“Humaneness” and the capable animal: A proposal for a non-anthropocentric definition for the subjectivities and integrity of non-human animals

This work addresses language and how contested meanings of words provoke cognitive dissonance, favouring people within human-animal interactions. In this article, the authors unpack how language is a living dynamic system and suggest how words become embedded, rooted in, and, at the same time, inform cultural beliefs. This process reifies the varied cross-discipline views of what or, as we want to suggest, who is an animal. The authors go further to argue that the term “humane” as it is currently defined, is anthropocentric. They propose a non-anthropocentric definition that highlights the subjectivities and integrity of non-human animals.