WORST SCHOLARSHIP OF THE YEAR —
anything by Edythe London
As if being in the pocket of Big Tobacco wasn’t bad enough, University of California vivisector Edythe Danick London has also devoted her life to addicting thousands of enslaved primates and other animals to crystal methamphetamines and nicotine. This pursuit has allowed London to comment authoritatively in 2013 on such vital issues as, for example, whether OREO cookies are more addictive than cocaine.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/oreos-are-as-enticing-as-cocaine-a-rat-study-finds-but-dont-worry-about-withdrawal/2013/10/21/c8410590-37f8-11e3-ae46-e4248e75c8ea_story.html)
To keep tabs on London and her UC cohorts, check out the good work of Progress for Science http://progressforscience.com/
WORST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Critical Animal Studies: An Introduction
by Dawne McCance
McCance’s opportunistic book attempts to theorize CAS while overlooking its most important feature: its grounding in the street, not the ivory tower. This book does not cite any of the founders of CAS or articles from JCAS. Further, this book does not note any of the books out on CAS, noted in the Top 5 2013 CAS Books. For an authentic overview of the field, we respectfully suggest checking out the recently released “Defining Critical Animal Studies.”
WORST ECOLOGICAL/ANIMAL DESTRUCTIVE ACT OF THE YEAR
Tar Sands
Mining bitumen in Alberta (as well as in Kazatstan and Russia) is a key source of environmental destruction. Widespread deforestation and toxic waste result in the loss of animal life and Indigenous ancestral lands, as well as polluted water systems; getting the product to distant markets requires risky pipelines; and the extraction process creates enormous greenhouse gas emissions which accelerates global warming—the greatest threat to all life forms. In short, a thoroughly omnicidal enterprise.
WORST ORGANIZATION/CORPORATION OF THE YEAR
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s list of transgressions include union busting, poverty wages, horrible working conditions, and overseas labor exploitation. To this we add profiting from violence to other animals. An undercover video released in 2013 showed employees of Wal-Mart supplier Tyson Foods beating pigs. While Wal-Mart was quick to distance itself from the overt violence, it has refused to cut ties with suppliers who engage in another widespread act of violence caught on the video: confining pigs to coffin-like gestation crates.
For more information on the controversy: http://www.walmartcruelty.com/
WORST DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
American Meat
While American Meat may think that, “a new generation of grass-based farmers are sparking a revolution,” ICAS begs to differ: nothing could be less revolutionary than letting animals eat their rightful diet. In fact, the film itself, which perpetuates the fallacy of “humane animal agriculture” (making invisible the perspective of billions of enslaved and slaughtered animals) can only be described as profoundly counter-revolutionary.
http://www.americanmeatfilm.com/
WORST FORUM OF THE YEAR
George Zimmerman trial
On July 13, 2013, social relations in “post-racial” America were laid bare. On that day a Sanford jury acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Trayvon Martin. The verdict compounded the message inherent in Martin’s death: that America is a place where black males are always considered suspect because of the way they look or what they wear. Intersectional activists saw the verdict as a call to re-double our efforts, for we regognized in it that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
