Critical Response: The Companion Species Manifesto

The concept of co-evolving along side our companion animals is something that I have thought about a great deal. When I think about the dog’s ancestor (the wolf) and look at what the dog has become today and the different breeds that exist it amazes me. Many of the breeds of dogs that exist today were bred to perform specific tasks such as hunting, tracking, running or in some cases fighting. We have also trained dogs to carry out a wide variety of useful task such as helping the disabled, detecting mines, detecting cancer and warning epileptics of upcoming seizures, among other things.

As Haraway stated, our relationship with our companion animals was not always especially nice. Historically, our treatment of animals would not be considered an appropriate way to treat one’s companion. We used animals like tools and discarded them when they were broken, justifying our actions by the animals otherness. Stoic philosophers argued that animals lacked a sense of “belonging” and that rational beings should only extend their sense of belonging to other rational beings. Aristotle maintained that there was a natural hierarchy and the superior should govern the inferior [1]. Christian’s believed (and some still do) that animals lack a soul and thus used this and the supposed dominion that man was given over the creatures of the earth to justify acts of cruelty [2]. Below are a series of prints showing William Hogarth’s work, “The 4 Stages of Cruelty”.

First Stage of Cruelty
While various Scenes of sportive Woe,
The Infant Race employ,
And tortur'd Victims bleeding shew,
The Tyrant in the Boy.

Behold! a Youth of gentler Heart,
To spare the Creature's pain,
O take, he cries—take all my Tart,
But Tears and Tart are vain.

Learn from this fair Example—You
Whom savage Sports delight,
How Cruelty disgusts the view,
While Pity charms the sight.

Second Stage of Cruelty
The generous Steed in hoary Age,
Subdu'd by Labour lies;
And mourns a cruel Master's rage,
While Nature Strength denies.

The tender Lamb o'er drove and faint,
Amidst expiring Throws;
Bleats forth it's innocent complaint
And dies beneath the Blows.

Inhuman Wretch! say whence proceeds
This coward Cruelty?
What Int'rest springs from barb'rous deeds?
What Joy from Misery?

Cruelty In Perfection
To lawless Love when once betray'd.
Soon Crime to Crime succeeds:
At length beguil'd to Theft, the Maid
By her Beguiler bleeds.

Yet learn, seducing Man! nor Night,
With all its sable Cloud,
can screen the guilty Deed from sight;
Foul Murder cries aloud.

The gaping Wounds and bloodstain'd steel,
Now shock his trembling Soul:
But Oh! what Pangs his Breast must feel,
When Death his Knell shall toll.

The Reward of Cruelty

Behold the Villain's dire disgrace!

Not Death itself can end.

He finds no peaceful Burial-Place,

His breathless Corse, no friend.

Torn from the Root, that wicked Tongue,
Which daily swore and curst!
Those Eyeballs from their Sockets wrung,
That glow'd with lawless Lust!

His Heart expos'd to prying Eyes,
To Pity has no claim;
But, dreadful! from his Bones shall rise,
His Monument of Shame.

Hogarth, an early animal activist who lived in a time where cruelty to animals was commonplace, created these images in order to depict the path that animal cruelty leads to. In the first stage of cruelty a boy (Tom Nero) is shown torturing a dog while another boy pleads for him to stop. In the second panel Tom is seen flogging a wounded horse so hard that its eye pops out of the socket. By the third Tom has committed murder and in the final Tom (after having been hanged for his crime) is being dissected while a dog feeds on his remains. Although these depictions are graphic they succeeded in raising public awareness and in 1835 the animal tortures depicted were outlawed in the Cruelty to Animals Act [3].

It was not until relatively recently that humanity developed the more mutualistic relationship that it now has with its animals. Many of us see our dogs as belonging to our family and there is even a push to give animals the same rights as humans. A good example to illustrate just how far we have come is the story of Cher Ami, a pigeon who during WWI delivered an important message that saved the lives of 200 soldiers, despite having been shot repeatedly. The pigeon received medical treatment and was later awarded the Croix de guerre and when he recovered well enough to travel he was personally seen off by General John J. Pershing. Below is a poem written about the brave bird [4].

