Dogs Are Killed In Shelters Because (Round Up The Current Trendy Suspects!)
In the latest in cuckoopants "everything is white supremacy"-think, a woman named Katja Guenther has published a book deeming dogs and other animals killed in animal shelters the fault of "capitalism, anthroparchy, white supremacy and patriarchy." (I can't figure out whether to laugh or yawn.)
At Areo, Nathan J. Winograd does a good job of taking this apart:
(Guenther) argues that allowing dogs to sleep inside is a privilege reserved for the white and wealthy and that policies against keeping dogs chained up in backyards are intended to oppress people of color by imposing "middle-class norms of animal keeping in which companion animals are considered family and treated accordingly," which ignore the fact that people of color "are themselves trapped in poverty, may have few options for legitimate income generation and possibly rely on their dogs for ... status."Evidence shows that dogs in inner cities are neither disproportionately dangerous nor poorly treated. People in inner cities live with dogs for the same reasons as the suburban wealthy: they want companionship and social connection. Guenther's book perpetuates unsubstantiated prejudices about the inability of people of color to provide appropriate care for their animals. And she denies their individuality by referring to all Asians, Latinos and black people as "the collective Black."
In Guenther's book, moreover, white people do things; people of color have things done to them. For example, people of color who abandon their dogs in empty apartments are victims "ensnared in the legal system," forced to leave their animals behind "under the duress of sudden eviction or deportation or arrest." Guenther even claims that such people actually believe that what they are doing is for the best, because of "the constraints of their knowledge and resources, both of which are limited by the nexus of their class, status as immigrants, and ethnicity."
When a Latino man on a bicycle drops a dog "while escaping from mall security officers ... after stealing a pair of Wrangler jeans," she explains this away as the result of his "status as marginalized." When a woman leaves her dog to die at the pound after she has finished breeding her and selling her puppies to buy drugs, it is the fault of her "status as a poorly educated queer woman of color." Guenther laments that "rescuers ... critique urban Black and Latinx communities for not seeing companion animals as sufficiently part of the family and instead seeing them as resources, whether protective (as in guarding) or financial (as in breeding or possibly fighting)."
She appears to be arguing that if a person of color can turn a profit or build a reputation through animal exploitation that excuses animal suffering--even in the case of sadistic animal abuse: "From a class perspective, wealthy people are believed to be too 'civilized' to engage in barbaric activities like dogfighting, and it's no coincidence that the only affluent person who has been publicly shamed for dogfighting in the U.S., Michael Vick, is Black, newly wealthy after growing up in poverty."
Dogfighting, however, is not considered barbaric because it violates the norms of wealthy people--who, after all, have historically had their own versions of animal cruelty masquerading as entertainment, such as fox hunting and pigeon shooting. Nor is dogfighting considered uncivilized because of the skin color of the organizers--many of whom are white--but because of what it does to dogs.
At Michael Vick's property, investigators found decomposing dogs who died by "hanging, drowning, and being slammed to death."
Winograd observes that "Guenther is wrong about the causes of shelter killing and how to prevent it":
"Feral" cats impounded by the Los Angeles County pound system are killed because the director of that system opposes non-lethal sterilization. Orphaned, neonatal puppies and kittens are killed because of a lack of comprehensive foster care. And other animals are killed because of a failure to implement the services that allow shelters to achieve high placement rates.
Importantly, Winograd's final point:
Guenther Threatens to Turn Back the Clock on Animal ProtectionThe most dangerous thing about Guenther's book, however, is her view that human-animal relations are "a zero-sum political struggle involving identity markers like race." In the early nineteenth century, cruelty to dogs was not recognized in law because they were considered property. Likewise, harming a homeless dog was not illegal because there was no property interest at stake. The animal did not matter. Guenther is once again suggesting a standard that excuses harm based on the interests of those causing it.
For all her professed concern about hierarchies of privilege, Guenther's prescription for human-animal relations could not be more inequitable, uncharitable and unkind. Her premise that not all animals should have the same rights and that not all humans bear the same responsibilities to those animals threatens to popularize defeatist and counterproductive dogmas of the kind that kept shelters killing animals for decades until the current generation found common sense alternatives.
If such ideas gain traction, I fear the current moment will be remembered as a brief interlude between the ideological intransigence of two generations--both of which subordinate the rights of animals to the interests of those who harm them.
OK, the book sounds like the prattlings of an idiot, but I clicked on two links that Nathan Winograd provided and they seem to make the opposite of the argument he intended.
"It has never been easier for shelters to adopt out pit bulls, especially to millennial and Gen Z families," he argues, yet that's not my experience as a longtime animal shelter volunteer. Following his link in the article provides no proof of this fact. Anyone who has volunteered at an American shelter can tell you that few adopters want pits, and those who do need extra vetting.
Likewise, his argument "'Feral' cats impounded by the Los Angeles County pound system are killed because the director of that system opposes non-lethal sterilization" -- his own link leads to praise of the "community cat sterilization program."
I agree that analyzing animal welfare through the lens of race is ridiculous, but Winograd has to provide better arguments than this if he wants to refute a book that sounds like pure hokum.
