Disobeying with love… and derision. Anti-speciesist manifesto and Champignac d’or 2018
Swiss anti-speciesist activist Virginia Markus was awarded the 2018 Champignac d’or on Saturday, December 15, for her statement: “We need to think about the professional survival of butchers without animals being killed at the end.” Winner, from over 40 candidates, of this Grand Prix du Maire de Champignac, which has been awarded each year since 1988 for the bon mots of personalities in French-speaking Switzerland, Virginia Markus has been defending the animal cause for several years.
The author of a book questioning the ethics of the Swiss dairy industry, she is also the author of an anti-speciesist manifesto published in 2018. This manifesto, Désobéir avec amour, denounces the injustice linked to the exploitation and commercialization of animals and denounces speciesism, i.e. discrimination based solely on the criterion of species. In contrast, antispeciesism advocates recognition of the rights of animals, which should be considered on an equal footing with the human species.
- Disobeying with love. Anti-speciesist manifesto is available in hard copy on the Unithèque website.
- The dairy industry: an open wound that needs suturing? An ethical look at the Swiss dairy industry is available in hard copy on the Riponne site.
To take you further, here are a few recent books on antispeciesism and animal rights, continuing the seminal work of Peter Singer, Australian philosopher and author in 1975 of Animal Liberation :
- Yves Bonnardel, Pierre Sigler and Thomas Lepeltier (dir.), La révolution antispéciste, available in hard copy on the Unithèque and Riponne websites.
- Alain Finkielkraut, Des animaux et des hommes, available in hard copy on the Riponne website.
- Frédéric Lenoir, Lettre ouverte aux animaux (et à ceux qui les aiment), available in print on the Riponne website.
- Matthieu Ricard, Plaidoyer pour les animaux : vers une bienveillance pour tous, available in hard copy from Unithèque and Riponne.
And to conclude, a good word from Philippe Leuba, Vaud State Councillor, also nominated for the Grand Prix du Maire de Champignac 2018: “The animal cause does not justify turning livestock farmers out to pasture”. Something to ponder in the New Year…
Maël Goarzin
Head of philosophy and psychology collections, BCUL site Unithèque
