Animal Rights Research Articles (Page 1)

The entry examines the phenomenon of terrorism, highlighting its complexity and multiple causes. It traces the evolution of the term terrorism, from state violence to violence committed by non-state groups. The different types of terrorism that emerged in the 20th century (anarchist, nationalist, revolutionary, and religious) are analyzed, emphasizing the importance of understanding the social, political, and cultural factors that lead some individuals to resort to violence. New movements, such as the far right and animal rights activists, have also emerged, resorting to forms of terrorist violence. It addresses the consequences of terrorism, for both direct and indirect victims, notably due to stigmatization. Finally, it discusses the processes of de-radicalization, highlighting that their effectiveness remains a subject of debate.

Animal research refers to the use of animals in various scientific activities such as observation, experimentation, testing, and education. This practice has generated widespread ethical debate, especially concerning the legal and moral boundaries of animal welfare. Policymakers face the challenge of balancing animal rights with human interests and reconciling protective standards with economic demands. In New Zealand, the use of animals in research and education is guided by the Three Rs principle: Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. This framework reflects a national commitment to humane and responsible scientific practice. In contrast, Vietnam, despite mentioning animal use in laws related to animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, lacks a unified legal system dedicated to animal protection. This gap highlights the need for Vietnam and other developing countries to study and adopt ethical and legal models from nations like New Zealand to strengthen their approach to animal welfare in research and education.

ABSTRACT Transforming global food systems is crucial for mitigating environmental degradation, reducing the global disease burden and protecting sentient individuals from harm. Despite overwhelming evidence linking animal‐sourced foods to ecological damage, resource depletion and public health challenges, gaps remain in promoting sustainable consumption. This urgency is compounded by the scientific recognition of animal sentience, which elevates animal use to a moral issue. This study combines empirical data from a survey of 500 respondents with a literature review to explore motivations and behaviours driving plant‐based eating. Key suggested interventions to foster a responsible food system include: (i) raising awareness of animal rights, (ii) disseminating nutritional and environmental knowledge, (iii) reforming agri‐food subsidies, (iv) promoting plant‐based food research, commercialisation and consumption and (v) fostering social inclusion and positive recognition of vegan identity. By addressing psychological, social and structural barriers to animal‐free diets, this study offers actionable strategies for advancing a sustainable future.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the regulatory framework governing the activities of public associations in the field of animal welfare in the Russian Federation. The author examines the main legislative acts defining the legal status of animal rights organizations, their rights and obligations, as well as key problems of law enforcement practice. Special attention is paid to the intersectoral nature of regulation, combining the norms of civil, administrative, environmental and criminal law. The article explores gaps and conflicts in the current legislation, in particular, in the Federal Law "On Responsible Treatment of Animals", and suggests directions for its improvement. It is concluded that it is necessary to form an integrated and consistent system of legal regulation of animal protection activities in Russia.The article identifies several critical challenges stemming from the current legal framework. These include: 1) unclear delineation of powers between different levels of government, leading to inaction; 2) the undefined legal status of "volunteers," leaving them vulnerable to accusations of theft or unlawful capture; 3) financial instability due to a lack of systematic state support, making NGOs reliant on private donations; and 4) legal collisions with other areas of law, where acts of rescuing an animal in distress may be formally classified as administrative offenses.The conclusion emphasizes the fragmented and contradictory nature of the legal environment for animal protection groups in Russia. For their work to be effective, further development of the legislation is necessary. This requires detailed by-laws to clarify procedures for public control, clear legal definitions for volunteers, stable mechanisms for financial support, and the creation of a holistic, non-contradictory system that provides real legal tools for civil society to realize the principles of humane animal treatment.

