Transspecies liminality: unpacking the politics and patchy legitimization of urban human-cat relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban human-cat relations depend on complex and contingent systems of overlapping policies, ordinances, and laws. Cats defy anthropocentric binaries and boundaries. In response to the problematic use of the term ‘feral’, a term rife with negative associations, many government agencies, including those in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida, have rebranded this population as ‘community’ cats. This investigation explores the transspecies liminality experienced by both free-roaming, or ‘community’, cats and their urban caretakers. While government-run animal shelters boast the successes of trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs and the concomitant increase in ‘live-releases’ from the shelters, the experiences of cats who live in perilous urban spaces, facing vehicular injury, animal cruelty, and even death, subverts these politically-driven narratives. The uneven acceptance and treatment of these cats results in the development of informally organized networks of cat caretakers whose experiences share the challenging, contentious, and often dangerous experiences of the cats for whom they care. Sociolegal constructions and rituals produce the experience of liminality for more than just human or animal individuals. The result is a transspecies liminality of shared experiences, struggles, and relations beyond the targeted population or species, which has implications for how researchers approach the implementation of nonhuman governance policies.