The palgrave international handbook of a 200

Slaughterhouses

193

the lives of animals?’ We also accept Nibert’s (2002, p. 150) argument that,
‘ . . . language is a powerful tool in rationalizing and naturalizing injustice’.
Humans use language, often expressed through dominant discourses, to make
them/ourselves superior to (other) animals. We define language as a system of
communication, discourse as the human mobilisation of language, particularly
words, and dominant discourses as those that are common, popular, socially
acceptable, ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ prescriptions for living. For example, when
applied to people, butchery describes macabre and grotesque acts of violence.
However, animal abuse is so normative that when applied to animals, butchery
is a term that manages to be emptied of violence. Butcher shop signs are
proudly displayed and being a butcher is still a relatively esteemed occupation.
Sleights of hand work in the slaughterhouse too. As Pachirat (2011, p. 30) outs
it, ‘Here there occurs both linguistic and material manufacturing: the fabrication department is a site of production, a hidden workshop floor where the
linguistic leap from steer to steak, from heifer to hamburger is enacted’.
The seemingly simple act of naming a being helps to constitute individual
uniqueness, whereas allocating them only a number does the opposite.
Naming and individualising helps to recognise sentience and suffering. In
‘Othering’ animals and viewing them not as individuals but as groups (of
cattle for instance) we deny them grievability. As Butler (2004) points out, to
ensure that someone is considered grievable they have to, first, be seen as
irreplaceable. One of the most basic linguistic manoeuvres is to turn individual animals into ‘livestock’ and ‘cattle’. Always interchangeable ‘cattle’
‘sheep’ and ‘chicken’ become nameless, faceless and indistinct from each
other. This helps translate cattle into meat, if not the further de-identified
‘protein’. As Piazza et al. (2015) argue, this is then further embedded
culturally as seen in the 4 Ns— necessary, natural, normal, nice—that
rationalise discomfort around meat consumption.

Challenging the Injunction that Humans are Meant
to Eat Meat
Mainstream media plays an important role in the promulgation of shared
language, which is used to constitute normality and determine the existence
of violence. Commercial advertisers who use outlets such as television, radio
and web programs to reach mass audiences, are usually well aware of the
leverage language, in particular, engaging turns of phrase or memorable
sound bites can have for how products are perceived, thus whether they are
purchased and consumed. Consider for instance, the language ‘meat