Keynote: Iván Sandoval-Cervantes, MSc, PhD
Responsibility and Punitivism in the Animal Protection Movement in Mexico
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Abstract: There is a growing movement in Mexico seeking to protect non-human animals. People who are part of this movement refer to themselves as animalistas. The animalista movement grows in many different directions, and animalistas themselves support a wide range of ideas about how to reach their objectives. Numerous organizations and individual animalistas support
changes in both the existing animal law and in its enforcement, yet one of the most common features of the movement has been trial by social media—that is, the public exposure of animal abusers on social media platforms, especially Facebook. These attempts seek social media virality as a way to exert pressure on the authorities and the politicians. However, such efforts also result in numerous comments that suggest that the solution to animal abuse is corporal punishment, often extreme and mimicking the abuse received by the animals themselves. In this presentation, I analyze sectors of the animalista movement that proposes a punitivist solution to animal abuse. Although this is not exclusive to the animalista movement, Mexican animal protection activists are well suited to reconceptualize communities beyond the human and, thus, offer alternative versions of responsibility and hope.
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Dr. Sandoval-Cervantes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). His current project "Animal Bodies, Human Voices: Violence and the Animal Rights Movement in Mexico," seeks to understand how animal rights/well-being activists operate in the current context of violence within Mexico. He reflects on the possibility of alternative models of animal well-being. His research has appeared in academic journals and in his forthcoming book Oaxaca in Motion: An Ethnography of Internal, Transnational, and Return Migration, due to be published in 2022. He received his Bachelor's degree in anthropology from the Universidad de las América-Puebla (UDLAP), a Master's of Science in philosophy of social science from the London School of Economics, and a Doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Oregon.