Animal Rights Research Articles

ENTRE VERGALHÕES E LEIS: REFLEXÕES SOBRE A FRAGILIDADE DO DIREITO À VIDA ANIMAL

The article "Between Rebars and Laws: Reflections on the Fragility of the Right to Animal Life" addresses the historical relationship between humans and animals, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift in how society perceives and treats sentient beings. The author discusses the evolution of the concept of dignity, which in recent decades has come to include not only humans but also animals, recognizing them as beings capable of feeling pain and pleasure. The text analyzes Brazilian legislation and judicial decisions that have sought to guarantee rights for animals, such as the prohibition of cruel practices. Despite advancements, the article points out that there are still cultural and legal barriers that hinder the effectiveness of animal protection laws. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of strengthening enforcement mechanisms and the need for explicit regulation that recognizes the right to life for animals, considering them as beings deserving of respect and dignity.

Ecofeminism: Resistance to Ecological and Female Oppression

Eco-feminism is a movement and an ideology against the oppression of nature and females. It shows a link between nature and females that are exploited and oppressed by males in the world. It discovers that the position of the nature and women is similar and both are treated as submissive and subservient subjects. It is related to masculine domination in the society. Historically, it appeared as a great political movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the west. It was Francoise d'Eaubonne who first developed the term ecological feminism in 1972 discussing that the destruction of the planet is due to the profit motive of the males. Since both nature and female are violated and suppressed by patriarchal or male superiority ideology, ecofeminism as a movement appears powerful to resist the oppression of both nature and female. The principal objective of the research is to explore how ecofeminism acts a defense for preserving the rights of both women and nature. Hence, this paper explores how ecofeminism as a movement and ideology defends the rights of women and nature that should be preserved for the preservation of ecology and human rights on the earth. According to Greta Gaard, eco-feminism provides a theoretical bridge for women working in the related movements of environmentalism, animal liberation and feminism. Linking both rights of nature and women, it includes the voices of trees, animals and women and fights for the liberation of them resisting any force against the exploitation and oppression of both nature and women. Therefore, becoming aware of Gaard’s views on ecofemenism, her theory of ecofeminism can be applied as a major theoretical lens for the broad theoretical framework. The major finding of the paper is that ecofeminism as a theory or movement or ideology is needed to fight to resist the oppression of women and nature globally to maintain ecology rights of women.

PROTEÇÃO ANIMAL NO ÂMBITO DA LEGISLAÇÃO BRASILEIRA

Over time, changes in the way in which humans have been treating animals have become evident, however this relationship is far from being the ideal way of treating them. To ensure that animals and humans live harmoniously, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN) created the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, where they aimed to defend the right of animals to a dignified life, without mistreatment or exploitation. From that moment on, Brazil developed and has been developing legislation aimed at protecting animals, which recognizes that animals not only have their rights, but it is also the duty of human beings to ensure that they are treated equally, guaranteeing access to these rights and respect for their freedoms. This work aims to provide a history of animal protection laws, with an emphasis on the first decrees and the advancement of current legislation.

THE ROLE OF THE RUSSIAN ANIMAL PROTECTION SOCIETY IN IMPROVING THE LEGISLATION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE FIELD OF HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS IN THE 2ND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The article analyses one of the key law-making initiatives of the Russian Animal Protection Society, which arose in 1865. This law-making initiative of Society was launched in the 2nd half of the 19th century and thanks to it, a norm establishing legal responsibility, appeared in the criminal law act of the Russian Empire – the «Statute on Punishments Imposed by Justices of the Peace». For the first time in the history of the development of Russian law a norm that establishes legal liability for intentionally inflicting torment on pets has appeared. The different law-making practice of protecting animals from cruel treatment, which at the said time did exist in foreign countries, is given. It was taken into account by the Society when developing the draught law. Starting with the introduction of administrative measures to protect animals in the form of «Rules for the treatment of animals» approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Society faced with the ineffectiveness of their application in practice after some time. Then the Society came to the conclusion that it was necessary to establish in legislation legal liability for causing animals to suffer. The draught law prepared by the Society, found a response from the supreme authorityas a result of which, Russian criminal law was supplemented with a fundamentally new norm that puts animal rights under the state protection of.

