Victor Turner, a well-known cultural anthropologist, says that the status of liminal individuals is socially and structurally ambiguous. The animals living in shelters are in an obvious state of liminality. They do not belong permanently anywhere. This produces a great deal of stress on the animals and because their immune system is thereby lowered, many come down with respiratory viruses or other easily transmitted ailments. They are neither here nor there, as Turner states, a “betwixt and between” state of living in an animal “prison” and someone adopting them into their homes. He says the liminal have nothing: “no status, insignia, secular clothing, rank, and kinship position, nothing to demarcate them structurally from their fellows.” The dogs have no real status over another dog when they come to the shelter. All are assessed the same medically and behaviorally, neutered, vaccinated, and micro chipped. The female dogs that are used in despicable puppy mill operations may never see past a liminal stage until death because they are kept in a small cage, breeding litter after litter, in many cases, their feet never touching the ground, just the wire cages, in their lifetime. When they have no more useful life for breeding, they are euthanized. (I have rehabbed dogs that lived in puppy mill cages their entire lives—these animals did not even understand what “grass” feels like, let alone the freedom to run in a yard.) The moral implication of raising animals like livestock is obvious to me and is particularly tormenting to many others I have spoken with.
The term “double bind” was first introduced in 1956 by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson and his colleagues in their discussions on the complexity of communication in relation to schizophrenia. It is a term which means asking a person to do two completely opposite and mutually conflicting things at the same time. I suggest that shelter workers are caught in this "double-bind" situation. On one hand, they are supposed to advocate for the animals—to nurse them back to health, to feed and love them, help them get adopted—and then they are told to euthanize them because there is not enough space.
Bob and Colleen are veterinarians for CAO for the past year and insist that stress is part of their job. Colleen says animals coming to the shelter are better off here than on the street, in a puppy mill, or being abused by someone. She says, “You have to get used to the stress and you have to find ways to deal with it.” For Bob, one of the greatest pressures is caring for so many animals on an everyday basis. He says, “You neuter and spay them hoping they get adopted.” Sometimes they recognize the animals they are putting to sleep and this disturbs them. Duane has volunteered for CAO for many years. He surmises, “The public shows a lack of regard and respect for animals. They see animals as disposable. They throw animals away. For example, when some pet owners lose a dog, they don’t even go look for it. A major problem is the abuse and neglect of animals.” This leads me to believe there is some resentment between these animal advocates and the public. This dichotomy leads to a high amount of stress on animal care workers.
Like Keith Basso's description of linguistic play among the Western Apache, the workers use humor to ease daily tensions from their double-bind situation. In his book, Portraits of the ‘Whiteman’ (2007) Basso draws on current theory in symbolic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and the dramaturgical model of human communication developed by Erving Goffman. In Basso's book, Vine Delora, Jr. states, “the more desperate the problem, the more humor is directed to describe it” (3). When placed in stress-inducing situations, animal welfare workers often begin wisecracking. They joke about the quality of veterinary care at the shelter and preferring their animals to their children. One staff member, a euthanasia technician, revealed that she and other workers joke around while in the isolation unit. “I want the last sound an animal hears to be the sound of laughter.”
The ways in which we treat animals has a great deal to do with the ways in which we treat ourselves and the social contexts in which we live. There is so much professed love for animals, yet tolerance within our society for truly appalling and widespread forms of institutionalized abuse. This schizophrenia exists because puppy mills are part of our capitalistic society and when money is involved, people rationalize all sorts of misdeeds and cruel acts towards others. We can relate this dichotomy with the corporation, which also creates wealth, at the cost of lives (humans and animal) and the environment. The remorseless rationale of “externalities” (as Milton Friedman explains, the unintended consequences on a transaction between two parties on a third) is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation, and lies.
The question is, what can we do to alleviate the problem of the irresponsible commercial breeding of dogs and cats? We can start by not buying from pet stores such as Pet Land United States
I have enjoyed these two posts and they really give me more insight into the issues. I was unaware of much of this so I appreciate being educated about it. Thanks!
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