Budgie smuggling or doing bird? human-animal interactions in carceral space: prison(er) animals as abject and subject

The burgeoning field of carceral geography, whilst in dialogue with many aspects of theory-building in contemporary human geography, including notions of affect, mobility, and embodiment, has yet to meaningfully engage with animal geographies to consider the non-human dimension of carceral experience. Likewise, existing criminological scholarship of human-animal carceral co-presence has yet to progress far beyond the consideration of animals as mere ‘signifiers’ of human endeavour and meaning. Further, the study of prison animals has thus far considered only those non-humans intentionally present in carceral space, such as therapeutic animals, eliding completely those considered ‘vermin’. This exploratory paper broadens the scope of extant scholarship, considering the parallels between the discourses of the ‘rehabilitation’ both of prisoners and prison animals during incarceration, and of both the prisoner and the prison animal as abject.