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“Animals are always the observed. The fact that they can observe us has lost all signifi­cance.” - John Berger, Why Look at Animals? In this piece Geert Belpaeme asks us about being human, the environ­ment, citizenship and power. He does so through the eyes of animals: age-old silent witnesses of who or what humans are but also of what language does and the harm it can cause. They bear witness to the human gaze that turns everything that exists outside itself into an object, even something to be consumed. But what if animals and things stared back at us? "De dieren" is simulta­neously reminis­cent of the obnoxi­ous­ness of Kafka’s Trial and the irresol­vable trial of the war criminal Adolf Eichmann. But watch out: this time we are all in the dock.