“Cute saves the world!”: animal Internet Celebrities’ cute activism in the #adoptdon’tshop animal rescue campaign on social media

ABSTRACT This paper examines everyday media practices and seamless work in animal advocacy by various actors with different levels of internet celebrity status, who curate their media personas around ‘cute’ animal images, including established pet Influencers and animal internet celebrities. Through a case study of the most prominent (hashtag) campaign and movement against the pet trade industry and culture in South Korea, #AdoptDon’tShop [#사지말고입양하세요, sajimalgo-ipyanghaseyo], I explore animal internet celebrities’ media practices and immaterial labor that are understated but rigorously performed out of compassion and care for animals. Taking up scholarship on cuteness and Influencer culture, I introduce the concept of cute activism, a novel iteration of social movements adapted into visual social media cultures, pivoting on the performative potential of cuteness and its inherent competency in navigating increasingly-visualized, attention-seeking social media environments. While the instinctive affective appeal of cuteness serves as a driving force and primary modality of cute activism, effectively attracting more people to be tuned into messages, events, and ultimately movements, the very appeal may come into being as a burden for activists, inducing them into continuous immaterial labor.

Animal Welfare Perspectives Against the Backdrop of Animal Cruelty in Nigeria

Knowledge is crucial for improving animal welfare. People's perceptions, attitudes, and understanding may be a hindrance to adopting animal welfare-improving ideas which is crucial for developing effective animal welfare policies and advocacy in Nigeria. This study evaluates the current knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of animal welfare among Nigerian residents. A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire distributed via emails, social media platforms, and by personal contact. The survey collected data from 694 respondents across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria over 6 months (November 2023 and June 2024). Descriptive statistics, reliability testing, and inferential statistical tests were performed using SPSS for windows. The result revealed that majority (60-87.3%) of the respondents had a good knowledge of what constitutes cruelty to animals. Also, 88.8% were aware that animals have right to freedoms that could enhance their welfare, and 96.1% agreed that freedom from hunger and thirst is reasonable for animals. The standard deviations were relatively low, suggesting consistent responses among participants. Respondents (87.3%) also supported the enforcement of animal cruelty laws and the enactment of comprehensive animal welfare laws in Nigeria. The high knowledge scores among Nigerian residents suggest a strong foundational understanding of animal welfare principles. It is recommended that despite the result continual advocacy and policy development are still necessary to shape the public attitudes, and perceptions to animal.

‘Stop the Death Transports!’ Holocaust and slavery references in an Israeli campaign against animal live transports

ABSTRACT Animal rights organisations worldwide fight against live shipments of meat animals. The main Israeli NGOs leading the fight are Animals-Now, Israel against Live Shipments, and Let the Animals Live. Their visual rhetoric highlights the cruelty of these shipments. Combined with written messages, photographs of animal suffering appeal to viewers’ emotions and conscience. This article examined ‘Stop the Death Transports!’ – The most extensive campaign led by these NGOs, together with Animals Australia, in 2016. It analysed the campaign poster from the approaches of photography semiotics and visual contextual analysis, informed by theories of visual culture and animal ethics. The campaign represents an intermediate approach between the hardcore and softcore approaches, using visual and verbal references to the Holocaust and slavery. However, though the use of the Holocaust is highly charged for local Jewish viewers thus contributing to the understanding of the immorality of consuming meat, it may in fact assuage their conscience by shifting the moral burden from the meat eaters to the transporters.

