https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9588-7390
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ABSTRACT
The process of killing non-human animals demands certain psychosocial, affective, and moral processes. In the case of so-called ‘death-saturated environments’, psychic numbing and systematic desensitisation related to violent attitudes and behaviours against non-human animals acquire contradictory dimensions. To understand these processes in depth, this article proposes a theoretical perspective based on the social psychology of human-animal relations. Empirically, the study examines the experiences, attitudes, and worldviews of men in Ecuador whose jobs involve inflicting pain and death on animals and focuses on the ways in which these subjects deal with ‘moral stress’ and ‘the caring-killing paradox’. It examines how slaughterhouse workers, bullfighters, and cockfighters establish ambivalent relationships with the animals, characterised by a certain paradoxical moral and affective action. Eleven in-depth interviews, lasting one to three hours, were conducted for this purpose, and are analysed through the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti, using thematic analysis as a qualitative research technique.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 This article presents advances from the doctoral thesis of the main author.
2 We would like to thank Professor José Manuel Cárdenas for his careful reading of this text and the anonymous reviewers for their comments that improved this article.
3 This involves carefully choosing the bloodline and genetic crosses of the cocks. The aim is to ensure the ‘best lineage’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Juan José Ponce León
Juan José Ponce León is a clinical psychologist from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He holds a master`s degree in political sociology from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. Currently, he is PhD student in Psychology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is a member of Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios Críticos Animales (ILECA), and part of the editorial staff of Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Críticos Animales (RLECA). His main research interests are about Latin-American Critical Animal Studies; Masculinities; Emotions, Body, Protest and Politics; Political Subjectivation and Psychosocial dimensions of violence in human-animal relationships.
Ivan Darío Ávila Gaitán
Iván Darío Ávila Gaitán holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of the Andes, as well as a master’s degree in philosophy and cultural studies from the same university. He completed postdoctoral studies in philosophy at the University of San Buenaventura, focusing on critical animal studies. Additionally, he holds a degree in Political Science from the National University of Colombia. Currently, he is a member of the bioethics committee at the District Institute for Animal Protection and Welfare, and he teaches at the Department of Political Science at the National University of Colombia. He is also a faculty member of the master’s program in rural development at UNAD in Bogotá, Colombia.