From Zoonosis to Zoopolis

Within just a few weeks, COVID-19 has caused unprecedented lockdowns, the extensive use of emergency powers, shifts in how and who makes decisions, and unforeseen consequences for marginalized and newly marginalized individuals. Political leaders and journalists were quick to blame animals, such as bats and pangolins, as the ones “responsible” for this crisis. These accusations have led to animals being stigmatized globally; in some places, they were burned or otherwise killed by the hundreds. Framing animals as the scapegoats of the Corona crisis, however, is neither useful nor justified. Ultimately, it isn’t animals themselves, but the way in which we treat them that is the true cause of the pandemic. For the first time in history, experts from diverse fields such as has epidemiology, biology, chemistry, physics, and public health have called for a fundamental change in our relationships with animals. However, they do not sufficiently address what this change and our relationships with animals should look like in the future. Drawing on the recent “political turn” in animal ethics, this paper argues that COVID-19 prompts us to begin working to establish a Zoopolis – a shared interspecies society between humans and domesticated animals, and the recognition of wild animals as sovereigns. In doing so, the paper discusses linkages between pandemics and factory farming, structural similarities between human and animal oppression, and opportunities to consider animals in determining the public good, and to work toward a shared interspecies society.