Electronic Green Journal

This article discusses the biopolitics of the coronavirus pandemic practiced on both human and non-human animals. I begin by introducing the idea of biopolitics and othering. I then bring two animals, bats and minks, together to explain the role of biopolitics in manipulating the bodies of non-human animals. In particular, I compare the discourses surrounding both animals that frame bats as the wild and minks as the productive— the categorization of both disembodies the animals and subjects them to exploitation. I also examine the role of the environment in creating a shared vulnerability between human and non-human animals. I argue that the coronavirus pandemic is a crisis evoked by a system that profits from the use of biopolitics through the creations of dichotomies between the “normal” and the “abnormal.” To reimagine our future, we need to seek a sustainability that fosters entanglements, instead of separations, of all creatures.