Distance, proximity, and freedom: Identifying conflicting priorities regarding urban backyard livestock slaughter

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.08.010 0016-7185/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Blecha), [email protected] (A. Davis). 1 The term ‘‘slaughter’’ requires explanation. The words used to desc practice convey a great deal about a writer’s politics. Many people, includ subjects in this study, use discourse from a strong animal rights position, non-human animals are recognized as subjects, their proper pronoun is ‘‘w their death can be called nothing but ‘‘murder’’ for human animals to eat the or ‘‘corpse’’. In stark contrast, the discourse of the animal agriculture indus to animals as ‘‘production units’’ ‘‘that’’ are ‘‘processed’’ into ‘‘meat’’. Here terms such as ‘‘slaughter’’ and ‘‘kill’’, seeking neither to convey judgment no the reality of ending the lives of other beings for the purpose of eating the We also refer to non-human animals as ‘‘who’’, recognizing them as individ lives, minds, and emotions. Jennifer Blecha a,⇑, Adam Davis b