The War against Animals (book)

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“The War against Animals” is a book by Dinesh Wadiwel. Published on June 24, 2015, it is part of the Critical Animal Studies series.

Wadiwel argues that our mainstay relationships with billions of animals are essentially hostile. He asks us to interrogate this sustained violence across its intersubjective, institutional, and epistemic dimensions. Drawing from Foucault, Spivak, and Derrida, Wadiwel argues that our sovereign claim of superiority over other animals is founded on nothing else but violence.

The book is divided into several chapters, including “Bare Life”, “Governmentality”, “Immunity”, “Property and Commodity”, “Privatisation and Containment”, “Companionship”, “Capability”, and "The Violence of Stupidity"¹. The goal for pro-animal advocacy, according to Wadiwel, must be to challenge this violent sovereignty and recognise animal resistance through forms of counter-conduct and truce.

Dinesh Joseph Wadiwel, Ph.D. (2005), University of Western Sydney, is a Lecturer in Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies at The University of Sydney. His research interests include sovereignty and the nature of rights, violence, race, and critical animal studies.