Animal Ethics Research Articles

Positive Duties to Wild Animals: Introduction

ABSTRACT Though we’ve always known that the wild is a nasty place where predators lethally attack prey, only recently have most animal ethicists come to realize that most wild animals fail to flourish. In fact, what we know about wild animal reproduction suggests that the majority of sentient beings born into the world may not even live lives worth living. It’s not unreasonable for one to initially respond to the above with a sense of depressed resignation, but a growing number ethicists believe that we both can and should intervene. The purpose of this special issue is to further develop the interventionist literature by bringing togeher authors who agree that we owe significant postive duties to wild animals, but who use different theoretical frameworks, or who disagree about the details, e.g., about the reasons that ground our positive obligations to wild animals, about how those positive obligations should be classififed, about the content of our positive obligations, about the means we should use to fulfill our positive obligations, etc.

The Use of Retraction Sutures in End-To-Side Microvascular Anastomosis—A Novel Technical Innovation in Experimental Rat Femoral Model with Successful Use in STA-MCA Bypass in Moyamoya Disease

A narrow working space, small diameters, and the tendency to collapse with clamps make cerebral microvascular anastomosis challenging. A retraction suture (RS) is a novel technique to keep the recipient vessel lumen open during the bypass. To provide a step-by-step overview of RS for end-to-side (ES) microvascular anastomosis on rat femoral vessels and successful use for STA-MCA bypass in Moya Moya disease (MMD) patients. A prospective experimental study with approval from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. Femoral vessels ES anastomoses were performed on Sprague Daley rats. The rat model used three types of RS (Adventitial, Luminal, and Flap-retraction sutures). An ES-interrupted anastomosis was done. The rats were observed for an average period of 16.18±5.65 days; the patency was assessed by re-exploration. The immediate patency on the STA-MCA bypasses was confirmed with intra-operative indocyanine green (ICG) angiography and micro-doppler; delayed patency with MRI and DSA after 3-6 months. In the rat model, 45 anastomoses were performed, 15 each using the three subtypes. The immediate patency was 100%. Delayed patency was 42/43 (97.67%), and two rats died during observation. In the clinical series, 59 STA-MCA bypasses were done in 44 patients (average age -18.14±11.09 years) using RS. The follow-up imaging was available for 41/59 patients. Both immediate and delayed patency (41/41 at six months) was 100%. The RS allows continuous visualization of the vessel lumen, reduces the handling of intimal edges, and avoids incorporating the back wall in sutures; thus improving anastomosis patency.

Approaching COVID-19 as an Environmental Ethical Problem: A Perspective from African Relational Animal Ethics

Abstract After the discovery of the origins of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be possibly wet markets in Wuhan, China, the normative questions of what ought to be the ethical relations between human beings and non-human animals have started to attract renewed interest among environmentalists. Although these are not new questions in environmental philosophy, the impact of COVID-19 across the world is challenging human beings to seriously reconsider some of these often-neglected questions. In this article, I examine COVID-19 as essentially an environmental ethical challenge. Specifically, I consider the extent to which the relationships between human and non-human animals can effectively impact the health and lives of humanity and the environment at large. I then provide some alternative ways by which human beings ought to re-think their relationships with non-human animals to avoid future catastrophes like COVID-19. I argue that the African view of animal ethics could at least provide a valuable lens through which to view correct relations between human beings and non-human animals. Ultimately, I set forth and defend an African environmental ethic for the right relations between human beings and animals and to show how such an ethic better places humanity in confronting future zoonoses.

The 3D Method: A Tool to Analyze Positions in Animal and Environmental Ethics

Over the past fifty years numerous ethical and political traditions, and positions and sub-positions, have emerged in the fields of animal and environmental ethics. In combination with inconsistent terminology and axiological variation, this has made it difficult for both novices and professional scholars to maintain an overview of these fields. Referring to the preliminary work of Kenneth Goodpaster, William Frankena and Kirsten Schmidt, this paper describes and explains a workable 3D method in which advantageous use is made of three dimensions in ethical argumentation: “moral considerability”, “moral significance” and “moral practice”. The method is a useful research tool for at least three reasons: it allows us to systematically analyze, reconstruct, compare and criticize different normative positions in animal and environmental ethics; it helps ethical theorists to reflect on, and define, their distinctive positions; and it leads to the construction and development of a moral position with the desirable qualities of clarity, transparency, comprehensibility and completeness. First, the 3D method is introduced, and its historical context and origins outlined. Then the three dimensions of the method (moral considerability, moral significance, and moral practice) and their interrelations are considered. The paper concludes with some critical remarks and discusses the limits of the method.

