Issue |
Natures Sciences Sociétés
Volume 15, Number 3, Juillet-Septembre 2007
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 245 - 252 | |
Section | Article | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/nss:2007054 | |
Published online | 29 November 2007 |
Les systèmes industriels porcins : la mort comme travail ordinaire
Industrial pig production: death as routine work
1
Doctorant en sociologie, INRA-SAD LISTO, ENESAD, BP 87999,
21079 Dijon cedex, France
2
Zootechnicienne, INRA-SAD APT, INA-PG, 16 rue Claude Bernard,
75231 Paris cedex 05, France
Le contenu du travail dans les systèmes industriels porcins se caractérise par un nombre important d'animaux à tuer et de cadavres à gérer. De nouvelles procédures – euthanasie, compostage, incinération – sont préconisées par l'encadrement scientifique et technique. À partir de l'analyse des concepts mobilisés dans la littérature scientifique et professionnelle française et nord-américaine, nous montrons que ces procédures s'appuient sur une euphémisation de la violence et sur une occultation de la réalité de la mort des animaux. L'euthanasie repose sur une souffrance animale objectivée qu'il s'agit, via la médiation d'outils ad hoc, de supprimer. La gestion des cadavres est fondée sur une conception végétalisée du cadavre comme matière à transformer et "hygiéniser". Ce travail de mort soulève de très graves questions quant au rapport moral des hommes aux animaux d'élevage dans ces systèmes.
Abstract
Killing unproductive animals and managing their corpses makes up an increasing part of work in industrial pig production. Until now these tasks were carried out by slaughterhouses. But the situation is changing. In industrial systems scientists and technicians are incorporating death as part of work. They produce concepts and tools so that workers can do their killing job “cleanly”. New procedures such as euthanasia, composting and incineration have been introduced to this end. A review of scientific and technical papers and analysis of the concepts used enabled us to show that these procedures are based on the euphemization of violence and occultation of animal death. By describing animal pain as a biological problem which can be measured independently of other considerations, slaughter of unproductive animal may be constructed as “euthanasia”. Worker suffering is thus mitigated since “euthanasia” is in fine considered merciful to animals. Corpse management is based on corpse construction as raw material in which animal raw material is considered similar to plant raw material: both refer to nature, i.e. to inevitable death and decomposition. The role of machinery and workers is simply to clean this animal raw material to produce hygienic, safe, useful and profitable “compost”. This death work raises serious questions relative to animal welfare. Can death be an innocent part of work for farmers and workers?
Mots clés : systèmes de production industriels / travail / animaux d'élevage / mort / encadrement scientifique et technique
Key words: industrial pig production / work / farm animals / death / scientific and technical management
© NSS-Dialogues, EDP Sciences, 2007
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