S2E9: Survivors with pattrice jones
This episode explores a concept that works to highlight the experiences of animals caught up in human systems that oppress animals. Claudia talks to pattrice jones about how animals’ experiences (particularly those of chickens) compare in factory farms versus at VINE Sanctuary. They discuss the significance of talking about not only animals’ victimisation but also but their agency and will to survive.
pattrice jones is a co-founder of VINE Sanctuary, an LGBTQ-led farmed animal refuge that works for social and environmental justice as well as animal liberation. A former tenant organizer and antiracist educator with more than forty years of activist experience, pattrice has taught college and university courses in the theory and praxis of social change activism. As an ecofeminist scholar, pattrice lectures and publishes worldwide on the interconnections among human, animal, and ecological matters. You can also find VINE on Facebook and Twitter.
Mentioned:
Queering Animal Liberation a lecture by pattrice jones;
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis;
From Heroic to Holistic Ethics: The Ecofeminist Challenge by Marti Kheel;
Feminism and the Mastery of Nature by Val Plumwood;
Queer Eros in the Enchanted Forest: The Spirit of Stonewall as Sustainable Energy by pattrice jones
"I live in an enchanted forest. In the hundred-acre wood occupied by the denizens of VINE Sanctuary, an animal refuge established by LGBTQ people, beech trees synchronize their photosynthesis so that all may share the sugar. Flying squirrels nest with birds in the cavities of hollow trees and might stick their heads out to see who's there if you come knocking at dusk. Wild turkey hens collaboratively raise their young, sometimes taking them on walks to visit Pete and Repeat, two captive-born toms who share a coop with chickens rescued from egg factories. "In the wooded back pastures, a cow who rescued herself and her calf from a beef farm mingles with dozens of similarly self-possessed bovines. If you hike up to visit, their pheasant friend—who rewilded himself after being hatched to be hunted—might fly alongside you for a moment before returning to his own projects. Down at the duck pond, feral descendants of birds purchased at pet stores socialize with wild waterfowl. Back at the barn, sheep give rides to survivors of egg factories, and a group of peace-keeping geese help with the project of rehabilitating roosters formerly used in cockfighting" (pattrice jones, Queer Eros).
Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast, Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_) for the bed music, and Jeremy John for the logo.