Just how innocent are our writing positions? Are the words we write a life-giving or a life-taking tool? Does writing induce action or take the place of it? What are the moral responsibilities of the writer? From the 'animal turn' in the writings of Blanchot and Heidegger to the presentation of the controversial 'B. Wongar' as a key writer of the animal, several contributors to this issue have taken these and related questions into the arena of writing and the species barrier, to consider our shortcomings in the way in which we write about non-human animals, what we might do about these shortcomings, and just why it is that we must do it.