"What is an animal?" pp. 83-94 in Sunaura Taylor Beasts of Burden. Animal and Disability
Liberation (New York: New Press 2017)
At the very start of the text, Taylor brings up the story about Red Peter. I feel like this
story encapsulates how humans project their own ways and beliefs onto animals. If animals
don’t behave like that, they’re meant to be trapped because they don’t follow our rules. Taylor
mentions that “One of the human characteristics naturalists focused on in their discussion of
human uniqueness was the ability to walk upright.” Taylor discusses how this characteristic was
weaponized against people of color. When discussing what constitutes a human, this causes
people to question the order of nature and how humans fit into this order. “In Holy Scriptures,
humans were endowed with souls, a concept that has often been intimately tied to the idea of
reason.” Although this is the case, Aristotle argued there were different parts to the human soul,
two of which were shared with animals.
It’s truly interesting just how much the idea of walking is associated with freedom and
being truly heaven. I feel like by what I described above, the author is attempting to make
multiple points. First is the rigid structure which defines being human, and how limiting it is to
animals and potentially other human beings.
Nelson's introduction to Model Behavior, her ethnography of the use of animal models in
science
First of all, I feel there is already a great contrast in how these texts begin. This text
begins by talking about how crucial animal experimentation is to contemporary biomedicine.
There is more of a disregard for animals and how they may be affected. In fact, one could see
this as the exact behavior the first text opposed. This showcases a sense of only focusing on the
needs of humans rather than animals. “Finally, establishing plausible relationships between
mouse experiments and human disorders is arguably especially challenging in animal behavior
genetics, where researchers use animals to gain insight into disorders that even they themselves
sometimes described as "uniquely human.” The author continues to rigidly establish a
distinction between humans and animals, even when animals are being used for their own
benefit. “As laboratory ethnography has shown, it is altogether too easy for human agency to be
erased from the scene of the experiment, especially after it has concluded.” I also feel like this
text was more based on fact rather than more ethical concerns as the first text is. Not to mention,
I feel as if the first text is attempting to make an argument while this text comes off as trying to
explain something.