Can humans and other animals be friends? Our dogs do not know where their food comes from, or why they are brought to the vet. Our cats don’t know where we go during the day (and vice versa). We do not know what will appear in this world as a cow or a crow. There is a gap of power and ignorance.
Yana Wernicke’s work reminds us that compassion can cross the chasm. Her textless photo book, simply titled Friends, revealing the touch of a pig’s ear to a human foot, the firmness of a cow’s belly, the sensation of living together under a tree. We see animals that were bred to be killed, but whose emotional and physical existence is now implanted in human life.
© Yana Wernicke
© Yana Wernicke
Wernicke, 32, was influenced by the work of John Berger, an art critic who argued that humans have become increasingly removed from other species but longed for a connection with them. The photos show Julie and Rosina, two German women, and some rescued cows and pigs at separate sites in Germany. The tenderness between the species is so unfamiliar that it seems almost like a magic trick.
“I’m really interested in this aspect of touching animals and how animals touch back. Of course, we humans touch with our hands, but it’s interesting to see how cows respond,” said Wernicke. “There’s a lot of leaning, and it exposes vulnerable areas of the body.”
To save animals is a commitment, to change the way we live. But just talking about friendship is an act of activism. This was true when Elliot Katz – aptly named – founded the charity In Defense of Animals in San Francisco in 1983 and campaigned for pets to be called “companion animals”.
Katz had trained as a vet at Cornell, nearly getting fired for refusing to perform surgery on live dogs. When campaigning, he sometimes settled for humans who called themselves “pet guardians” as a compromise. The point is that animals should be considered not just property, but living beings with their own needs. When that happens, he believes, fewer will be dumped by “owners” and fewer will be euthanized in shelters.
Katz, who died in 2021, was successful in California, although many animal lovers now prefer to refer to themselves as “parents” of cats and dogs, a term that fails to recognize the animal’s right to autonomy. . The legal system is still struggling with how to handle subjects that are neither objects nor humans.
© Yana Wernicke
© Yana Wernicke
Making friends with livestock is more difficult. Berger himself romanticized how farmers in the French Alps kept and slaughtered pigs. Most of us, who live in towns and cities, are not used to seeing or touching animals. We think of pigs and cows as dirty, brutish, uncuddly. We do not want to muddy our clothes, to expose ourselves to a kick in the ribs, to break the norms of behavior. Close observation can change this perspective. “I see a lot of similarities with my dog,” Wernicke said. “I want to show that there is no difference.”
He had previously seen German colonialism in Cameroon, leading him to a collection of dead animals in German museum archives. Influenced by the philosopher Vilém Flusser, he also tried to follow animals – donkeys, wolves, cats – in the Italian Alps, led by him and thus, rewrote his own path.
Even in cities, away from farms and wolves, we have opportunities for companionship. When I’m working on my computer at home, often my cat jumps onto my desk and nestles between my arms. When I walk outside, my eyes often meet squirrels and foxes. Despite our differences in experience, we spend time together – and that act is the foundation of our companionship. Sometimes we feel lonely, even when we are surrounded by other people. The company of other animals – foxes, frogs, even doves – is an antidote.
Friends invites us to draw parallels between our bodies and the animals we eat. This begs the question of why we can’t reach out to other species. Is it not worthy to hold the skin, to soil our feet in the mud? Yes, and also no. We are not saviors, Julie and Rosina, but perhaps we want to be.
Henry Mance is the FT’s chief features writer and author of ‘How to Love Animals‘. ‘Friends‘ published this month by Loose Joints
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