When Animals Speak

Towards an interspecies Democracy

Engaging in politics entails the need for some structured communication between the involved subjects. If this communication is not possible, representatives are needed to represent the voice of the speechless. In most debates or academic work involving multispecies politics, the role of these experts as spokespersons is not questioned. In her fluently written book, Eva Meijer reveals this as problematic as it becomes clear throughout the first two parts that animals do have a language and use it politically.

Using different theoretical voices and day-to-day examples, Meijer proposes that we might need to broaden our limited understanding of what language and politics are. Do we not have a shared language with our dog, as we succeed in communicating with it each day? In the third and last part of the book, Meijer explores how our current political methods, processes and institutions might incorporate multispecies political voices.