ABSTRACT Across the globe, millions of animals are utilized in the tourism industry every year. The complexities involved in animal tourism, and the conflicting interests of stakeholders, has led to travel and tourism companies forming partnerships with animal welfare organizations. In this paper, we postulate that these partnerships not be taken at face value as an advance toward animal justice. Additionally, we suggest that while animal advocacy groups show strong potential for instigating behavioral change by engaging directly with the tourism industry, they must consider alignment of values to avoid appropriation of their brand image for the purpose of corporate greenwashing and welfare-washing. In this study, we propose a method for measuring the efficacy of these emergent collaborations between animal advocacy organizations and tourism industry – the Animal Advocacy & Tourism Partnership Framework designed to identify new sustainable partnership opportunities and to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-existing ones.

Abstract From compassion to animal liberation, health, and sustainability, veganism is a concept in flux in Taiwan as a new generation of actors are bringing a fresh face and tactics to a novel yet familiar practice. This article examines the emergence of Taiwan’s new vegan movement during the socially receptive period that followed the Sunflower Movement. It introduces the actors involved in vegan advocacy, noting its distinct routes of diffusion, and where new vegan identities and alternative advocacy spaces play a key role. It shows that while animal rights rationales informed the inception of the contemporary vegan movement, some actors have shifted their attention to policy processes by reconnecting their discourses to matters of dietary sustainability, thus bringing the local movement into closer alignment with global vegan mainstreaming through engagement with sustainability regimes.

This essay explores two different cases of #CatLivesMatter occurring between 2015 and 2022. By examining the discourses and effects of moral outrage that circulated within these controversies, I point to how the animal is used as an alibi that permits the blasting of white supremacist ideologies out into the open with unchecked speed, scale, and escalating calls to violence. Animal rights campaigns such as #CatLivesMatter thus not only co-opt the political urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, but also can be understood as a form of emergent everyday ecofascism.

Insects have long been integral to youth science education both in K-12 classrooms and in informal learning contexts due to their diversity, accessibility, and ecological importance. Collecting and studying insects helps students develop key scientific skills such as observation, classification, and inquiry. However, with the rise of conservation movements and ethical considerations regarding animal rights, the practice of insect collecting has come under scrutiny. This paper explores the practice of insect collecting with students in the K-12 age range, highlighting both its educational benefits and the ethical challenges it poses. We examine arguments both for and against insect collecting and propose a framework from which teachers, students, and informal educators can construct their own code of ethics. The goal is to foster ethical, inquiry-based learning while ensuring respect for nature and promoting a nuanced understanding of environmental stewardship.

Envisioning a Better Future for Nonhuman Animals: Towards Future Animal Rights Declarations, written by Schneeberger, D.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to reflect on an accounting scholar’s role(s) during academic-activist collaboration. Theoretically, I draw on a typology of researcher roles in public policy to offer an alternative to the conceptualization of the ‘intellectual’ that has thus far prevailed in research on accounting scholars’ interventions into political issues. In empirical terms, I will recount and analyze my experiences from the construction and dissemination of a counter account, a report on the present state and future prospects of fur farming in Finland, commissioned by a non-governmental organization focusing on animal rights. The study contributes both theoretically and empirically to the critical literature on accounting interventions as well as to the social and environmental accounting research on scholarly counter accounts. I also hope the study will benefit our common collective by encouraging accounting scholars to intervene in policy debates involving animals.

Indigenous chickens are raised in various rural areas in large quantities throughout Sudan. They must be transported over various distances to centralized slaughterhouses or for other purposes. In this study, we examined indigenous chicken farmers' perceptions of chicken welfare during transportation. A total of 160 indigenous chickens (80 control + 80 transported with their owners) participated in this study. Our findings revealed that 69% and 88% of the farmers indicated that they were not knowledgeable about animal rights and animal welfare, respectively. The majority of the farmers (86%) reported that they were unaware of animal protection laws. Furthermore, the transported chickens showed a significantly long tonic immobility duration (p < 0.05) compared to the control chickens. Moreover, low pecking behavior was significant (p < 0.05) in transported chickens compared to control, particularly on day one of the experiment. In addition, the mean values of glucose, TWBCs, monocytes, basophils, eosinophils, H/L ratio, Hb, MCHC, and PLT were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in transported chickens compared to the controls. In addition, TNF-a, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IFN-γ, IL-17, as well as ROS, MDA, cortisol, glucose, and total cholesterol were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in transportation chickens compared to control, while CAT, GSH, ATP, and SOD were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in transportation chickens compared to control. We conclude that the traditional transportation of indigenous Sudanese chickens affected their welfare, and this was associated with farmers' low perceptions of chicken welfare, and stress-induced blood profile changes.

