Basic Concepts
Animal Ethics
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies what is morally right or wrong, deals with human conduct and behaviour and with moral duty and obligation.1 It provides frameworks to guide the way humans relate to other humans and their surrounding environment, including non-human animals.
Animal ethics considers how humans should treat animals and the appropriateness of animal use in different contexts.
Animals are sentient beings with intrinsic value and interests of their own. Scientific advances have proven they are capable of experiencing positive and negative emotions like pleasure, joy and contentment as well as pain, fear, frustration and suffering.
Therefore, it is the human´s duty not only to care for animals and provide what they need but also to treat them humanely and avoid causing unnecessary suffering.
However, since the human-animal relationship is influenced by many different factors like culture and spiritual beliefs, social and economic conditions, legislation, etc., there are many different ethical approaches towards animals which describe what is right or wrong about how humans treat animals.
1 Merriam Webster Dictionary. Online available at:
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic
Purdue University – Department of Animal Sciences
The renowned university describes basic concepts of ethics and the difference between animal welfare and animal rights.
www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-662-W.pdf
One Welfare Portal
Developed in a collaboration of several Australian universities, this portal offers open access resources to animal welfare ethics.
onewelfare.sydney.edu.au/animal-ethics
Animal Ethics
The US-based NGO promotes respect for non-human animals through outreach, research, and education and provides information around animal ethics.
www.animal-ethics.org/ethics-animals-section/
Animal Ethics Dilemma
This open access interactive learning tool is a platform developed by experienced lecturers from different European universities to understand how different ethical views influence human behaviour towards animals.
www.aedilemma.net
David Fraser et al.
A scientific paper relating how ethical concerns about animal´s quality of lives relate to animal welfare science.
www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ethawel