Do Animals Work? Creating Pragmatic narrative

Do animals work? The way in which we answer this question could bear either the best or the worst consequences for animals. This indicates the pragmatism of such an inquiry. Acknowledging the cooperation and involvement of lab animals in the workload, as proposed by pharmacologist Michael Robin Chance in the 40s, could have changed the entire story. However, what does “work” mean? Donna Haraway defines “work” as a process that crafts identities and “response-abilities.” She writes: “animals as workers in labs, animals in all their worlds, are response-able in the same sense people are; that is, responsibility is a relationship crafted into intra-action through which entities, subjects and objects, come into being.” Sociologists and anthropologists have been reluctant to consider the idea that other beings could claim to work, apart from a few specific cases such as herding dogs, guide dogs, etc. My colleague, the French sociologist Jocelyne Porcher believes that breeding animals actively collaborate with their breeders. In her previous surveys, she heard anecdotes that suggested that cows and pigs deliberately ease the workload, taking initiative and subjectively getting involved in the work. However, when questioned on the issue, breeders adhere to common beliefs that only humans work, not animals. Looking deeper into the issue, we have discovered that the answer to this question fluctuates depending upon the way the question is posed and to whom the question is directed.