Interspeciesism is informed by feminist influences, functioning as a framing paradigm that engages with a politicized question of the animal that explicitly acknowledges human-animal entanglements across sites that are shaped by imperialism and colonialism. This interspecies project considers the political nature of relationships between humans and canines. It suggests that people situate their own identities and power not only in relation to other humans but also to other species. Simultaneously, the interspeciesm I engage with extends analyses of biopolitics, or the regulations of living bodies, beyond humans to all species. It interrogates how contemporary U.S. society has organized and identified itself in part through the ways in which it controls and monitors canines, often in relationship to the multiple ways dogs in the U.S. are racialized, classed and gendered by specific breeds. This coding of canine bodies with various taxonomies of power is not about dog breeds’ in-and-of themselves, but instead indicates that dominant U.S. society seeks to assert control over certain populations that are constructed as undesirable and unproductive.
Canines exist in a unique space in the U.S. cultural imaginary where they have multiple and oftentimes contradictory meanings that are influenced by a variety of power relations that transcend species. At stake is a critical concern regarding how interspecies bodies are made, controlled, formed, and refigured together under heteropatriarchal white supremacist modes of power. It draws attention to what these corporeal un(makings) imply for an ethics of being with, and thinking of, the other—human and animal.
As the pandemic hit back in 2019, an influx of pet adoptions occurred as more people were spending time home alone and saw the need for a companion. While SARS-CoV-2 is still circulating the globe, and mutating into different strains, people are continuing to work from home close to their animals. Evidence has shown that animals like dogs, cats, minks, and ferrets can contract the disease from their human counterparts, however, it is unclear if humans can contract the disease back from their animal companions [6]. While we have seen these Coronavirus outbreaks continually occur in the past several decades, we must be properly knowledgeable on the transmission capabilities of the virus to combat another wave of a SARS outbreak for future decades to come. Earlier coronavirus’ present in veterinary medicine has been noted to progress into more fatal and aggressive diseases when transmitted from one species to another [7], and therefore it is just as important that we understand the transmission possibilities of the virus in animals as we do ourselves. To determine if our pets can transmit the virus to us humans, a study is proposed where canines are purposefully inoculated with a selected SARS-Cov-2 virus and exposed to human volunteers to determine if the virus can spill back from canines to humans. To determine which virus strain will be utilized for the study, data regarding potential strain hosts will be collected from directly ill volunteers who also own canines prior to inoculation.