52 / Chapter 2
rescue, many were still doing well when I spoke with her in Febru-
ary 2007.
Reducing Vulnerability through
Sustainability
A LexisNexis search of national newspapers for articles on farm
animals and disasters that I undertook during my research for this
chapter illustrated the relative worth of different species. When I
searched using “pets,” “dogs,” “cats,” and “Katrina,” I found over
fi ve hundred articles, but when I used “chickens” and related terms,
the search produced only two articles. More than thirty years ago,
Peter Singer noted that farm animals receive less media attention
than other type of animal. The same is true today.^24 Farm animals
are what Carol Adams calls “absent referents.”^25 Unlike the aban-
doned dogs and cats who were portrayed as unique individuals,
farm animals seldom have stories. They are simply “meat” when
alive, and “units” or “losses” when they die in any way other than
in the slaughterhouse. Because in neither instance are these animals
that are raised for food considered living beings, we can dissociate
ourselves from the suffering entailed by their treatment.
The positions of the rescuers, the poultry companies, and the
farmers and workers who handled the birds also point to how the
claims made about the status of farmed animals vary. Sturla empha-
sized the similarity between chickens and other animals, express-
ing frustration with the efforts exerted on behalf of companion
animals. “There is sympathy for saving dogs and cats and other
mammals,” she explained, “but when it comes to birds, particularly
chickens, that is often scoffed at and mocked.” I asked her how she
responds to questions about why anyone should “bother” rescuing
chickens. She explained that she considered the value of life, regard-
less of species. As she told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I’m looking
at it from the perspective of their lives.... The life of the chicken is
as important to him as the life of the dog or cat is to them.”^26
Rescuers see chickens as having inherently valuable lives. They
argue that the same effort should be exerted to rescue chickens as