Abstract

This article explores the ethical and methodological challenges of de-centring the human gaze to produce more nuanced and richer accounts of nonhuman animals’ lives. Such a shift requires grappling with human-centered research methods and residual anthropocentrism within multispecies scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork conducted at farmed animal sanctuaries in Denmark – spaces dedicated to the care and rehabilitation of animals previously subjected to farming – this article critically examines issues of narration, representation, and ‘consent’ in human-animal and multispecies research. These sanctuaries serve as multispecies sites that foster sensibilities to and critical reflections on the individuality and social lives of other animals. By integrating first-hand experiences from the research sites with sanctuary aspirations and interspecies practices of care, the article highlights the methodological and theoretical challenges encountered when striving to include the lived experiences of other-than-human beings in research. Despite the availability of critical tools for analysing power dynamics, social representations, and the influence of language, these frameworks often prove insufficient when applied to the complexities of multispecies interactions in the field. Studying interspecies relationships entails an intricate and ongoing process of attentiveness and unlearning preconceived notions about the animal ‘other’. Consequently, the article recognizes the methodological limitations and risks of inadvertently reinforcing species hierarchies, even in research driven by well-meaning intentions. Acknowledging these challenges, the article adopts a cautious approach that emphasizes positionality and reflexivity as critical components of human-animal research. Rather than offering definitive solutions to the problem of human-centrism, it weaves together critical tools and methodologies that contribute to addressing it. Ultimately, this approach is grounded in a dual commitment: to de-centring the human and to re-negotiating nonhuman animals’ positions as research participants. In doing so, the article calls for more nuanced and critical engagement with the ethical and representational dilemmas inherent in multispecies research, encouraging scholars to develop methodologies that operate responsibly across species boundaries.

 

 

Keywords: multispecies ethnography, farmed animal sanctuaries, nonhuman research subjects, unlearning, ethical vetting

How to Cite:

Leth, M., (2026) “Centring Animals: Moments of Unlearning, the Pitfalls of Consent and Narrating the Nonhuman Lives in Multispecies Ethnographic Research”, Animal Studies Journal 14(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.14453/asj.1562