Multispecies ressrugence: carts and horses in the 21st century city

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 2000s, animal rights movements have been pressing for a ban in the use of animal drawn carts in Belo Horizonte, associating these vehicles with cultural backwardness and cruelty to animals. Through an ethnographic work conducted with carters in the region of Venda Nova, I intend to show how the notions of exploitation and mistreatment used by these movements are insufficient to comprehend the complexity of the relations established through the work with carts. I argue that, through a wide multispecies network, humans and horses build a singular way of life in the city, in territories that emerge as zones of resurgence amidst disturbance (Tsing, 2019). The article revisits the historical presence of these human and non-human agents in Belo Horizonte, showing how concerns for the welfare of the horses were already present in Projeto Carroceiros and by carters themselves. Then, I analyze the strategies used by abolitionist animal movements to oppose these practices and press for the end of animal traction. I show that, in making use of a rhetoric of progress – as well as its classist and racist inclinations – the activists restore claims and practices that have tried to evict carters, carts and working animals from Brazilian cities since the end of the 19th century.