ANIMALS IN REVOLT (ANIMALI IN RIVOLTA)

In 2000, a cow being transported to a Brooklyn abattoir made a dash for freedom and escaped. The cow, later named Queenie, was going to be returned to the slaughterhouse, but public outcry in her favour prevailed and she found herself, instead, at a farm sanctuary. In Animals in Revolt, Sarat Colling examines the experiences of animals who escape from slaughterhouses and analyzes the impact their stories have on public consciousness. The aim of this research is to understand the forms of animal resistance and the role of animal resisters’ stories in disrupting how humans, and in particular consumers, distance themselves from the violence of animal enterprises. The book contains six stories that allow you to examine in-depth the cases of animal escape occurring in the state of New York. The survey is part of the interdisciplinary field of critical animal studies and draws on the most recent theories elaborated by animal geography, transnational feminism, and critical discourse. This contribution specifically addresses the resistance of domesticated animals, comparing the experiences and representations of this resistance acquired through stories of those who care for the animals, such as sanctuary workers, and from the depictions present in mainstream media and capitalist enterprises. 

This book is an Italian translation of my master’s thesis “Animals Without Borders: Farmed Animal Resistance in New York” (2012) and includes an introduction by Marco Reggio.

"Animals in Revolt: Borders, Resistance, and Human Solidarity is a perfect book for readers who have the most diverse interests: those who want to understand antispecism; those interested in media; those who are passionate about speech analysis; those with a passion for epistemology; those who have already read everything but certainly not this; those who have never read anything . . . and then start with this; those who are a "fan" of Foucault, of Sara Ahmed, of bell hooks; those who ask themselves, what is the difference between ecologists, animal rights activists, animal rights activists without borders, antispeciests, and vegans, but above all what the point of all this is; those who have deconstructed everything except their own privilege; those who have deconstructed their privileges, but only in pieces; those who have deconstructed everything except what they have internalized; those who have internalized that the fight is only done for the oppression that directly concerns you (e.g., as you will never be a male chick, then what happens to the male chick does not concern you . . .). But if you are a militant feminist, anti-racist, queer, you will immediately understand that while this book is about Molly, Queenie, etc., above all she talks about you. If you are against speciesism, you understand that this book is about Molly, Queenie, etc., but it also speaks of: black women, migrant women, black men, migrants, refugees, and so on, and so . . . it is about you as well." – Rachele Borghi, Paris-Sorbonne University

"The book offers the necessary tools to correctly interpret – as resistance phenomena – what is commonly ridiculed as an insignificant anecdote – from evasion to assaults, from escapes to the self-mutilation of enclosed animals. Enriching a line of thought that in Italy is mainly supported by "Resistenza animale," Colling clearly states that despite millennia of domestication and selection of species and docile individuals, and despite the disproportion of forces in the field, non-humans rebel, are endowed with political agency, and are also political animals." – Massimo Filippi, Il Manifesto

Order: Mimesis Edizioni