Bearing witness: On animal suffering

Every day, billions of animals across the globe endure considerable suffering within commercial practices and industries, yet for the most part, these animals are unseen, hidden from public view, invisibilised. This essay considers the philosophical and moral dimensions of the act of seeing in relation to such extensive animal suffering. In particular, it considers the questions, what does it mean to see the world as one inhabited by billions of suffering animals, and how do we bear witness to their suffering? Further, how should we understand this in relation to our obligations to bring their suffering to the surface of our view, to engage with their plight in a way which demands us to respond as individuals? Drawing on the concepts of the banality of evil, extreme cognitive compartmentalisation and objectification, this essay will explore what it means to unveil animal suffering, to make animals’ lived experiences and lives visible from a moral point of view, not merely through looking but through empathic seeing that goes beyond mere observation. The act of seeing is here understood a philosophical practice, involving interpretation and meaning-making, especially with regard to suffering.