EXPORTATION OF LIVE CATTLE FROM BRAZIL: AN ANALYSIS FROM THE AGENCY AND ANIMAL RESISTANCE

Abstract

There has been a growing body of research on the agency and resistance of other animals to their exploiters and to speciesism, especially by authors in Critical Animal Studies and Multispecies Studies. Decades of scientific work have demonstrated the complexities of animals’ cognitions, emotions, and sociability, which has resulted in the recognition that they possess and exercise agency. Jason Hribal (2007) proposes a methodological perspective from below, which recognizes animals as historical agents who have negotiated the limits of their exploitation, created social change, and allied themselves with human groups against other forms of exploitation. From this perspective, this work analyzes the maritime export trade of live cattle from Brazil, understanding the live cattle subjects as agents who resist this practice, unlike the Western tradition, even animalist ones, which portray animals as passive beings, moral patients. As a case study, we analyzed the documentary “Elias, the Ox Who Learned to Swim,” produced by the NGO Mercy for Animals, which tells the story of the ox that escaped from the ship that was exporting it and swam to shore for more than 5 hours. The documentary denounces the cruel and unhealthy conditions in which animals are transported. We propose that animal exploitation and oppression be read in terms of Animal Agency and Resistance.