Demonizing Wild Animals To Justify Their Slaughter: Examining the Cultural Context for Killing

Certain wild animals are targeted for killing when they are perceived to be a threat to humans, livestock, crops or fish. Such animals include wolves, sharks, buffalo, bats, vultures, orcas, bears, snakes, owls, sloths, hawks, and jaguars.  Once these animals are declared to be a “problem,” support for killing them is mobilized through political assumptions that usually remain unexamined. There is little recognition that these conflicts derive from severe disruptions in animal habitats that are usually caused by human actions, such as habitat loss or encroachment by humans and disruption of migration pathways.  The climate crisis with the ensuing forest fires and flooding have exacerbated these problems. Moreover, in some cases there is little or no scientific evidence to support such claims about animal threats, and other possible explanations are ignored. The demonization of animals is then used against certain peoples, when applied to targeted human groups to justify repression and even genocide by referring to them as “animals.” This session asks how an ethnobiological perspective can clarify the underlying symbolic meaning of these actions and suggest alternative responses.