Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles




Concealing Speciesist Violence in U.S. News reporting on the COVID-19 “Pork” Industry Crisis

From Lisa A. Barca, Frontiers in Communication
Barrett, The Honors College, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
March 2022

When animals are presented in media stories, it is almost always as incidental figures in narratives centered on anthropocentric concerns, so that they are objectified as “mass terms” rather than portrayed as individuals with subjectivity. In other words, they are presented solely in the context of their commodification.... The ethics of our treatment of other animals was a long-neglected topic in media studies, discourse studies, and even in traditional animal studies.


murdered Pigs
Image from Direct Action Everywhere: Gruesome Footage Shows Pigs Roasted Alive at Iowa's Leading Pork Supplier Amid Coronavirus Crisis

This analysis finds that media reporting legitimated violence against pigs by framing narratives from industry perspectives, deflecting agency for violence away from farmers, presenting pigs as willing victims, masking violence through euphemism, objectifying pigs and ignoring their sentience, and uncritically propagating industry rhetoric about “humane” farming.

Introduction

At the university where I teach, I offer a course on animal ethics each year. As part of the course, students visit local animal sanctuaries where they meet and interact with cows, chickens, turkeys, ducks, sheep, pigs, and other non-human animals who have been rescued from the usual fate of members of their species, which is to be killed by humans for food. One of the sanctuaries is devoted entirely to pigs, and students frequently discover that, despite pigs' abysmal status in society and the stereotypes humans deploy to justify our oppression of them, they are highly social, clean, playful, and intelligent animals with all the cognitive and emotional capacities of the dogs and cats idealized in Western society. Students reach these realizations through interacting with pigs in a safe place where they are not being commodified or made to serve human interests and are able to express some natural behaviors.

This student's reflection upon visiting Better Piggies Rescue is representative of the majority of 48 students from my classes who have toured the sanctuary:

I had never gone to an animal sanctuary before because I never really knew they existed. Being around hundreds of pigs, all of whom have names and distinct personalities made me realize that these animals are commodified and pushed out of consumers' visibility. Beyond the sanctuaries, it is so easy to eat bacon without feeling much guilt; however, after spending an hour looking into all of their eyes and petting them it's very hard to rationalize it.

Another student recounts:

The most fun part of going to this sanctuary was getting to see the baby piglets, since I had never really seen any in person before, and I had definitely never gotten to pet them or play with them. Many of them were really curious and explorative…It reminded me a lot of the behavior that is associated with puppies…Getting a first-hand experience with pigs seems to make people realize that pigs do have feelings and emotions, and do not want to feel pain.

Students were able to develop these perceptions about pigs due to factors they mention such as the pigs' having names and thus individual identities, and being allowed to freely play and socialize with humans and with each other, all of which is denied them in animal farming operations. Part of the reason for students' previous lack of awareness of pigs' cognitive and social capacities is that dominant cultural forces, including media communications about food systems, keep exploited non-human animals invisible.

When animals are presented in media stories, it is almost always as incidental figures in narratives centered on anthropocentric concerns, so that they are objectified as “mass terms” (Adams, 2000) rather than portrayed as individuals with subjectivity. In other words, they are presented solely in the context of their commodification.

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