News Bulletin - Australian Animal Studies Group

Regional News
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Queensland
University of Queensland and Griffith University
The Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics (CAWE), the RSPCA and the Environmental Futures
Centre (EFC) are proud to present the following free public seminar by Peter Sandøe on
29 February 2012, 6-7.30pm at Queensland College of Art (QCA), Southbank, Brisbane:
―Animal Welfare – where does science end and ethics begin?‖
In the early days of animal welfare science it was often claimed that a sharp distinction should be
drawn between on the one hand the science-based study of animal welfare and on the other hand
ethical discussions about what is right and wrong in our dealings with animals. However in the light
of debates starting in the early 1990s it is now widely recognized that assessments of animal
welfare involve a number of assumptions that are ethical in nature.
In his lecture Peter Sandøe will try to pinpoint these and a number of other general ethical
assumptions affecting the study of animal welfare, including assumptions about how to define the
baseline of sufficient welfare, how to deal with distributions of welfare between animals and how to
handle scientific uncertainty. Furthermore he will discuss how these assumptions seem to vary
across the study of welfare issues relating to different forms of animal use, e.g. farm animals and
companion animals. Finally he will discuss how animal welfare researchers can aspire to present
their results in a way which makes their underlying ethical assumptions transparent.
Peter Sandøe is originally trained as a philosopher and is currently professor of Bioethics at the
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has presented his ideas about
the relation between animal welfare science in a series of influential papers in international journals
and in the book (co-authored with Stine B. Christiansen) Ethics of animal use (Blackwell, 2008).
More information about his work in animal ethics can be found at www.animalethics.net.
Contact: Leah Burns Leah.Burns@griffith.edu.au or Ph: 37353649) for more details.
Victoria
Melbourne University
Animal Issues Melbourne
October: the meeting discussed McMahan, J. (2008), ‗Eating Animals the Nice Way‘, Daedalus,
Vol. 137.1: 66-76.
November: the meeting discussed Lutz and Lutz, (2011), ‗Interest Groups and Pro-Animal Rights
Legislation‘, Society and Animals, 19: 261-277.
January: the meeting on Monday January 30, 2012 will discuss: Davey, G. (2006), ‗Visitor
Behaviour in Zoos‘, Anthrozoos, 19.2: 143-157.
For more information about Animal Issues Melbourne, contact Siobhan O‘Sullivan:
siobhano@unimelb.edu.au
Knowing Animals Past and Present
The Knowing Animals Past and Present Interdisciplinary Research Group will present a paper by
Dr. Adam Dodd (University of Oslo) on Wednesday 14 December, 5.30-6.30 pm at the Faculty
Function Room, Level 5, the John Medley Building, UoM, followed by their annual dinner.
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