Globetrotting Horses: Welfare Discourses and Disciplinary Power in the Transportation of Horses by Air

Abstract

Every year, many horses are transported by air. Alongside sport horses traveling to tournaments worldwide, mainly breeding horses, such as shuttle stallions and broodmares, thoroughbreds traded at auctions, and leisure horses are transported by air. Research in veterinary science has highlighted welfare concerns during air transportation. Equine welfare is constituted in the language and discourse evolving from social, political, and ethical views about the treatment of horses. Consequently, this study targets power in creating equine welfare by analyzing the welfare discourses, transportation practices that generate welfare, and their impact on horses and humans in the transportation of horses by air. In detail, this research uses a Foucauldian discourse analysis to examine how welfare discourses and linked transportation practices constitute horses and humans using disciplinary power. The empirical material consists of 81 newspaper articles about horse transportation by air, five video clips, and four interviews with representatives of horse transport agencies that have set standards for the transportation of horses by air. The analysis discovers four different welfare discourses and various practices that guide the carrying of horses by air. The discourses have created inactive horses and human professionals in the business of horse transportation by air.