ABSTRACT
Sex/gender is a relatively under-examined aspect of the practice of animal welfare. On one level, animal welfare is clearly structured by sex/gender, the dairy industry and egg industries are grounded on the appropriation of the reproductive capacities of female animals, and meat industries are structured in ways that shape the lives of male and female animals in differently. While there has been some critical work addressing these aspects, the focus for this paper is how understandings of human sex/gender shape the lives of animals as they are articulated in welfare policy and practice, informing what it means to “fare well.” Through the chapter I use three examples—a giraffe, a drift of pigs, and a population of bees—to illustrate how normative assumptions of sex/gender influence the definition of a “good life” but also how such assumptions come up against, are challenged or exceeded by animal sex/uality.
