The Making of a Species in the Judicial Context: The Case of “Chucho” the Bear

Abstract

In this text I turn to the biological sciences and, in particular, to the techniques of specimen collection to illustrate through these practices how an animal is produced in the space of the courtroom. In this exploration I use the case of the bear “Chucho” that reached the Colombian Constitutional Court in 2017, to reflect on how one is an animal before the judge and the conditions under which this bear may or may not “speak”. For this analysis I use the Court's decision, the observations during the public hearing convened in 2019 where different experts participated, as well as the media coverage given to the case. In my discussion I raise the importance of paying attention to the ways in which subjects are produced, and how the ways in which we currently do so distances us from a claim towards a multispecies justice.