Paper short abstract:

Montreal banned horse-drawn carriages in 2019, revealing a clash of temporality between the post-speciesist vision of animal activists and a traditional carriage practice. This ban uncannily mirrored the goals of both a grassroot social movement and a project of urban development.

Paper long abstract:

The horse-drawn carriages in Montreal were banned on December 30, 2019, following 10 years of animal right activism, a decision justified through stories of moral progress. Using ethnography with animal right activists and horse-drawn carriage drivers, I explore the tension between this future-oriented program and a traditional carriage practice marginalized by it. The animal right activists were driven by a vision of a post-speciesist society that they strove to actualize, while the carriage drivers were rather unfolding according to their own temporality.

In this presentation, I will describe a protest that occurred two years after the closure of the industry, in which a group of about 50 activists asked the mayor and condominium promoters to help them “free” the 4 horses still “captives” at the stable. I will show that the future-oriented vision of the grassroot movement uncannily aligned with that of a project of urban development, who seized the land of the stable. Echoing Edward Westermack who asked in (1906) “why facts of a certain type are matters of moral concern, while other facts are not,” I question how preoccupations around the well-being of horses shadowed concerns about gentrification.

Inspired by Anna Tsing (2015), I suggest that ethnography can allow us to notice more-than-human entanglements, such as the carriage activity, that is not oriented toward future aims or goals. Animal right activists also form more-than human entanglements, notably included digital technologies, that also shape their temporality. This research may offer new insights about the growing homelessness in Montreal.