dog's liberation - coexistence and resilience
A fundamental study of the relationships we have with dogs everywhere, including in urban areas in Romania and abroad.
An examination of the power dynamics and dominance that affect them, and at the same time a reflection on alternative ways of coexisting, including anti-capitalist and anti-speciesist approaches.
🐾 A collaboration featuring a cover illustration, based on a concept developed together with Aron Nor.
How do we talk about the non-human animals that live alongside us, from an anti-speciesist perspective? More specifically, how do we talk about that so-called “best friend” of humans, with whom we have coevolved and with whom we share a long history of coexistence and survival, domination and companionship?
Covering three main themes and addressing many other related topics, this text offers an exploration of the thinking and practice behind liberating approaches to relationships with dogs. This exchange of ideas reflects on dog shelters and international adoptions, raising various questions regarding their necessity and exploring multiple perspectives, both local and international. The discussion refers to the situation in both Italy and Romania—considering to what extent the latter is a special case. At the same time, the text explores different possibilities for resistance against the humanist project, ways to ally ourselves with stray dogs, and imaginaries of multispecies coexistence.
This dialogue is an invitation, an opening to various questions that address the fairness of our interspecies relationships, to bolder proposals for shared spaces outside the humanist and capitalist order, to being together-with-the-other, alongside dogs, and to learning, understanding, and feeling, alongside them, other ways of being.
Among the symbolic elements depicted on the graffiti-covered wall are the symbol of Vegan Anarchism and a pair of pliers often used by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which carries out rescue missions to save animals exploited in industrial farming complexes.
A few photos of Aki, who lives with Aron Nor, his book, and a bookmark inspired by his independent research, which features a portrait of the little dog Mușhi. Plus, some small details from inside the book.
Originally written as an exchange of ideas between Aron Nor and ILC, the conversation was translated into Romanian by Maria Martelli.