituted a profound wrong that demanded remedy by the courts. Soon thereafter, the NhRP filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of Kiko, another chimpanzee housed alone in Niagara Falls, and Hercules and Leo, two chimpanzees held in research facilities at Stony Brook University. Thus began the legal struggle to move these chimpanzees from captivity to a sanctuary, an effort that has led the NhRP to argue in multiple courts before multiple judges. The central point of contention has been whether Tommy, Kiko, Hercules...
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This is the pre-publication English version of "Refuge d'animaux", published in La pensée végane: 50 regards sur la condition animale, edited by Renan Larue
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This essay appears in Minding Nature Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring 2020), a publication of the Center for Humans and Nature (www.humansandnature.org)
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... For permissions, please see the last pages of this book. Designed by Karine Syvertsen Copyright © 2004 Peter Pauper Press, Inc. ... Sooner or later the pressures and pace of our lives will expose what we really are. Gloria Gaither 30... more
... For permissions, please see the last pages of this book. Designed by Karine Syvertsen Copyright © 2004 Peter Pauper Press, Inc. ... Sooner or later the pressures and pace of our lives will expose what we really are. Gloria Gaither 30 Page 35. Wield your power wisely. ...
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A Y/A novel published as Susan Cliffe
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Labour has been associated historically with a cluster of values, including individual security, self-development and freedom, social standing and recognition, and meaning. Insofar as these values are also relevant to animals, this... more
Labour has been associated historically with a cluster of values, including individual security, self-development and freedom, social standing and recognition, and meaning. Insofar as these values are also relevant to animals, this suggests that we should seek to include animals into the world of labour. We should recognize that animals, as well as humans, are workers, and deserve access to the security, self-development, status, community, and purpose wrapped up in the role of being a worker. The reality, however, is that work life fails to deliver many of these goods, much of the time, for many people. Moreover, given technological development, there is no necessity for everyone to be a producer, and indeed the cultural expectation that everyone should be ‘productive’ is culturally pernicious and environmentally unsustainable. As a result, we see increasing discussion of a ‘post-work’ society. This chapter explores how animals fit into the emerging debate about the post-work socie...
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In this brief, we argue that there is a diversity of ways in which humans (Homo sapiens) are ‘persons’ and there are no non-arbitrary conceptions of ‘personhood’ that can include all humans and exclude all nonhuman animals. To do so we... more
In this brief, we argue that there is a diversity of ways in which humans (Homo sapiens) are ‘persons’ and there are no non-arbitrary conceptions of ‘personhood’ that can include all humans and exclude all nonhuman animals. To do so we describe and assess the four most prominent conceptions of ‘personhood’ that can be found in the rulings concerning Kiko and Tommy, with particular focus on the most recent decision, Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc v Lavery
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Vol. 17, Issue 1 BTS: Your aim is to move the animal-rights debate beyond the field of ethics and into political philosophy. Drawing insights from citizenship theory, Zoopolis proposes recognizing domes-ticated animals as full citizens of... more
Vol. 17, Issue 1 BTS: Your aim is to move the animal-rights debate beyond the field of ethics and into political philosophy. Drawing insights from citizenship theory, Zoopolis proposes recognizing domes-ticated animals as full citizens of our communities, treating wild animals who live outside our communities as members of their own sovereign communities, and treating those “liminal” non-domesticated animals who live within the spaces of our communities as denizens with appropriate rights. This is an am-bitious vision that would fundamentally transform our under-standing of politics and how we think about our communal life. The initial reaction of many will be that this vision is wildly utopian and impracticable. And yet you claim that it actually stands a better chance of success than traditional animal-rights theory (ART). Could you explain?
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Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in... more
Anthropocentric bias and ignorance limit our ability to conceive just ways of living with nonhuman animals, especially farmed animals. We need to learn from animals themselves, in environments where animals retain sufficient agency in their relations with us to allow for a rich and meaningful study of interspecies ethics and the possibilities of just multispecies societies. Using multispecies ethnography and feminist accounts of the self as a springboard, we investigate animal agency in a sanctuary for formerly farmed animals, considering how a careful exploration of dimensions of agency in this setting might inform ideas of interspecies ethics and politics. This innovative extension of multispecies ethnography explores individual and collective dimensions of animals' agency through space and place, through practice and routine, and through social roles and norms, to learn about whether/how animals might want to live with us, and how we can recognize and support their agency thr...
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Under the remit of an expanded definition of sustainability – one that acknowledges animal agriculture as a key carbon intensive industry, and one that includes interspecies ethics as an integral part of social justice – institutions such... more
Under the remit of an expanded definition of sustainability – one that acknowledges animal agriculture as a key carbon intensive industry, and one that includes interspecies ethics as an integral part of social justice – institutions such as Universities can and should play a role in supporting a wider agenda for sustainable food practices on campus. By drawing out clear connections between sustainability objectives on campus and the shift away from animal based products, the objective of this article is to advocate for a more consistent understanding and implementation of sustainability measures as championed by university campuses at large. We will draw out clear connections between sustainability objectives on campus and the shift away from animal based products. Overall, our arguments are contextualised within broader debates on the relationship between sustainability, social justice and interspecies ethics. We envisage that such discussion will contribute to an enriched, more r...