THE PALGRAVE MACMILLAN ANIMAL ETHICS SERIES Creative Compassion, Literature and Animal Welfare Michael J. Gilmour The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series Series Editors Andrew Linzey Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Oxford, UK Clair Linzey Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Oxford, UK In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. This series will explore the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations. Specifically, the Series will: • provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out ethical positions on animals • publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accom- plished, scholars; • produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary in character or have multidisciplinary relevance. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14421 Michael J. Gilmour Creative Compassion, Literature and Animal Welfare Michael J. Gilmour Providence University College Otterburne, MB, Canada ISSN 2634-6672 ISSN 2634-6680 (electronic) The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series ISBN 978-3-030-55429-3 ISBN 978-3-030-55430-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55430-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustraion: The Protected Art Archive / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Series Editors’ Preface This is a new book series for a new field of inquiry: Animal Ethics. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. In addition, a rethink of the status of animals has been fuelled by a range of scientific investigations which have revealed the complexity of animal sentiency, cognition and awareness. The ethical implications of this new knowledge have yet to be properly evaluated, but it is becoming clear that the old view that animals are mere things, tools, machines or commodities cannot be sustained ethically. But it is not only philosophy and science that are putting animals on the agenda. Increasingly, in Europe and the United States, animals are becoming a political issue as political parties vie for the “green” and “ani- mal” vote. In turn, political scientists are beginning to look again at the history of political thought in relation to animals, and historians are beginning to revisit the political history of animal protection. As animals grow as an issue of importance, so there have been more collaborative academic ventures leading to conference volumes, special journal issues, indeed new academic animal journals as well. Moreover, v vi Series Editors’ Preface we have witnessed the growth of academic courses, as well as university posts, in Animal Ethics, Animal Welfare, Animal Rights, Animal Law, Animals and Philosophy, Human–Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Animals and Society, Animals in Literature, Animals and Religion—tangible signs that a new academic discipline is emerging. “Animal Ethics” is the new term for the academic exploration of the moral status of the non-human—an exploration that explicitly involves a focus on what we owe animals morally and which also helps us to under- stand the influences (social, legal, cultural, religious and political) that legitimate animal abuse. This series explores the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional under- standings of human–animal relations. The series is needed for three reasons: (1) to provide the texts that will service the new university courses on animals, (2) to support the increas- ing number of students studying and academics researching in animal- related fields and (3) because there is currently no book series that is a focus for multidisciplinary research in the field. Specifically, this series will • provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out ethical positions on animals; • publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accomplished, scholars and • produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary in character or have multidisciplinary relevance. The new Palgrave Macmillan Series on Animal Ethics is the result of a unique partnership between Palgrave Macmillan and the Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The series is an integral part of the mis- sion of the Centre to put animals on the intellectual agenda by facilitat- ing academic research and publication. The series is also a natural complement to one of the Centre’s other major projects, the Journal of Animal Ethics. The Centre is an independent “think tank” for the advance- ment of progressive thought about animals and is the first Centre of its Series Editors’ Preface vii kind in the world. It aims to demonstrate rigorous intellectual enquiry and the highest standards of scholarship. It strives to be a world-class centre of academic excellence in its field. We invite academics to visit the Centre’s website www.oxfordani- malethics.com and to contact us with new book proposals for the series. Oxford, UK Andrew Linzey Oxford, UK Clair Linzey Preface Sitting proudly on my bookshelf is an early edition of Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel Black Beauty bearing the inscription, “To Michael from Grandma [Ethel] Stanley, 1974.” It was first presented to her, according to an earlier inscription, on September 30, 1917. She would have been eleven at the time, just a generation removed from Sewell. I wasn’t much of a reader in 1974 so this book collected far more dust than dogears for many years to come but, though Grandma Stanley could not have known it, in time Sewell’s autobiography of a horse proved transformative. Stories change us. To read them is to see the world with new eyes. Sewell’s Black Beauty awakened a sensitivity to animal suffering that is never far from my mind. Along with literature, direct encounters also inform our views about animals and their wellbeing. One incident stands out in memory. It was a long low barn, dimly lit, the air thick with dust. Having never been on a farm this was all new to me. I was nineteen at the time, in the fall of 1986, and in my first year of university at a small rural campus on the Canadian prairies. An area farmer needed able-bodied workers for a few hours and offered each of us $25 to do some ‘chicken catching.’ Coming from the city I had no idea what that meant but money was in short sup- ply and that was incentive enough to go along. This was more than thirty years ago but I recall certain details. We arrived after dark. Chickens cov- ered the entire floor of the enormous barn, sitting or standing listlessly. Our job for the next few hours was to reach under the birds and quickly ix x Preface grab their legs before they fully woke up, then lift them so they were upside down. They start flapping their wings immediately so it’s physi- cally taxing––my arms, shoulders and back ached for days afterwards. The more experienced and stronger ‘catchers’ managed two birds in each hand. Once we had our chickens, we took them outside to waiting trucks and lifted them to others who stuffed the startled birds into small cages. After each delivery we returned to the barn for more, repeating the pro- cess until the floor was empty of living birds. The process was not smooth. A bird might slip away at some point and have to be wrestled down. The lids on the cages were shut quickly and often caught a wing or a foot or a head. And worst of all was the feeling of occasional breaking bones when grabbing or carrying the startled birds. Their bodies seemed brittle. I now regret my participation in that ‘chicken catch,’ and having since learned more about the factory farming of chickens for meat and eggs, I’m left with three lasting impressions. The first is the brutal force of human domination of some animals. Those birds––manipulated into docility by the lighting––were completely powerless against the muscle and machinery driving that business. The second is the unnaturalness of that low, dark, stinking place. Chemicals, overcrowding, body manipula- tion (through selective breeding, beak cutting), shortened lives. Third, it made me realize the enormous distance between the barn and the dinner plate. At that time, I had no idea what meat and dairy production involved. Not really. Literary horses like Black Beauty and his friends, and real, frightened, fragile chickens. The ones products of the imagination, the others actual, vulnerable, sentient beings. And all of them, in their own way, whisper- ing a compelling challenge to my then habitual indifference to animals as neighbours deserving moral consideration. Stories do not always remain between the covers of books. They linger, sometimes attach, unbidden, to the stuff of our lives. To meet and enjoy fictional animals is to risk meet- ing them again in unexpected ways. I cannot hear a toad without smiling, as the sound brings Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908) to mind. Am I less likely to throw a stone at one for having read that book? Another encounter. The punchline of the Good Samaritan parable comes at the beginning of that famous story rather than the end, and it is not Jesus who delivers it but instead a nameless onlooker. When Jesus