The Japan Monkey Centre Primates Brain Imaging Repository of high-resolution postmortem magnetic resonance imaging: The second phase of the archive of digital records

A comparison of neuroanatomical features of the brain between humans and our evolutionary relatives, nonhuman primates, is key to understanding the human brain system and the neural basis of mental and neurological disorders. Although most comparative MRI studies of human and nonhuman primate brains have been based on brains of primates that had been used as subjects in experiments, it is essential to investigate various species of nonhuman primates in order to elucidate and interpret the diversity of neuroanatomy features among humans and nonhuman primates. To develop a research platform for this purpose, it is necessary to harmonize the scientific contributions of studies with the standards of animal ethics, animal welfare, and the conservation of brain information for long-term continuation of the field. In previous research, we first developed a gated data-repository of anatomical images obtained using 9.4-T ex vivo MRI of postmortem brain samples from 12 nonhuman primate species, and which are stored at the Japan Monkey Centre. In the present study, as a second phase, we released a collection of T2-weighted images and diffusion tensor images obtained in nine species: white-throated capuchin, Bolivian squirrel monkey, stump-tailed macaque, Tibet monkey, Sykes’ monkey, Assamese macaque, pig-tailed macaque, crested macaque, and chimpanzee. Our image repository should facilitate scientific discoveries in the field of comparative neuroscience. This repository can also promote animal ethics and animal welfare in experiments with nonhuman primate models by optimizing methods for in vivo and ex vivo MRI scanning of brains and supporting veterinary neuroradiological education. In addition, the repository is expected to contribute to conservation, preserving information about the brains of various primates, including endangered species, in a permanent digital form.

Studies in chemistry education under the perspective of the animal issue: a review on the international literature

Guided by the questioning about how issues related to animals are addressed in research aimed at teaching chemistry, we conducted a review in international journals in science, chemistry, education and animal ethics, seeking to identify a possible dialogue between the themes. Highlighting the novelty of these possible relations, the objective was to assemble a panoramic impression of it, assuming that inserting the animal theme in chemistry classes would improve learning, the development of values generally associated with a critical citizen, and would promote significant practices linked to the questioning of reality. In line with the themes of the works found, we built a theoretical basis on the issue between animal consumption and the future of the environment, followed by the methodology and analysis of the selected articles, divided into three categories: environmental chemistry as driving issue to construct scientific concepts, discussions on food and nutrition through a scientific view, and introduction of concepts, analysis and methods through food chemistry. The analyzed texts brought several aspects of the investigated relations, dealing with both food health and environmental problems. Along with that, they explored numerous pedagogical possibilities in order to raise awareness and make the teaching-learning process more attractive and effective. Among the conclusions, there is that animal ethics, through its various aspects, is either not contemplated or appears in a veiled way by publications in the area of chemistry education. We recognize that there is a long way to go in search of a new perception.

Assessment of Nephroprotective Activity of PippalyadiAgad on Diclofenac Sodium Induced Nephrotoxicity in Albino Mice: An Experimental Study

Background: Nephrotoxicity due to Diclofenac Sodium can be correlated with this concept of Dushi Visha and nephroprotective drugs mentioned in Ayurveda texts may play an important role in this area. Pippalyadi Agad is the herbo-mineral medication stated by Yogaratnakara for treatment of Dushi Visha. Some of the drugs in this formulation have shown efficacy in correcting nephrotoxicity. Objective: To study the nephroprotective activity of Pippalyadi Agad on diclofenac sodium induced nephrotoxicity in albino mice. Methods: The experimental study was carried out in albino mice as per CPCSEA guidelines after getting approval from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC). 30 albino mice, each weighing about 20-30 gm, were procured from Bharat serum and vaccines. The mice were housed in the institutional animal house in standard conditions. 30 albino mice were equally divided into five groups having six animals in each group as Trial Drug (low dose), Trial Drug (medium dose), Standard Control, Disease Control and Vehicle Control. For assessment of nephrotoxicity, the animals were monitored on Day 0, Day 15 and Day 45 by carrying out blood investigations such as BUN, Serum Creatinine, Body weight and CBC. The Data were subjected to appropriate statistical tests to derive results. Results: Pippalyadi Agad treatment at low and medium doses significantly lowered BUN and Serum Creatinine in comparison with Disease and Standard Control at Day 45. Pippalyadi Agad treatment at low and medium doses significantly (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) increased body weights of the animals in comparison with Disease and Standard Control at Day 45. No significant difference in CBC parameters was observed in any of the Groups except the Disease Control Group on Day 15 and Day 45. Conclusion: Pippalyadi Agad has shown nephroprotective activity based on biochemical changes observed in Serum Creatinine, BUN and CBC.

