From the Rural Idyll to the Animal Industrial Complex: Advancing an anti-speciesist rural criminology of disaster

Animal agriculture is a major driver of climate-related and zoonotic disasters. Nonhuman animals are not only casualties of these crises but are also deeply entangled in the exploitative human–animal relationships that give rise to them. While rural criminology has offered valuable contributions to understanding rural crime, it often treats nonhuman animals—especially those farmed for food and fibre—primarily as property and commodities, disregarding them as victims in their own right. This is compounded by the enduring influence of the rural idyll, which romanticises farming and obscures the role of animal agriculture as a core component of the animal industrial complex. Building on the foundational insights of non-speciesist criminologists, this paper proposes a conceptual shift to an anti-speciesist criminology. In particular, it advances an anti-speciesist rural criminology of disaster, grounded in the recognition that exploitative human–animal relations are central to the suffering experienced by both human and nonhuman animals alike, as well as to environmental degradation and the proliferation and intensification of disasters. Drawing on insights from ecofeminism, critical race theory, and critical animal studies, the paper highlights how speciesism is enmeshed with other systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, colonialism, and ableism. Dismantling speciesism as part of this broader matrix is essential for confronting the systems that give rise to disasters, rethinking harmful relationships among humans, nonhuman animals, and the more-than-human world, and opening possibilities for more relational, reciprocal, and just ways of being.