Security, ethics, and animals: towards a sentientist security discourse

ABSTRACT This article argues that it is high time for the (extra)ordinary violence and insecurity that nonhuman animals are subjected to in today’s world to be taken seriously in studies on security. Through a sympathetic yet critical engagement with how animals have appeared in recent posthuman security scholarship, the article insists on the need to differentiate between sentient beings on the one hand, and other beings as well as things on the other; the need to acknowledge and seek ways of eliminating the violence and insecurity internal to entangled human-animal relations; the feasibility of treating individual animals as direct subjects of security; and the feasibility of adopting a strong animal rights position grounded in sentience to supplement the relational or entanglement ethic dominant in posthuman security scholarship. The article proceeds by developing a tentative outline of a sentientist security discourse in terms of referent objects, nature of threats, security agents and security practices, and concludes by discussing some scholarly implications and the potential impact of securitising existential threats to animals.

Contact zones, affects and noeuds de mémoire: Chinese laborers on the Western Front in Martine Laffon’s Souviens-toi de moi

This article argues that Souviens-toi de moi, a novel published in 2014 by French writer Martine Laffon, reclaims the memory of travailleurs chinois on the Western Front during the First World War, at the same time exposing the deliberate agenda of forgetting in both French and Chinese memory cultures. Referring to Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of contact zone and Leela Gandhi’s concept of affective cosmopolitanism, I show how the novel creates an inclusive ethics across race, gender and species, challenging the fixed hierarchies of Western modernity. Synchronously, by applying the multidirectional framework of noeuds de mémoire, the article demonstrates how Laffon constructs war remembrance at the conjunction of anti-militarism, anti-imperialism, feminism and the struggle for animal rights. The novel thus offers a vision of the First World War that radically departs from the French récit national and the Chinese instrumentalization of the laborers’ war memory.

The palpable dichotomy between animal cruelty laws and implementation – Is there a way forward for Indian jurisprudence?

This article critically examines the dichotomy between India's existing animal cruelty laws and their practical implementation. It argues that the primary issue lies not in the lack of animal protection legislation but in the loopholes and inadequacies of the current laws, which often fail to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. The article traces domestic legislation, highlighting its shortcomings in achieving the overarching goal of animal protection. It also explores the role of judicial precedents in shaping the interpretation of these laws. Despite the Supreme Court's recognition of animal rights, socio-cultural and political factors have led to judgments and ineffective jurisprudence contradictions. The article emphasizes the need to reform and restructure animal cruelty laws, addressing the shortcomings in judicial precedents to alleviate animal suffering and protect their legal rights. By adopting an animal-centric perspective, the article aims to give voice to the subaltern realm, referring to relevant legal provisions and judicial precedents, as well as comparative perspectives, throughout the analysis.

Where injustices (fail to) meet: newspaper coverage of speciesism, animal rights, and racism

This study examines the ways widely circulated U.S. newspapers have articulated the idea of “speciesism” and its associated idea “animal rights” in relation to “racism” to understand how powerful news media helps to shape the public understanding of the interlocking systems of oppression that cuts across the human and the more-than-human world. The archives (1987 to 2023) of three U.S. newspapers – The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post – were analyzed, using qualitative content analysis. The ideas of articulation, symbolic annihilation, erasure, and discursive closure served as the analytical guides for the analysis. The analysis shows that there is gross underrepresentation of speciesism and even far less representation of the relationship between speciesism and racism and between animal rights and anti-racism. When represented, the articulations showed problematic patterns of erasure of those concepts and relationships. The paper ends with the implications of the findings.

Animal models in neuroscience with alternative approaches: Evolutionary, biomedical, and ethical perspectives.

Animal models have been a crucial tool in neuroscience research for decades, providing insights into the biomedical and evolutionary mechanisms of the nervous system, disease, and behavior. However, their use has raised concerns on several ethical, clinical, and scientific considerations. The welfare of animals and the 3R principles (replacement, reduction, refinement) are the focus of the ethical concerns, targeting the importance of reducing the stress and suffering of these models. Several laws and guidelines are applied and developed to protect animal rights during experimenting. Concurrently, in the clinic and biomedical fields, discussions on the relevance of animal model findings on human organisms have increased. Latest data suggest that in a considerable amount of time the animal model results are not translatable in humans, costing time and money. Alternative methods, such as invitro (cell culture, microscopy, organoids, and micro physiological systems) techniques and in silico (computational) modeling, have emerged as potential replacements for animal models, providing more accurate data in a minimized cost. By adopting alternative methods and promoting ethical considerations in research practices, we can achieve the 3R goals while upholding our responsibility to both humans and other animals. Our goal is to present a thorough review of animal models used in neuroscience from the biomedical, evolutionary, and ethical perspectives. The novelty of this research lies in integrating diverse points of views to provide an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of animal models in neuroscience and in discussing potential alternative methods.

