Animal Death

Abstract

In this chapter, I revisit the results of interviews I conducted in the abattoirs. As I was sent to these abattoirs to research “animal welfare”, I was struck by the violence of the organization of work against animals, but also against workers. Animal death and its meaning have been gutted by the industrial machine, which, in production and in transformation, is concerned with animal matter, and not with animals. However, although animal death is denied by the industry, it still maintains its sense and complexity in animal husbandry. Following Jankelevitch, I demonstrate that in husbandry, as in all life, life and death are inextricably linked, for something that does not die, does not live. The challenge for farmers who give a good life to their animals is to be able to give them a good death, and as late as possible. Essentially, animal death is not the goal of working in husbandry, even if it is still an end, just as our death is not the goal of our life, but is still its inevitable conclusion. We therefore need to confront animal death, and by doing so, to confront our own finiteness.