Easygoing Speciesism

In my doctoral thesis, leaning heavily on Christopher Lasch, I coined the term "easygoing speciesism."

The concept defines attitudes and claims-making about human-nonhuman relations and, in particular, highlights the easy assumptions humans tend to make about the rightful place and legitimate use of nonhuman animals. Indeed, the issue of 'place' is very important in routine social interaction. An example of easygoing speciesism occurred in the reporting of an 'escape attempt' made by a female orangutan from an Australian zoo.

The orangutan, named Karta by her captors, constructed a ladder and short-circuited electrical wires in order to scale a wall of "her enclosure" - or "her exhibit," as one of the zoo's officials is reported to have described it.

The public were subjected to the 'trauma' of being escorted out of the zoo compound (and on Mother's Day to boot), while "vets stood by with tranquiliser guns" to shoot the animal the zoo had had "issues with before" if necessary. Zoo curator, Peter Whitehead, told the press that Karta was "ingenious" and liked building things but in this case on the wrong day and in the wrong area. Whitehead speculates that the ape may have known she had "done something wrong" and is therefore "a bit guilty" for either attempting to escape her prison - or perhaps just trying to alleviate the boredom with a new view of "her exhibit."

Described as "wily", the orangutan's intelligence is repeatedly highlighted in reports. However, toward the end of a TV news clip (see here), viewers are told that her long-time partner had recently died. Zoo officials were apparently quick off the mark to utterly dismiss the possibility that she had done what she had due to this event. No, if there should be any focus on an element of 'trauma' at all, better it be the public's in their appalling inability to visit a zoo for a short period of time rather than an animal's loss of a loved one. After all, acknowledging a certain degree of intelligence to nonhuman animals is one thing - pet owners do it all the time - but to allow for complex emotions most prefer to think are limited to human animals is quite another.

Of course the most striking aspect of easygoing speciesism in this whole episode is the fact that no-one appears to even begin to question the legitimacy of zoos in the first place, or start to wonder whether imprisoning intelligent nonhuman animals will inevitably lead to this sort of occurrence. Similarly, expecting anyone to consider animal rights and animal rights violations is even more unlikely in societies saturated in speciesist norms and values.