The Death of an Animal

Abstract

This essay looks at the representation of animal death in cinema, beginning with some of the earliest recorded killings of animals, such as Thomas Edison's Electrocuting an Elephant (1903), to contemporary feature films and documentaries that depict scenes of violence toward animals. At stake in this essay is a challenge to the philosophical axiom that animals cannot die: that because animals lack language, they are incapable of knowing death, and thus of experiencing it as such. In cinema, the paradox takes on an added complexity, which arises from the nature of visual representation and photographic media. If animals do not die, then why do so many animals appear to die in films? Why do so many (important) films feature the slaughter of animals? What is the relationship between animal death and film?

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