ANIMAL EQUALITY: Language and Liberation by Joan Dunayer. Style Guidelines. Countering Speciesism

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STYLE GUIDELINES
COUNTERING SPECIESISM

MANNER OF PRESENTATION

Use ...

narration (nonhuman biography and slices of life) to convey a sense of individual nonhuman lives

vivid description of particular nonhumans and their experiences to help readers or listeners visualize their situation and empathize

actual examples of mistreatment to illustrate general facts about nonhuman oppression

Avoid ...

strictly theoretical discussion of nonhuman-animal abuse

exclusively generic or abstract reference to nonhuman animals (all members of some category or the "average"
member)


SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Use ...

syntax that makes nonhuman animals the grammatical subject, especially if they're the primary actors or
victims

word order that gives nonhuman animals a sentence's most emphatic position: beginning or end

word order that frequently places nonhumans before humans (nonhuman and human animals; the cat and her human companion Steve)

Avoid ...

syntax that buries nonhuman animals inside a list, dependent clause, or prepositional phrase

syntax that equates nonhuman beings with inanimate things (The tornado destroyed a barn and ten cows)


WORD CHOICES

Animalkind

Use ...

animals to include all creatures (human and nonhuman) with a nervous system

mammals, primates, and apes to include humans

persons, individuals, others, and people to include nonhumans

the same vocabularly for nonhumans and humans (pigs and humans eat rather than feed; the bodies of dead sheep or humans are corpses not carcasses; like women, female dogs and cats have ovariohysterectomies rather than are spayed)

parallel forms for humans and nonhumans (nonhuman and human animals; humans and dogs instead of human beings and dogs, mankind and dogs, or man and dogs)

Avoid ...

expressions that elevate humans above other animals (human kindness: the rational species; the sanctity of human life)

human-nonhuman comparisons that patronize nonhumans (almost human; Chimpanzees have many human characteristics)

hierarchical references to animals (lower animals; subhuman; inferior)

dismissive just, mere, only, and even before animal terms (a mere beetle; They're just animals)

pejorative nonhuman-animal metaphors and similes (bitch; to parrot; eat like a pig)

the imprecise, demeaning terms beast, brute, and dumb animal

terms that portray nonhumans relatively free of human control and genetic manipulation as dangerous or inferior (wild animals; mongrel; mutt)

category labels that vilify nonhumans (vermin; pests; trash fish)

category labels that depict nonhuman animals in a particular situation as animals of a particular type (lab animal; poultry; companion animal)


Nonhuman thought and feeling

Use ...

words that directly attribute thought and feeling to nonhuman animals (understand; joy; eager)

verbs that imply nonhuman emotion and intention (romped instead of leaped about; fled instead of ran)

connnecting words that invest nonhuman action with purpose (bounded in for his supper; jumps onto the windowsill so that she can look outside: barked because someone rang the doorbell)

strong words for intense nonhuman feelings (severe suffering; love rather than affection; pain rather than discomfort)

Avoid ...

overqualified reference to nonhuman thought and feeling (seemed to recognise; as if she felt pain; This behaviour might indicate lonliness)


Nonhuman Individuals

Use ...

he for a male animal, she for a female, and she/he or he/she for a hermaphrodite - not it

she or he for a particular individual of unknown gender (Whenever I see a turtle on the road, I move them to safety; If another hawk comes, let's watch them through binoculars; One of the puppies [among males and females) already had their vaccinations)

a singular sex-specific pronoun when a singular indefinite term, such as any or each, refers to group members of the same sex (Every cow stayed close to her calf; Any cock who tried to escape had his neck wrung; Each earthworm struggled when she/he was pierced by the hook)

they when a singular indefinite term refers to members of a group that includes individuals of different sexes or unknown sex (Neither deer [a buck and a doe] recovered from their wounds; Each alligator had so little space that they barely could move)

who (not that, which or what) for any sentient beings

anybody/anyone, everybody/everyone, nobody/no one, and somebody/someone (not anything, everything, nothing, or something) for any sentient beings

relational references to nonhuman animals after possessive pronouns (my cat companion, not my cat; our canary friends, not our canaries)

personal names for nonhuman animals (Sally; Max)

the most specific nontechnical way of referring to a particular nonhuman (Toby the horned toad rather than a horned toad; a beagle rather than a dog; an albino rat rather than a Sprague-Dawley rat)

language that correctly distinguishes nonhuman individuals from their groups (killed a member of an endangered species, not killed an endangered species; captured birds of 22 species, not captured 22 species of birds

inflected animal plurals in preference to uninflected (many fishes rather than many fish; five trouts rather than five trout; three quails rather than three quail)

plural forms of words for individual animals in preference to collective nouns (the chickens instead of the flock; free-living nonhumans instead of wildlife; the ants instead of the colony)

number (not amount) references to living animals how many geese, not how much geese; catch three catfishes, not catch eight pounds of catfish; some of the cows, not part of the herd)