Cher Ami
by Harry Webb Farrington

 Cher Ami, how do you do!
Listen, let me talk to you;
I'll not hurt you, don't you see?
Come a little close to me.

Little scrawny blue and white
Messenger for men who fight,
Tell me of the deep, red scar,
There, just where no feathers are.

What about your poor left leg?
Tell me, Cher Ami, I beg.
Boys and girls are at a loss,
How you won that Silver Cross.

"The finest fun that came to me
Was when I went with Whittlesey;
We marched so fast, so far ahead!
'We all are lost,' the keeper said;

'Mon Cher Ami--that's my dear friend--
You are the one we'll have to send;
The whole battalion now is lost,
And you must win at any cost.'

So with the message tied on tight;
I flew up straight with all my might,
Before I got up high enough,
Those watchfull guns began to puff.

Machine-gun bullets came like rain,
You'd think I was an aeroplane;
And when I started to the rear,
My! the shot was coming near!

But on I flew, straight as a bee;
The wind could not catch up with me,
Until I dropped out of the air,
Into our own men's camp, so there!"

But, Cher Ami, upon my word,
You modest, modest little bird;
Now don't you know that you forgot?
Tell how your breast and leg were shot.

"Oh, yes, the day we crossed the Meuse,
I flew to Rampont with the news;
Again the bullets came like hail,
I thought for sure that I should fail.

The bullets buzzed by like a bee,
So close, it almost frightened me;
One struck the feathers of this sail,
Another went right through my tail.

But when I got back to the rear,
I found they hit me, here and here;
But that is nothing, never mind;
Old Poilu, there is nearly blind.

I only care for what they said,
For when they saw the way I bled,
And found in front a swollen lump,
The message hanging from this stump;

The French and Mine said, 'Tres bien,'
Or 'Very good'--American.
'Mon Cher Ami, you brought good news;
Our Army's gone across the Meuse!

You surely had a lucky call!
And so I'm glad.  I guess that's all.
I'll sit, so pardon me, I beg;
It's hard a-standing on one leg!" [4]

I give these examples to illustrate, in perhaps a roundabout way, how much of an impact animals have had on us and how much we‘ve changed over the years. We, as a society, have moved from viewing our companion animals as mere tools or automatons to honouring them as war heroes and commemorating them in works of poetry. They have changed us morally and as a society. Where would we be without dogs? Where would dogs be without us? Man was not gifted with the claws, teeth, strength, speed or keenness of sense possessed by most beasts. Independently, man is weak, but it is our tools and partnerships that make us strong.  We rely on both humans and non-humans alike to adapt to and shape our world.

Coevolution is defined as “the joint development and adaptation to external changes of two or more interdependent species,” [5] and is something that can be seen occurring between not only humans and companion animals but also between humans and their technology. The idea that coevolution takes place between humans and technology is not a new one. The effect that technological advancement has on society have long been recognized and this is perhaps best captured by the words of Marshall McLuhan, who said, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” [6]. Which is something that is reaffirmed in Haraway’s manifesto.

My question to you is in what ways has society been shaped by its relationship with technology and specifically, the internet.

Works cited:
1. Angus, Taylor. "Animals and Ethics." Google Books. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=DIshxmoGu04C>.

2. Pacholczyk, Tadeusz. "'Animal Rights' vs. Human Rights." Catholic Education Resource Center. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0099.htm>.

3. "The Four Stages of Cruelty." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 6 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Stages_of_Cruelty>.

4. Sterner, Doug C. "Cher Ami - The Carrier Pigeon Who Saved 200 Men." Home Of Heroes. Web. 04 Apr. 2011. <http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/3b_cherami.html>.

5. "Encarta World English Dictionary." Language Course. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://www.languagecourse.net/online-dictionary/out.php3?site=1062254417>.

6. Huster, Kevin. "Technological Determinism." Ohio University. 03 June 2000. Web. 07 Apr. 2011. <http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~kh380597/TD.htm>.