The Veg∗n Eating Motives Inventory Plus (VEMI+): A measure of health, environment, animal rights, disgust, social, pandemic and zoonotic diseases, and farm workers’ rights motives

Health, environmental concern, and animal rights are established motives for reduced meat consumption that can be measured by the Vegetarian Eating Motives Inventory (VEMI). This preregistered study aimed to expand the VEMI to include four less-studied motives: disgust, social, concern about zoonotic diseases and pandemics, and concern for workers' rights. We had three objectives: to combine the seven motives into a comprehensive model, to test if the VEMI+ scales function equivalently across omnivore and vegan groups, and to validate and differentiate these motives against external measures and meat reduction appeals. In samples of 731 omnivores and 731 vegans (total N = 1,462), we found support for the measurement invariance of a seven-factor structure across groups and created a scale with reliable measures for each dimension (ω total between 0.82 and 0.97). Vegans scored higher overall, with substantially higher scores on environmental concern, animal rights, disgust, and zoonotic disease concerns, while omnivores had slightly higher scores on health, social, and workers’ rights scales. Scale scores had expected correlations with criterion measures and differentially predicted support for motive-tailored appeals. This study enhances our understanding of dietary motivations and provides a valuable tool for future research.

Negotiating Empathy

This article proposes an ecocritical reading of two lithographs by Italian Brazilian artist Angelo Agostini to shed light on the tensions between the abolitionist movement and the animal rights movement in Brazilian visual culture. This question is never discussed in scholarship about nineteenth-century Brazil. Moreover, studies on the history of animal rights in the country focus on the republican period, when the first associations and laws for the protection of animals were created. This article, conversely, reconstructs the history of a seldom-remembered Society for the Protection of Animals, active between 1885 and 1890 in Rio de Janeiro, during the last years of the monarchy. Through visual documentation concerning this society and its negative local reception, I reflect on slavery’s connections to the animal rights debate during the last decades of the nineteenth century. I argue that two causes—abolitionism and animal welfare—were competing for visibility in this fundamentally unequal society. Artists like Agostini contributed to the polemic by using a combined aesthetic that questioned what they perceived as an incongruous situation: protecting animals before abolishing human slavery.

Ethical Considerations in Clinical Trials: Ethical Dilemmas in Patient Consent and Animal Testing

Clinical trials are indispensable to the advancement of medical science, providing a framework for evaluating the safety and efficacy of new treatments, interventions, and technologies. However, they present profound ethical challenges, particularly in relation to patient consent and the use of animals in preclinical testing. Informed consent is central to safeguarding patient autonomy, yet practical difficulties arise from issues such as patient comprehension, vulnerability, and cultural differences. Animal testing, while traditionally viewed as a necessary component of preclinical research, prompts serious ethical concerns regarding animal welfare and the broader moral implications of causing harm to animals for human benefit. This review examines these ethical dilemmas, tracing their historical evolution, analysing current regulatory frameworks, and evaluating potential alternatives to both patient consent challenges and animal testing. Through the examination of case studies like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Henrietta Lacks case, as well as debates surrounding animal rights, this article emphasizes the need for continuous ethical vigilance and adaptive frameworks that can balance scientific progress with moral responsibility.

Urban Organic Nutrients Harmless Treatment System

To solve the common problem of pet droppings in urban parks and improve the conflict caused by raising pets in the community, a pet droppings collection and disposal device was designed to be environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing. This device allows for protecting animal rights while turning waste into useful organic fertilizer that can used for community and park fertilization. This is not only good for plant growth but also can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and reduce environmental pollution.