Avoid ...

language that replaces nonhuman animals with a site (poisoned the fish tank; pig farms that experience disease)

reference to living animals as if they were remains (raise beef; trophy hunter; fur trapper)

reference to remains as if they were living animals (milk-fed veal; grain-fed beef; a turkey in reference to turkey remains)

terms that equate nonhuman animals with insentient things (the oyster crop; reference to mice as research tools; reference to sharks as killing machines)

commodity references to nonhuman animals livestock; surplus dogs and cats; reference to male chicks as egg-industry byproducts)

language that conveys a proprietary view of nonhuman animals (fisheries; wildlife conservation; Vandals killed the zoo's falcon)

reference to nonhumans as human-created (build a better cow; genetically engineered mice; trout production)

terms that negate animal's uniqueness (replacement lambs; standardized dogs; reference to nonhumans as renewable resources)

reference to all members of a group as if they were a single animal (the woodpecker for all woodpeckers; the silverfish for silverfishes in general)

Speciesist Abuse

Use ...

everyday language free of jargon (stab with a large hook, not gaff; breaking the neck, not cervical dislocation)

moralistic language (murder, cruelty, speciesism), not morally detached language such as that of economics, experimentation or recreation

political terms with legal implications (animal rights; justice; personhood)

equally strong words for human and nonhuman suffering or death (extreme, tragic or terrible)

wording that keeps nonhuman animals in view (Many pigs died, not Mortality was high; The trapped fox struggled, not Struggling occured


Avoid ...

expressions that trivialize violence toward nonhuman animals (kill two birds with one stone; have other fish to fry)

euphemisms for abuse (fur farming; animal agriculture; biomedical research for vivisection)

euphemisms for animal-derived products (leather; sausage; veal)

understatements about nonhuman suffering and death (Zoos may not be ideal homes; Hunters don't always aim perfectly)

positive words in reference to abuse (farm-animal welfare; humane treatment in reference to vivisection; eucational in reference to aquaprisons or zoos)

oxymorons (humane slaughter; necessary evil; shooting preserve; responsible breeding)

terms that naturalize the unnatural (habitat for a cage; wildlife center for a zoo; naturalist for someone who studies imrisoned nonhumans)

terms that disguise killing as protection (shelter for a facility where healthy nonhumans are killed; wildlife refuge for a place where hunting or fishing is allowed)

words that glamorize inbreeding (thoroughbreds; purebred dogs; improved turkeys)

language that blames nonhuman victims (an orangutan who escapes from a zoo and stubbornly resists recapture; elephants punished for rebelling against circus enslavement)

expressions that imply nonhuman victimizationis natural and acceptable (work like a horse; human guinea pig; treated us like animals)

wording that portrays nonhumans as willing victims (monkeys who participate in experiments and give their lives; a captured octopus who took up residence in an aquaprison)

over- terms that implicitly sanction less-rampant killing and less-extreme coercion (overhunt; overfish; overwork a horse

language that depicts choice as necessity (necessary evil in reference to vivisection; carnivores or predators in reference to humans)

reference to abusers as protectors (animal lover in reference to a vivisector; animal welfarist in reference to a cattle enslaver)

punning or other wordplay that invites people to smirk at atrocities (the title They Eat Horses, Don't They? or You Can Lead a Horse to Slaughter for an article on horse slaughter; the slogan Don't Gobble Me or Thanksgiving Is Murder on Turkeys intended to protest turkeys' mass murder)


PUNCTUATION

Use ...

quotation marks around euphemisms (predator "control" for the killing of predators; "discipline" for beatings; "collection" for capture)

quotation marks around language that reduces animals to things (the crab "harvest"; "depleted" fish "stocks"; the use of mouse "models")

quotation marks arounf terms that indirectly denigrate nonhuman animals ("brutal"; "animal instinct"; "bestiality")

Avoid ...

scare-quotes around accurate terms for speciesist abuse ("torture"; "enslavement"; "genocide")

scare-quotes around words that acknowledge nonhuman thought and feeling ("grief"; "happiness"; "realized")

quotation marks around a nonhuman animal's personal name ("Billie" the golden hamster) unless the name is contemptuous