If We Could Talk to the Animals: Do Our Politics Have Room for Nonhumans Too?
If we fail to engage with the inner lives of other animals — with the ethical implications of a mallard mother’s love for her ducklings, rather than her aesthetic presence or ecological service — then we’ll indeed separate ourselves from nature: not its presence, but its reality.
That is happening now, especially in the animal-rich cities and suburbs where most of us first learn about nature. What will those lessons be? That wild, nonhuman neighbors, who are thoughtful and self-aware, with memories and relationships and social lives, who are impacted in life-or-death ways by our decisions, are essentially decorative? Or that our consideration and care should encompass them too?
Political inclusion of animals would reflect the cherished fundaments of democracy. It would count everyone who has interests, not just a select few. And the more inclusive and open-minded our politics toward animals, perhaps, the more inclusive and open-minded we will be toward one another.
