Social justice and animal exploitation: reflections on an impossible alliance

Abstract

This text aims to provide a reflection on the contradictions of basing social justice on the expansion of the carnist system, especially in the case of Latin America. In order to argue in favor of this contradiction we will proceed in three steps: in the first, some ideas about animal life in the current system of exploitation will be developed, hoping to shed light on why the degradation of nonhuman animals cannot be the basis for conceptions of social justice; in the second, some points will be presented on the problematic of how the material conditions of animal exploitation are contrary to human and, of course, animal health and welfare; and in the third, and by way of conclusion, the idea of a contextual veganism will be proposed, based on the need for a radical change that generates the possibilities of a human-animal social justice.