Published
2024-01-31
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Strays, feral, relatives, racialized,things... juridical-political categorizations of barkers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/26655489.7581
Section
Artículos de reflexión
Ana Aboglio Universidad de Buenos Aires

This article analyzes the relationships constituted with the so-called companion species, particularly with dogs, examining them from interrelated perspectives, whether they are defined as strays, refugees, feral, racialized, things-objects, experimental or members of a family environment. A rhizomatic cartography will be deployed from critical animal studies, which will reveal how categorical inequalities organize a biopower that transits between conflicts of interests usually resolved in an anthropospeciesist key and in tension with the claims of rights for animals. While as family members dogs are acquiring greater moral and legal consideration, the general landscape where they are housed does not seem so promising. The question is how these changes impact on all dogs and other exploited animals and their participation in a reconfiguration of the anthropological machine. For this, ethical issues linked to the possession of companion animals are also examined and a genealogy of the dog’s history in Western society is traced that will facilitate a better understanding of the present. The introduction summarizes the current state of the animal issue in the legal, ethical, and political sphere, exposing that intimate fusion of approaches that reaches it and thus framing the specific content addressed. The following sections consider the main groups into which dogs are introduced by the legal and social crossings that go through them, revealing the narratives that organize different discourses to construct them in a certain way. The final section reflects on the complex situation of those who are often not allowed to bark.