Abstract
This chapter discusses routine killings of animals that are victims of illegal wildlife trade in Norway. It is based on a case study, including interview data and case files collected by the author, that document which animals are most frequently trafficked to Norway and the reasons why they are euthanized upon seizure. The first part of the chapter considers the law in this area and the nature and extent of harms that are caused to the animals. The second part of the chapter takes a philosophical point of view, discussing how the trafficking victims are not regarded as the other as understood by Lévinas, Berger, and Derridá, through which they are genuinely seen and considered but rather are objectified and disposed of as insignificant specimens.
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Notes
- 1.
http://www.traffic.org/ Traffic has published a vast amount of reports about WLT, I therefore direct readers to their website rather than list any of these here.
- 2.
I am grateful to The Norwegian Animal Protection Fund for contributing financially to the research project on which this chapter is based. The project is part of an EFFACE project, funded by the FP7, EC. See http://efface.eu/.
- 3.
I don’t have the total overview of confiscation reports that may be included in penal cases yet. These are the ones provided to me directly from the Customs directorate.
- 4.
As this concept (‘sentience’) is usually understood, although one could, out of precaution, choose not to define this in terms of the senses and feelings humans are able to recognize and thereby acknowledge, and rather be open minded toward all nonhuman beings. For example, according to recent research, even plants are sentient and intelligent (Hance 2015). Accessed 11 August 2015 from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/aug/04/plants-intelligent-sentient-book-brilliant-green-internet?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail).
- 5.
Elsewhere (Sollund 2011, p. 438) I argue that the word ‘pet’ implies affection, but it also has a devaluating connotation implying ownership over property, thus objectifying the animals who are there for humans who want or need a physical proximity to a nonhuman animal, which in turn benefits the human, e.g., children, who use the ‘pet’ in an instrumental way, for example the child is expected to learn to show care for others through having a pet.
- 6.
European Union Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange database. http://www.eutwix.org/
- 7.
On 11 January, 2007, the European Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCOFCAH) unanimously adopted a permanent prohibition on the import of wild-caught birds into EU countries, effective 1 July 2007, in order to address the health threat posed by H5N1 avian influenza and other diseases (SSN 2007)
- 8.
In Norway, exceptions are made for people with allergies who, because they are unable to keep more conventional pets such as cats, dogs and rabbits, can, upon application to the Food Safety Authority, be granted permission to keep a tortoise. These are thus regarded as legal, while other ‘exotic’ reptile species are regarded as illegal. There are also legal reptiles in zoos. It is open to debate whether human and nonhuman animals may be legal or illegal, for example, migration researchers will rather refer to migrants without the required documents as irregular than as illegal, as they claim humans cannot be illegal. The same should apply to nonhumans. Can anybody’s life be legal or illegal, or is the animal rather forcefully misplaced? Is s/he only misplaced if this takes place by force as in the case of human and animal trafficking?
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
Secretaría ambiental de ambiente; Asociación de veterinaries de vida silvestre; TRAFFIC (Latin America) Fundación Proaves; Centro de recepción y rehabilitación de vida silvestre; ARIE Matão de Cosmópolis/ICMBio, Secretaría de Meio Ambiente do Sao Paolo, Corporación para el Desarrollo sostenible del Norte y oriente Amazónico; Secretaria Municipal do Verde e do Meio Ambiente—Sao Paulo; Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible; Policía Militar Ambiental—Sao Paulo; Entropika.
Persons in Colombia and Brazil who want to be credited for their participation in the project are Claudia Isabel Brievar Rico, Bernardo Ortíz von Halle, Javier Cifuentes, Márcia Gonçalves Rodrigues, Claudia Terdiman Schaalmann, Daniela Desgualdo, Wilfredo Pachón, Ricardo Gandara Crede, Claudia Rodríguez, Marcelo Robis Francisco Massaro and Angela Maldonado.
Interviews in Norway (17) were conducted by the author, while interviews in Colombia and Brazil (with the exception of one interview done by the author on SKYPE) were conducted by David Rodríguez Goyes, for which I am grateful.
- 12.
According to § 6, animal keepers must ensure animals are adequately taken care of, no children under 16 shall have an independent responsibility for an animal, and the animal keeper must not transfer the responsibility for the animal to someone for whom it is reason to believe will not treat the animal in a responsible way. https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2009-06-19-97.
- 13.
The name Mattilsynet clearly shows that the most important role animals have in Norway is as food.
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Sollund, R. (2017). Legal and Illegal Theriocide of Trafficked Animals. In: Maher, J., Pierpoint, H., Beirne, P. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43183-7_21
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