I mean, fish in a barrel when it comes to an author who says things like "I argue that the inequalities in how impounded animals are treated and whether they live or die are powerfully linked to human ideas about race, class, gender, ability, and species. By decoding the language and behaviors of shelter staff and volunteers, I explore internal hierarchies, breed discrimination, and importantly, instances of resistance and agency."
I agree with his critique, but he's got to do a better job making his case. That shouldn't be difficult when he's critiquing someone who claims she specializes in "feminist animal studies."
Kevin at February 4, 2021 11:21 PM
Go Kev Go!
Go Amy Go!
♥ bothaya.
Crid at February 5, 2021 4:33 AM
Katja Guenther sounds like a racist.
ahw at February 5, 2021 7:23 AM
Why is blackness soaking up so much oxygen? Why does media cater to this kind of silliness? Are these tactics of appeasement?
Of course Guenther should be mocked; many others too. But the easy availability of low-hanging fruit in this particular orchard is making journalists fat and lazy. Their publishers too.
I feel an onset of compassion fatigue.
Spiderfall at February 5, 2021 8:10 AM
I think it is OK for a culture to have moral standards, and OK to critique cultures that fail to live up to them. Cruelty is cruelty.
NicoleK at February 5, 2021 8:13 AM
We can acknowledge people have had troubled lives that may lead them to cruelty, without condoning the cruelty they commit.
NicoleK at February 5, 2021 8:22 AM
One thing that's become glaringly apparent, is that a lot of Progressive white people are very very racist.
I suspect that's why they're convinced that all whites are racist, racism is 'systemic, and that the lives of 'brown people' determined by the actions of racist whites.
margo at February 5, 2021 8:32 AM
An animal shelter has no idea who the owner of a stray was, so racism can't be a cause of differential treatment.
She seems to oppose any standards for POC--if they harm an animal it is excused. This is racist. In contrast, I think most people of all colors love their dogs and cats.
Just like when progs claimed that blacks don't know how to vote and some journalists went out and interviewed blacks--who were offended mightily by the implication--the implication that blacks don't know how to care for a dog is pretty offensive. Also, don't mix asians in with blacks. Not the same at all in any way. Or hispanics for that matter.
cc at February 5, 2021 11:54 AM
Anyone who has volunteered at an American shelter can tell you that few adopters want pits, and those who do need extra vetting.
Probably depends on location. I'm a city shelter volunteer of 10+ years, as well as a foster mom for dogs and cats. And it *has* gotten progressively easier to adopt out pits. A lot of young families and young hip types want rescue pitbulls because it satisfies their activism. That said, there are just too damn many pitbulls because the people who breed them are mostly trash. And because those well-intentioned adopters often have to return them a few years down the line when they run up against their new apartment/home breed restrictions.
Going back to the original article, are some humans who work/volunteer in animal rescue racist? Yes. I've worked with them! But that's not the reason large numbers of animals are being thrown in shelters and being euthanized.
The idea of the dog catchers sweeping black/poor neighborhoods, carting away dogs left outside en masse is a myth. In our local overtaxed shelter system, for a dog to be taken from an owner, there has to be dog fighting, or the dog has to have bitten or killed someone. A dog left outside? It basically has to be chained AND starved AND without a rudimentary shelter AND have no water AND several of your neighbors had to have called 311 to complain about your dog barking. Even then, chances are, animal control is first going to do a "welfare check" and "educate" you, which essentially means them asking if you can please put some food out for your dog and maybe throw some tarp out there for it. YMMV in wealthier areas.
If animal rescue has taught me anything, not having enough shelter space has very little to do with race/wealth. And a LOT to do with the fact that most people (across all races, across all socioeconomic statuses) should not have pets. But they still manage to acquire them and create more of them. Also, the people who are the least capable pet owners also seem to be the least likely to spay/neuter their animals.
sofar at February 5, 2021 12:06 PM
people of color ... possibly rely on their dogs for ... status."
If you are relying on a dog for status, then you don't have any status. The dog might though.
Ken McE at February 5, 2021 2:58 PM
from what I see & hear it is very easy to adopt out most any dog these days including pits. I have seen several posts on reddit specifically asking where they might be able to adopt a pitbull... and also lots of posts (probably more) looking for apartments that allow pits.
And from what I know sofar's post is accurate. Maybe missed the easiest way -- post office carrier filing a complaint.
The Former Banker at February 5, 2021 6:58 PM
My guess is Guenther wants to roll back animal protection laws for her own reasons, and crying *ism is an easy way to get your way these days.
NicoleK at February 5, 2021 10:27 PM
One of the major failings of our current society is the inability to laugh these kinds of idiots and their insane ideas off the public stage. I'm not advocating stifling her right to put forth such rubbish, just to have anyone seriously give it any consideration other than wonder if she needs involuntary commitment.
This lady's book should bankrupt her publisher and put her on a blacklist so that she'll never be able to put anything out again unless she self-publishes and sells it on a street corner.
ruralcounsel at February 6, 2021 10:03 AM
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