Barking is prohibited.The disciplining of pets and their owners in Southern California

Abstract

On the surface, California would appear the ideal location to be a house pet. However, beneath the surface of beautiful homes, responsible owners and streets free of stray, abandoned dogs, a hidden violence can be detected, the silent machinery of death that exists within the structure of animal shelters. This article analyses the practise of exterminating animals in these shelters and follows as its inspiration the testimony of one volunteer who had worked in this sphere. The hidden practise of extermination is revealed to contradict the widely publicised mission of animal shelters to ‘save animals’ and ‘find them a new home’. The reason for all the secrecy surrounding this practice is found in the following point. In spite of the fact that it is the principle of sympathy and assistance for animals that legitimizes the existence of animal shelters, in practice, their work is made up of, to a very large degree, the task of regulating social order and interactions between humans and to animals in urban life. In this sense they play the role of the unfeeling state machinery that regulates, often in an Orwellian manner, social relations. Animals who find themselves on the street and without owners and have been ‘rescued’, are then examined by specialists for signs that they may be disturbers of public order. Various tests are done to judge their suitability of dogs for continued existence, leaving the impression that they are not far away from the Eugenic practices of certain twentieth century states. The shelters and the other state–controlled organizations involved also maintain control of prospective owners, deciding if they would meet the standards for a responsible person able to behave in a socially acceptable way with pets. In carrying out its duties, Animal Shelters can be seen to have ‘death’ at the centre of their mission rather than ‘rescue’, ‘order’ rather than ‘compassion’.