Urban animal killability: A multispecies legal geography of “nuisance wildlife trappers”.

Keywords: urban, animal, pest, nuisance, multispecies, animal geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 1

Abstract

The presence of urban animals is ubiquitous, but the legal frameworks that manage urban human-animal relations remain underexplored. Research into local and Florida state laws revealed that many animals die because of private wildlife trapping companies. These preventable deaths are not documented nor tracked in any way. According to ethnographic interviews with two wildlife trappers, they trap and remove or kill hundreds of animals across South Florida every month. This means that thousands of animals are killed annually, and there is currently no way to gather more detailed information about these lethal legal practices.
This presentation addresses the need for legislation that tracks “nuisance wildlife removal” companies and monitors their practices according to other regulations and laws already in place regarding native animals and animal cruelty. Human mitigation of multispecies relations is a critical ethical, legal, and fiduciary conversation. The state spends millions of dollars annually on programs to irradicate “invasive” animals accused of over-consuming Florida’s native wild animals – yet, in urban sprawls, the law allows for the unchecked destruction of the same native animals merely for human convenience.
The analysis of “nuisance” animal destruction practices intersects discussions of animals as property, wildlife protection programs, invasive species management, firearm laws in urban spaces, public health, ecological disturbance, and urban human-animal relations. Further, as we have learned from the domestic animal sheltering and dog racing industries, activism and subsequent change are only manifested when we acknowledge and track animal death. We cannot possibly mourn that which remains unknown.