Phenomenology and Critical Hermeneutics of the “Livestock” Industry and Associated Sanctuaries

Abstract

A phenomenology of factory farms and slaughterhouses, as well as associated animal sanctuaries, is mounted. It is found that other animals in the former situations are reified into machine-like beings, as are the workers who deal with them. In terms of critical hermeneutics, it is found that alienation from the process and product of work and from each other and themselves happens for both human and nonhuman denizens of these contexts. In animal sanctuaries, it is found that a contrary movement of “subjectification” occurs. The ethical ramifications of these patterns are that animals become bereft of moral standing in the former institutions and are restored to moral considerability in the latter context.