About the Authors

Other| April 01 2023 About the Authors Journal of Animal Ethics (2023) 13 (1): 108–110. https://doi.org/10.5406/21601267.13.1.19 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation About the Authors. Journal of Animal Ethics 1 April 2023; 13 (1): 108–110. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/21601267.13.1.19 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Animal Ethics Search Advanced Search damiano benvegnù is a senior lecturer at Dartmouth College and an associate fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. In 2022, Benvegnù’s environmental humanities projects were awarded with an ACLS Fellowship and a NEH Digital Project for the Public Grant. He is the author of Animals and Animality in Primo Levi's Works (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Research interests include environmental humanities, posthumanism, ecocriticism, and critical animal studies. Email: damiano.benvegnu@dartmouth.eduivy borgohain is a junior research fellow of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. She is working toward her PhD at the Department of Philosophy, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India. Her research work is titled “Neo-Vaiṣṇavism of Assam and Animal Rights: A Critical Study.” Her research interests include animal ethics, Indian philosophy, and religion. Email: b.ivygohain@gmail.comsean butler is director of the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and a fellow of St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, where he teaches animal rights... You do not currently have access to this content.

Ethical Veganism as Moral Phenomenology: Engaging Buddhism with Animal Ethics

AbstractThis article puts Buddhist moral phenomenology in dialogue with ethical veganism to propose a new way of thinking about animal ethics. It first defines ethical veganism and outlines Buddhist moral phenomenology before articulating what a moral phenomenological approach to ethical veganism looks like. It then provides some examples of this approach to ethical veganism in both Tibetan and Western settings to demonstrate its viability. It concludes by thinking through some of the implications of a moral phenomenological approach to ethical veganism and argues that moral phenomenology is an exemplary mode of understanding and establishing ethical veganism.

Rethinking Animal Ethics Through Mutual Understanding: Towards an Education of Radical Responsibility

Animals are the closest human link to nature, which makes animal ethics key to a responsible education in the 21st century. They provide a lens for recalibrating our understanding of society and social relationships as well as societal relationships to animals and nature. A capacity that we already have in relation to animals but reject is at the heart of this role: our capacity for mutual understanding. Hence, we argue for an animal-ethics education that reconfigures the animal ethics of old in response to the insights of our current historical situation and that takes seriously our understanding with animals. What emerges from this is a stance of radical responsibility that challenges an anthropocentric responsibility and human preoccupation with a responsibility of leading, dictating and establishing facts. Recognizing our capacity for mutual understanding across species-boundaries is key to this radical, non-anthropocentric responsibility.

Kinship With Our Fellow Creatures: Korsgaard's Kantian Account of Animal Ethics and the Moral Weight of Kinship

AbstractIn this article, I argue that kinship implicitly operates as a normative ethical concept in Christine Korsgaard's account of animal ethics. I begin with an examination of the key theoretical foundations of Korsgaard's account and then examine the ways kinship operates as an ethical concept in her account, arguing that the ethical obligations she discusses are fundamentally grounded in a recognition of kinship with other animals. I conclude by recognizing that there are many remaining questions about kinship and animal ethics but that the concept holds significant potential for thinking about the ethical obligations that we have to nonhuman animals.

Anti-Speciesist Education

Animal ethics is a rather novel area of practical concern and research interest within philosophy of education. In recent years, environmental and humane education, which have tended to be governed by a largely anthropocentric orientation, have been augmented by approaches with a more theriocentric, egalitarian focus: critical animal studies, critical animal pedagogy, animal standpoint theory, vegan education, and animal rights education. This essay develops a pedagogical approach inspired by the two-pronged case for animals’ equal consideration, the argument from marginal cases and the argument from speciesism.

