ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion of 'the cage' from a number of related angles, for both nonhuman and human subjects. It focuses specifically on caging subjects and practices within the zoo and zoo-like structures, although certainly further inquiry into elephant and other animal caging within the circus is warranted. Irus Braverman argues that the most crucial assumption underlying the entire institution of animal captivity is the classification of zoo animals as wild and therefore as representatives of their unconfined conspecifics. The chapter juxtaposes the zoo and the supermax prison's solitary confinement cell primarily because such a juxtaposition helps us understand the carceral logics that respectively underpin the carceral spaces, including how caging both humans and nonhumans requires producing them as 'animalistic' first. It explores and compares the movements and rights discourses surrounding each, examining their effectiveness, relative successes, and roadblocks.
