Once imported to Australia as rodent controllers, cats are now regarded as responsible for a second wave of mammal extinction across the continent. Utilising the Foucauldian concept of biopolitics, we investigate critically the institutional field of cat regulation in Australia, exemplified by the Western Australian Cat Act 2011 and the Federal Environment Minister’s 10-year campaign to eradicate feral cats. Analysis of the biopolitical dispositif of ferality, and its elements of knowledge, subjectivation and objectivation and power processes, illustrates the dispositions through which what might be regarded as felicide has become organisational practice. We propose alternative practices emphasising the productive potentialities of biopolitics.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	animals, biopolitics, cats, feral, management, regulation
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Political science
Research Field:	Environmental politics
Objective Division:	Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards
Objective Group:	Environmental policy, legislation and standards
Objective Field:	Environmental policy, legislation and standards not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Byrne, JA (Professor Jason Byrne)
ID Code:	123928
Year Published:	2016
Web of Science® Times Cited:	8
Deposited By:	Geography and Spatial Science
Deposited On:	2018-02-01
Last Modified:	2018-04-09
Downloads:	0