ABSTRACT

Under traditional programmes, unclaimed cats entering animal shelters were euthanized by barbiturate injection; since the implementation of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), cats are sterilised and returned to the streets. TNR cats are not only made to live – they are made to work for politics through a technique of tracking live releases from the shelter system to gain public support. However, biopolitical techniques are more than counting – life persists beyond the statistic. This paper traces the underexplored consequences of ‘nuisance wildlife’ removal laws in the ‘no kill’ era of TNR-only programmes in Miami. Trapped cats can be processed as ‘nuisance wildlife’, and killed by gassing, rather than by the only lawful method for killing cats in a shelter: lethal injection. How does TNR, created to make cats live, result in new vulnerabilities and incongruous cat deaths? This case study makes visible both known and unforeseen nonhuman vulnerabilities when biopolitical techniques are implemented without consideration for the complex systems of power at play within the apparatuses of nonhuman animal management. The precarious lives of cats suspended between wild and domestic, wanted and unwanted, and across political and legal purviews, requires greater engagement with the frameworks of killability for domestic and wild species.

摘要

根据传统方案，进入动物收容所的无人认领的猫通过巴比妥酸盐注射安乐死；自实施陷阱绝育返回（TNR）以来，对猫进行了消毒并送回街头。TNR猫不仅活着，还可以工作通过跟踪避难所系统的实时释放以获取公众支持的技术来支持政治活动。但是，生物政治技术不仅仅在于计数-生命仍然超出了统计数据。本文追溯了在迈阿密仅实施TNR计划的“不杀人”时代中“令人讨厌的野生动植物”清除法律的未尽后果。被困的猫可以被当作“滋扰野生动物”，并通过放气杀死，而不是通过唯一合法的方法杀害收容所中的猫：致命注射。为使猫存活而创建的TNR如何导致新的漏洞和不协调的猫死亡？当实施生物政治技术时，无需考虑非人类动物管理设备中正在发挥作用的复杂动力系统，该案例研究就会使已知和无法预见的非人类脆弱性可见。猫的不稳定生活悬浮在野生和家养之间，被通缉和不想要的之间以及政治和法律范围之内，这就要求人们更多地参与家养和野生物种的可杀灭性框架。