Will Curiosity® Kill the Cat?

Garrett Bunyak
2019 Humanimalia - a journal of human/animal interface studies  
The control and eradication of free-living domestic cats due to perceived declines in bird populations is a major concern within the biological and ecological sciences, especially in Australasia. Consequently, human relationships with free living cats are entangled with deadly technoscientific discourses and practices. Deploying a posthumanist framework, this genealogy examines efforts to manage and destroy free-living cat populations with and through technoscience. Scientific recourse to
more » ... ucts such as rationality and progress, grounded in Enlightenment philosophy, are shown to legitimize and enable scientific efforts to control and master "nature" and free-living cats. The consequences for non-human animals and indigenous peoples are discussed. Extending interdisciplinary work in science studies, the paper suggests the scientific accounts analyzed are haunted by legacies of colonialism, human exceptionalism, and a faith in science, technology, and progress. As a microcosm of broader trends, this case suggests a scientific enterprise geared towards controlling the "non-human world" may be more of a threat to global ecological processes than the very problems scientists are attempting to solve.
doi:10.52537/humanimalia.9508 fatcat:jso2r7dn45crjibdektiawlopy