The Place of Animals in Wollstonecraft's Early Educational Writings

Abstract Thomas Taylor's parody of Mary Wollstonecraft's support for rights of women and humans raises a question: does his satire unwittingly propose a defence of animal rights found in Wollstonecraft's arguments? While Wollstonecraft's later works do not mention animal rights, her early educational writings offer arguments on animal ethics. These works explore the value of animals from moral, theological, and consequentialist perspectives, emphasizing both their instrumental and inherent value. This article argues that Wollstonecraft's moral psychology and theology highlight a benevolent attitude towards animals, underscoring their value beyond their utility.

Lack of ecojustice and monkeys’ (macaques) exploitation in social media

ABSTRACT This article identifies and describes the connection between ecology, income, and commodification of animal life using the examples of macaques on social media. The exploitation of macaques for income has recently become an accessible social phenomenon through world-wide social media platforms: Facebook and YouTube, especially. This example of the commodification of animal life illustrates the interconnections among poverty, mental health, and animal rights, thus demonstrating the need for multiple layers of assessment and intervention for change to improve the lives of both vulnerable humans and monkeys.

Evidence of Human-designated Antiretroviral (ARV) Drug Residues in Broiler Chicken, Domestic Pigs, and Animal Feeds in Tanzania.

Recent reports have indicated the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to boost animal production in neighboring Uganda, with further reports of use in several African countries. This cross-sectional study was conducted in nine districts in Tanzania, and involved screening for the presence of three first-line ARVs (lamivudine, nevirapine, and efavirenz) residues in the muscle and blood of domestic pigs and broiler chickens, and in sampled animal feed and water. Residues were determined using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method involved calibration of the lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) and limit of detection (LOD). ARVs were detected and quantified using the Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) system. 131 (66.8%) of the 196 samples of muscle, blood, and animal feed were found to contain lamivudine residues, with the highest concentration detected in domestic pig blood and muscle (7.58mg/kg) and the lowest concentration (0.01 mg/kg) in broiler chicken feed. There was a significant relationship between the presence of lamivudine by sample type and sample origin (p=0.000). Nevirapine and efavirenz drugs were not detected in any of the collected samples. No ARV residues were detected in water samples (n=37). This study confirms the use of ARVs in animal production in Tanzania as evidenced by the presence of residues in animal feeds. We found lamivudine residues in domestic pigs and broiler chickens at concentrations higher than those recently reported in other East African studies. Farmers living with HIV may be using ARVs from their prescribed medications, which may lead to poor adherence and the emergence of drug resistance. Besides direct human and animal health issues, these residues in animal feeds and animal excreta can lead to environmental contamination leading to several negative impacts. We recommend a total ban on human-designated ARVs in animal production and advocate for comprehensive studies and monitoring systems across African countries to reveal potential societal and other reasons for their use and provide comprehensive solutions using One Health approaches.

‘Point and Kill’ vs Animal Rights: A Moral Examination

This study critically examines the ethical implications of the practice known as "point and kill," wherein nonhuman animals are selected and immediately killed for food, a practice that has become commonplace in many African cultures. While food is essential for the survival and growth of both human and nonhuman animals, the manner in which nonhuman animals are often treated as mere commodities raises significant ethical concerns. Despite extensive debates in contemporary animal ethics, the focus has predominantly been on issues such as biomedical research, animal confinement, and entertainment, with relatively little attention given to the ethical ramifications of using animals for food, particularly in the context of practices like "point and kill." This paper addresses the gap in the literature by interrogating the moral worth of nonhuman animals and questioning the justification for their wanton killing for human consumption. Employing critical and conceptual analysis, the study draws on the Igbo philosophy of ‘ugwu anu’ (animal integrity) to argue against speciesism and advocate for the moral consideration of nonhuman animals. It contends that nonhuman animals deserve care, respect, and fair treatment, and that the practice of "point and kill" reflects a speciesist attitude that undermines the inherent value of animal life. By bringing this issue to the forefront, the study contributes to the broader discourse on animal ethics and calls for a reevaluation of culturally ingrained practices that perpetuate animal suffering.