Abstract Historically, conservation has focused on species, ecological communities, systems and processes, rather than on individual animals. Even among advocates for compassionate conservation, the focus on animal welfare or animal rights only relates to conservation activities. However, in recent years the idea of managing ecosystems primarily to improve wild animal welfare has been gaining traction among animal ethicists and animal welfare researchers. Managing ecosystems for animal welfare is generally antithetical to management to support ecological and evolutionary processes, since essential features of those processes, such as predation, privation and competition, are sources of animal suffering. Our aim in this paper is not to defend the proposal that ecosystem management should focus primarily on improving wild animal welfare. It is, rather, to situate this proposal in relation to concerns about wild animal welfare expressed by the public and conservation biologists; to connect it to the rise of subjectivist theories of animal welfare; to introduce the ethical arguments used to support elevating the importance of individual wild animals; to explain the advocacy context; to outline potential implications for conservation; and to review critiques of taking a wild animal welfare focus in ecosystem management.

Abstract Meat consumption and animal farming are subjects of ongoing debates in ethics, animal rights, and environmental protection, in both the media and academic research. The widely popular manga series Yakusoku no Nebārando (The Promised Neverland) confronts its mostly young readers with the controversial topic of meat production by depicting human children as livestock. I combine manga analysis with approaches developed in the field of human-animal studies to explore the portrayal, negotiation, and legitimation of carnist practices such as animal farming, meat consumption, and hunting in the manga series. My analysis shows that reading the series as a mirror of real-world animal farming is a valid approach, despite the authors’ denial of such an intention. I argue that the manga series brings the horrors of the meat industry to light by reversing the usual roles of oppressor and victim but does not condemn the consumption of meat per se. Instead, it uses the profit-driven meat industry as an example to criticise all forms of capitalist exploitation. Finally, it encourages readers to reflect on their consumption habits and stand up against social injustices.

ABSTRACTDespite being strong, arguments for animal rights often fail to motivate. One reason for this is that rights are associated with concepts, such as respect, that are difficult to apply to nonhuman animals. These concepts are difficult to apply because they are implicitly grounded in the special status of humans. Respect for persons includes an element of reverence‐based respect. The human/animal dichotomy is reinforced by cultural forces and farming practices that strip nonhuman animals of individuality and render their lives mundane, invisible, and uninteresting. To facilitate progress towards justice for nonhuman animals, this article proposes cultivating and safeguarding an attitude of wonder towards individual animals. Feelings of wonder, it is argued, have the potential to spark a shift in moral perspective and ground a form of reverence‐based respect for nonhuman animals.

The authors would like to acknowledge the oversight in omitting the ethical approval number in the article titled "The Effect of Some Symptoms and Features During the Infection Period on the Level of Anxiety and Depression of Adults after Recovery from COVID-19" published in Current Psychiatry Research and Reviews, 2022, 18(2), pp: 161 [1]. Details of the error and a correction are provided here. Original: ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethics Review Board of Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University after being approved by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey. HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS: No animals were used in this study. The procedure of the human experiments is in accordance with the Declaration of the Helsinki World Medical Association. Corrected: ETHICS APPROVAL AND CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE: The study was approved by Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Human Research Health and Sports Sciences Ethics Committee (20/10/2021, Protocol No: 08-03) Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey. HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS: The reported experiments on humans were in accordance with the ethical standards of the committee responsible for human experimentation (institutional national), and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1989. We regret the error and apologize to readers. The original article can be found online at https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/121872

'Meating' the animal and moral emotions: Exploring animal caring and cruelty appeals for dietary change.