Developing Animal Theology: An Engagement with Leonardo Boff

Developing Animal Theology: An Engagement with Leonardo Boff

Meatsplaining: The Animal Agriculture Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial

Meatsplaining: The Animal Agriculture Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial

As We Forecast

Editorial| April 01 2023 As We Forecast Journal of Animal Ethics (2023) 13 (1): v–vii. https://doi.org/10.5406/21601267.13.1.01 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation As We Forecast. Journal of Animal Ethics 1 April 2023; 13 (1): v–vii. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/21601267.13.1.01 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Animal Ethics Search Advanced Search The process called “reintroduction” or “rewilding” involves reintroducing free-living species into a given area where they have previously been extinct. It appears that this process has gained the support of many animal protectionists (as well as the media) who see this process as somehow making good the damage previously done by the human species. In addition, it is a dogma accepted almost without question that this process can be justified by reference to the notion of “biodiversity.”As one of us has emphasised, it is ethically questionable to reintroduce species unless humans are now prepared to tolerate them . . . the question has to be asked: what good does it do to the released animals if one is only setting up new conflicts between the animals and humans whereby the animals will always be the losers?” (Linzey, 2013, p. 74)The problem with rewilding is that it assumes... You do not currently have access to this content.

Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era

Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era

Animals in Brazil: Economic, Legal and Ethical Perspectives

Animals in Brazil: Economic, Legal and Ethical Perspectives

Sentience and the Primordial ‘We’: Contributions to Animal Ethics from Phenomenology and Buddhist Philosophy

This paper explores the ontological bases for ethical behaviour between human animals and non-human animals drawing on phenomenology and Buddhist philosophy. Alongside Singer and utilitarianism, I argue that ethical behaviour regarding animals is most effectively justified and motivated by considerations of sentience. Nonetheless, utilitarianism misses crucial aspects of sentience. Buddhist ethics is from the beginning focused on all sentient beings, not solely humans. This inclusivity, and refined interrogations of suffering, means it can furnish more nuanced understandings of sentience. For phenomenology, sentience includes the capacities for self-awareness and, I will argue, a plural self-awareness; the ‘I’ belongs to a ‘we’, and the ‘we’ is constitutive of the ‘I’. This ‘primordial we’ provides the basis for rethinking the moral relations between human animals and non-human animals. I contend finally we thus have an ontological basis in ‘interanimality’ to explain why we most often do and should care about all sentient beings.

Eating for the Future: Critical Animal Pedagogies and Vegan Education

This essay draws on recent vegan interventions in education, mainly in a European and compulsory education context. Vegan meals are increasingly being served in schools for sustainability and health reasons, though for the children animal ethics may be an equally or even more important aspect. The growing number of vegan children is pushing for their needs to be met. There are nowadays even some all-vegan schools. How can vegan education pave the way for the ethical treatment of animals while strengthening its position within education for sustainable development and, in the longer run, change norms in and beyond education?

Insects as mini-livestock: Considering insect welfare in feed production

Insect farming for animal feed production is considered a promising alternative to the traditional feed manufacturing sector, because of its low ecological footprint and circular use of required resources. However, treating insects as mini-livestock is accompanied by various questions on the suitable rearing conditions needed to achieve high-quality products, while considering insect welfare. Although there are concepts which have long served as a compass for animal welfare regulations, these have been under increasing criticism. Also, they have been drawn up for vertebrate animals and are, therefore, not entirely applicable to insects. We hold that the development of commonly accepted methods for keeping insects as mini-livestock demands deep knowledge on insect biology and a dynamic discussion on insect welfare. We plead for an evaluation of the relevant ethical and empirical aspects of insect rearing conditions and for establishing welfare criteria based on these evaluations. By addressing several questions and uncertainties from an interdisciplinary perspective of entomology, animal ethics and philosophy of mind, we argue that taking into account current knowledge on insect biology could aid in the emergence of a novel, well-informed and integrated perspective on insect welfare. Ultimately, our goal is to trace the necessary biological factors for designing implementable and appropriate insect rearing conditions, in order to avoid ethical mistakes that have historically been made in animal production systems.