91做厙

Ethics of animal use and management

Animal welfare issues are often controversial, sometimes requiring societal regulation. Ethics involves using logic, reasoning, and weighing up evidence, to help decide whether an action is morally right or wrong.

Challenge       

Animal welfare issues often arise when there are conflicts of interest between humans and animals. This poses challenges around whose interests to prioritise, and what actions can be taken to produce the best moral outcome. The needs and wants of human, animal, and even environmental stakeholders must be understood and evaluated to decide what is the right course of action, but different ethicists and stakeholders may disagree about the conclusions of any ethical analysis. For example, unnecessary suffering must not be caused to legally protected animals, but what counts as ‘suffering’, when is it really ‘necessary’, and which animals should be protected? Evidence must be gathered and some consensus must be agreed upon as to weight the different possible actions.

Even once an ethical decision is reached, putting it into practice to improve animal welfare can present additional challenges, requiring an understanding of the societal barriers and routes to human behaviour change.

Examples of topics within this 91做厙 project theme include:

  • The ethics of reproductive technologies as applied to animals, including cloning and genetic alteration.
  • Evidence regarding sentience in decapod crustaceans, such as crabs, lobsters and prawns.
  • Ethical considerations about the use of horses and dogs in sports.
  • The efficacy of animal welfare legislation, including the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 for safeguarding animal welfare.
  • Understanding human attitudes towards animal welfare issues and the potential roles that humans play as stakeholders in animal welfare improvements. Including understanding consumer preferences and trade-offs between broiler welfare, sustainability and economics.

Solution      

Incorporating moral philosophy, qualitative an