ABSTRACT Calls to recognise animal rights and to abandon anthropocentrism are now virtually ubiquitous in pro-animal literature. However, these calls are plagued by conceptual confusion and theoretical misapprehensions. I recommend distinguishing between two meanings of anthropocentrism: epistemic anthropocentrism (the truism that we can only know the world as humans) and normative anthropocentrism (the idea that humans hold a special place in ethics). Anthropocentrism, in both these senses, is unavoidable. But this conclusion is without prejudice to the question of whether animals have (moral) rights. Animals have such rights because their well-being matters independently of our own; and yet we can only affirm animal rights anthropocentrically. The fact that animals have moral rights, however, does not entail that making animals holders of fundamental legal rights is the unmitigated good it has been recently assumed to be. Not only would introducing legally protected fundamental animal rights risk compromising human rights practice and prove divisive; there is also little reason to think it would constitute the solution it is touted to be for the shortcomings of underinclusive and underenforced animal welfare laws.

This study examines the relationship between veganism in modern medicine and traditional healing practices through a focus on health and ethical considerations. A qualitative methodology was employed, involving semi-structured interviews with 15 vegan participants and a subsequent thematic data analysis. The findings indicate that veganism is not merely a dietary preference, but rather a holistic lifestyle choice guided by concerns for animal rights, environmental consciousness, and ethical principles. While the participants mostly regard animal-based medical practices and pharmaceuticals as ethically problematic, they acknowledge the necessity of resorting to such treatments in life-threatening situations, creating a moral dilemma. Similarly, traditional healing methods can also involve the use of animal-derived substances, posing further ethical challenges for vegans. Nonetheless, the existence of purely plant-based remedies sparks interest among participants as a potential avenue for alternative healing. The study underscores that meticulously planned plant-based diets can be nutritionally adequate and underscores the necessity for improved medical education and awareness regarding veganism. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of addressing veganism's ethical and health-related dimensions comprehensively, signifying the need for innovative approaches to formulate health practices free from animal exploitation.

Existing scholarship on China’s ‘panda diplomacy’ emphasises that it is a highly successful form of modern public diplomacy, whose intended effects are not to impress or placate rulers, but to encourage positive feelings among the publics of the receiving countries. In this paper, we show that it is not just the feelings of receiving publics that matter in panda diplomacy. When a country allows the transfer of an animal that serves as an emotionally potent national symbol, the feelings of the sending public also matter. We examine the recent case of the illness and death of a panda at Memphis Zoo that caused outrage on Chinese social media when disturbing photos of the apparently suffering animal were posted by an American animal rights group. The Chinese state did not join in the nationalist outrage, instead offering a measured response that exonerated the American zoo. While this response helps to maintain panda diplomacy as a tool, public outrage over the treatment of pandas in foreign countries is likely to arise again in the future. The panda is a uniquely vulnerable animal for a national symbol, and its vulnerability reflects an increasing sense of both human and environmental insecurity.

Aside from a few passages addressing animals or the environment, Confucian philosophy appears to lack an environmental ethics perspective. Li Zhehou’s (李澤厚) contemporary work in Confucian philosophy continues this lacuna by limiting his understanding of community to the human realm. Using the common liberal humanism that limits moral actions to the interpersonal human realm misses the importance of inclusive moralities such as animal rights and environmental ethics. I propose that if we return to the original shared common cultural roots of Confucian and Daoist philosophy that a Confucian understanding of the natural world can embrace the non-human environment within the scope of Confucian morality. Extricating ideas from the Yijing, the Shijing, Xunzi, Dong Zhongshu, Wang Chong, and later scholars, the concept of the mutual resonance and response (ganying 感應) between the natural world and humans developed into the unity of heaven and humanity (tianren heyi 天人合一). An inclusive Confucian depth ecology opens new ways of thinking that can be deployed to envision deeper dimensions for understanding the self’s inner life, its connections to the outer life of the self–other relationship, and its extension to a kin relationship with the environment. This paper explores how these old and new ways of thinking can change our behavior and change our moral interactions with others including the environment and thereby enhancing freedom as an achievement concept derived from graceful moral action.