Animals, Affect and Annihilation: Campaigns against Canids in Postwar Canada

Abstract

Abstract This essay suggests that culling campaigns against canids in postwar Canada have striking affective dimensions. Drawing on examples of canid management in the 1950s and 60s from Nunavik, Alberta, and Ontario, we contend that the killing of supposedly rabid dogs and wild canids was predominantly about affective excess and emotional management. The wildness of these animals was perceived to lead to excessive nonhuman affectivity, which was seemingly exacerbated by rabies. Human encounters with these animals were characterised by excessive affective responses, a result of long-standing fears of rabies, anxieties about northernness and assertions of ‘civilisation’ in the context of settler colonialism. This fear was then channelled into round ups and killings of canids. The killing was what Monique Scheer calls an ‘emotional practice’ designed to soothe anxieties, to cleanse and to civilise. Drawing on archival and other documentary sources, we aim to show the value in exploring more fully the intersections between affect and animal histories.