Challenging Speciesism (In a Meaningful Way)

Below is a true account of what happened yesterday while I was buying nightcrawlers for the frogs. I think that the conversation really perfectly crystalizes how far we have yet to come in the struggle for animal rights, animal welfare, and recognition of an animal's legitimacy beyond how it can be used as a means to human ends.

Note: Those of you who mind will have to pardon the use of "pet" since there was already a language barrier (this was an ESL individual) I didn't wish to further complicate things.

I share my life with a dozen Horned Frogs, adoptees from former caregivers who lost interest. Native to South America, these frogs are essentially walking stomachs; they are ambush predators with a voracious apetite. They need live, invertebrate based prey to survive, and one such prey item that is very nutritious for them is Nightcrawlers. Please spare me the lectures on live feeding; the simple reality of the situation is that these animals are in captivity with no prospect of returning to the wild, are carnivorous by nature, and require live invertebrates for survival. With that out of the way...

Yesterday, I purchased my typical weekly requirement of about sixty nightcrawlers from a local vendor. As I was checking out, the cashier - a small middle aged Latina woman - smiled and commented on my purchase.

"Oooh, you're doing a lot of fishing huh?"

I paused, wondering if it was worth even engaging in this conversation, and ultimately decided that I dislike fishing sufficiently to say otherwise. I smiled back at her.

"Actually, they're to feed frogs."

The cashier looked somewhere between confused and alarmed.

"You feed frogs?"

As a wildlife rehabilitator, I oppose feeding wildlife, but I suspect her confusion had more to do with an ill opinion of frogs than an ill opinion of feeding wildlife.

"Well they're my frogs." I tried to think of a way to explain this more clearly, especially without being encumbered by semantics for my own sake when talking to someone who, from her thick accent, was an ESL learner. "Pets?"

The cashier's eyes grew even wider.

"PET frogs?" She paused contemplatively. "What kind of frogs?"

In my experience, about 99.9% of laypersons have no clue what a horned frog was.

"Horned frogs - from Argentina," I replied, so as not to leave her trying to figure out where in New York one might see a Horned Frog.

The smile returned.

"Ah, little frogs? For kids?"

Oh goodness. Am I getting old enough to look reproductive?

"No, big frogs." I gestured their approximate five inch size.

The cashier's smile broadened; she was apparently having an epiphany.

"Oh! For eating!"

I tried to keep the alarm off of my face as I contemplated Fen's tiny, feeble horned frog hindquarters served up French style.

"No, just as pets."

The cashier scowled now.

"Why? How do you play with them?"

I was starting to see a trend: she was trying to figure out what I got out of "owning" these frogs.

"Well... you don't play with them, you just feed them and care for them and watch them."

I imagine cognitive dissonance was hitting her like a freight train from the expression on her face. Finally, afer a long pause, she threw her hands up in a gesture of defeat.

"I don't know, if I was going to have a pet you could eat, I'd just get a guinea pig; at least they're cute."


I want you to put aside your instinctive American horror at the thought of eating anything but the standard species of choice in the US, as farming and slaughter for food is farming and slaughter for food regardless of if you're eating  a dog in Asia, a cow in England, or a guinea pig in South America. And I want you to put away any disdain you have for this woman, because she is merely a product of her environment; she was not being deliberately malicious, but rather truly couldn't understand the value of an animal that is not companionable, not edible, and not aesthetically appealing.

This interaction demonstrates the roots of anthropocentrism and speciesism. The majority of people are so heavily socially conditioned to think of animals only in terms of their value to us that many have difficulty even grasping the concept of the value of animals as animals. It is important to recognize this instead of lumping all non-vegans into the category of being selfish as we so often - and so wrongly - do from atop our perceived moral high ground.

What we must remember is that we are looking at something that sociologically is deeply imbedded in humanity. No ammount of disdain or smug superiority is going to correct this; we need to hack at the roots of speciesism by compassionately, patiently raising awareness about animals. And we musn't do it merely by talking about how wrong exploitation is, because until people better understand animals outside of the context of human utility, an anti-exploitation viewpoint is going to be seen as radical, irrational, and inflammatory since it directly contradicts society.

I feel that one area that needs to be emphasized more by the animal rights community is communicating in an attractive light the lives of animals when unincumbered by the yoke of oppression. Humans can and do delight at the natural world when shown in a light that generates reverence and wonder. I will offer another example of a more positive interaction with someone about an animal they had trouble grasping the value of:

I rescue exotic animals victimized by the pet trade. While I realize some may balk at this thought, I also use them as ambassadors to teach about their biology, ecology, conservation, etc. with the hopes that people will want to conserve them in the wild where they belong rather than in the confines of captivity. I avoid subjecting them to undue stress and only utilize species that are calm and amenable to handling; if anything it could be seen as a form of enrichment via the change in settings and interaction with myself and the public. But let us not focus on debating something that most sanctuaries also do to spread awareness because it has an inkling of exploitation. This is the take-home point:

Some of the most difficult animals to educate about are ones traditionally viewed as frightening, repulsive, or dangerous. These animals more than any other need our persistent advocacy efforts, as they are routinely killed, denied basic protections, and exploited unchallenged due to their lack of mass appeal. One such species is the centipede. Between its ample supply of legs, large size, rapid movements, and venemous nature, many people despise and rush to kill this species. I discuss the centipede during my educational talks.

One woman was particularly alarmed and disturbed by the centipede during one of my talks. She expressed that they "see the business end of a boot" in her household. I could have rushed to anger at her remark, called her an animal murderer, but this is counterproductive. Instead, I continued my talk, discussing the undeserved negative reputation of the centipede. Since we had many parents in the audience, I made it a point to note one of the more endearing aspects of centipede behavior: they are fantastic mothers, carefully tending to their eggs and young with a dilligence that puts the average parents of a wandering brat in Walmart to shame.

At the end of the show, this woman approached, and asked if centipedes were really good mothers like I'd said. I confirmed this fact, describing in detail how a mother millipede will carefully tend to each of her scores of eggs to prevent them from developing mold, how she will attack a species much larger to her at hazard of her own safety to protect them. Call such behavior instinct if you wish; it is still something a human mother can relate to. In that moment, the woman looked closely at the centipede, and she smiled. In a very childish way, she broke into a grin and said "That's so cool." In that moment, the centipede went from a hated household pest to something inspiring wonder and awe in a grown woman raised in a society that taught her to never think of that invertebrate as anything but a pest to humanity, not a complex, fascinating fellow species with its own life.

Meaningful connections, education that broadens the narrow scope of our view of animals from their relevence to us to their relevence in general. This, my friends, is how you begin to dismantle speciesism.