Beyond the kindness of strangers – Conceptualizing retirement planning for working animals

Dr. Low was awarded a Research and Professional Development grant to examine and advocate for right to a funded retirement for working animals in the same way that human workers are granted.

Animals have worked for humans through most of human history. From an economistic perspective, an animal’s work generates value, but the animal is not strictly conceived of as a “worker” and is granted limited rights or access to that value. The rise of concepts of animal rights and speciesism challenge this othering of animal workers relative to human workers. Various scholars from anthropology, law, to labor studies have conceptualized the concept of the work of animals. This research takes a further step to argue that working animals should have the right to a funded retirement in the same way that other human workers are granted that right.