When Animals Sustain the Fabric of Our Democracies
At a time when our democracies are increasingly faltering, it might seem surprising to turn towards goats for inspiration about democratic politics. Yet, my observations of goats Marble and Pumpernickel cemented my unfolding understanding that animals play a crucial role in sustaining what I call the ‘fabric of zoodemocracy’ — the social norms, values, and practices that bind democratic communities together.
I conducted fieldwork, which included gathering these observations, between 2021 and 2023 through ethnographic research at VINE sanctuary, an LGBTQ+ led sanctuary for formerly farmed animals in Springfield, Vermont, US. The sanctuary’s multispecies community includes alpacas, sheep, cows, hens, roosters, humans, geese, and goats, among others. At VINE, animals are recognized as individuals with a right to self determination: they freely choose their friendships, co-author their own social norms, and pursue their social activities according to their preferences and rhythms. VINE’s community thus serves as a prefigurative polity: an example of what a just human-animal Zoopolis could look like. Studying human and non-human animal interactions in such a setting allowed me to observe how animals might contribute to weaving the fabric of our democracies if, and when, they are recognized as community members.
In this article, I discuss three remarkable ways in which animals sustain this fabric: learning social norms, cooperating, and resolving conflicts.
Learning multispecies social norms: Marble and Pumpernickel, the goats
Two new goat residents, Marble and Pumpernickel, arrived at VINE in the fall of 2022. As they had been brought up as pets, they had never had the opportunity to learn about the social norms of a community. Initially, their behavior was to some extent odd.
They would awkwardly stand behind cows, goats, and sheep before eating from one of the communal hay rings, making other residents visibly uncomfortable. This is a familiar experience for us humans, too. Consider when someone is watching you from behind, and you similarly feel uncomfortable. In the case of the animals, they responded to this awkward behavior by gently headbutting and chasing Marble and Pumpernickel away.
Marble and Pumpernickel also tried to eat from spots already occupied by other residents, breaking the sanctuary’s social norm of respecting personal space while eating. As a result of these two behavioural patterns, during the first months at the sanctuary they were frequently excluded from eating at the communal hay ring, and I did not observe them playing with other goat residents — a common behaviour among the other goats.
In the summer of 2023, however, Marble and Pumpernickel had fully integrated into the community. They no longer lingered awkwardly behind other residents, rarely tried to eat from the same spot as other residents, and played with fellow community members.
Between fall 2022 and summer 2023, they had learnt the social norms of the community — a process requiring responsiveness to what other nonhuman residents were saying to them, the capacity to learn through a multispecies process of socialisation, and the capacity to comply with social norms (see also this study). Furthermore, I observed that Marble and Pumpernickel respected other community members, gently invited interactions, and provided emotional support by grooming with other residents. These capacities and behaviors are vital to sustaining the democratic fabric of our communities.
During fieldwork, I also observed the behavior of other animals whose actions played a decisive role in holding the multispecies community together. This included ducks appropriating spaces, cows engaging in acts of protest, and geese cooperating to resolve conflicts. In the remainder of this article, I will focus on the latter.
Cooperation and conflict resolution: When geese mediate
Conflict is unavoidable in any community, and the resolution of such conflicts is crucial for sustaining democracies. Throughout my fieldwork, I observed geese cooperatively separating animals of different species when the conflicts between them were too severe.
For example, roosters at VINE sanctuary frequently assert territorial boundaries by harmlessly pecking at each other. On some occasions, however, roosters interact with each other too aggressively, threatening to destabilize the relationships of peace that govern VINE’s community. When this happens, several geese may cooperatively intervene by honking and flapping their wings in unison, indicating to the roosters that they should stop.
If the conflict persists, the geese may physically intervene by grabbing each rooster by one of their wings and pulling them apart. I observed pairs of geese coordinating their actions, each targeting one rooster to separate them effectively. This restraint method almost always succeeded, effectively resolving the conflicts among the roosters.
Consider what is involved in this process of conflict-resolution: the geese evaluate the severity of conflicts, intervening when roosters’ behavior is unusually aggressive; the roosters recognize the geese as mediators and restrain themselves accordingly; and the geese cooperate, communicating to each other when and how to act.
Why does this matter? Animals and democratic renewal
Today, basic democratic principles seem increasingly vulnerable. For a long time, a significant number of people have felt disillusioned with democratic forms of governance, partly due to its repeated failures to create the conditions for the most vulnerable members of society to thrive and truly co-author the norms that govern us all. In this context, recognizing how animals already contribute to sustaining democratic communities can illuminate fresh possibilities for democratic renewal.
Feminist scholars remind us that the voices of minoritized persons have too often been dismissed by traditional power structures. Similarly, disability rights activists and scholars challenge the idea that only those who communicate or reason in stereotypical ways are ‘fit’ for politics. This insight demands welcoming those who have previously been deemed voiceless, human or not, into the political sphere. For this reason, truly just systems require institutional mechanisms that can take up the voices of those who do not communicate through human language “in equitable terms,” as political theorist Alasdair Cochrane has recently said. If this is done, our democratic systems will be more inclusive and, consequently, more just.
In a more visionary spirit, I want to highlight an underlying theme of this article: my research suggests that a vibrant multispecies tapestry, a fabric, already forms the foundation of our democratic communities. Yet, as political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka argue, nonhuman animals have property status, remaining in a position of unjust subordination. It is therefore imperative to legally recognize domesticated animals as members of our communities and establish the institutional mechanisms necessary to ensure that the voices of all the governed can shape the norms that govern us all.
Pablo P. Castelló, PhD is a Research Fellow at PAN Works and at the Animal Law Program at the University of Denver. Prior to this, Pablo held research fellowships at the University of Cambridge, Harvard Law School, and the 2022–2024 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Animal Ethics at Queen’s University. Pablo’s work focuses on deconstructing oppressions against minoritized groups, including animals, and on developing proposals to build more just political and legal systems where all animals can flourish.
Nicole Roberts is the Associate Editor for PAN Works.
Please visit PAN Works for more about our work on ethics and animal wellbeing.
