Oxford Holds Conference on Relationship Between Humans & Animals
The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics was founded in 2006 to enhance the ethical status of animals through academic research, teaching and publication. At the heart of the Centre’s work is an international fellowship of academics drawn from the sciences and the humanities. The Centre is named after the distinguished Spanish philosopher José Ferrater Mora, known for his pioneering opposition to bullfighting. One of Centre’s key research areas is the link between animal abuse and human violence. The aim of the Centre is to put the issue of humankind’s interactions with animals on the intellectual agenda
The Centre has arranged for a conference in September 2007 as part of its commitment to research and publication in this field. The League Against Cruel Sports, the premier society in the United Kingdom opposed to cruelty inflicted on animals for recreational purposes, has sponsored and organized the conference. The aim is to enable people to better understand the nature of animal abuse, the motivation that leads to cruel acts, and the implications for human as well as animal welfare.
During the last 30 years, evidence has been accumulating of a link between animal abuse and violence to humans or anti-social behaviour. The aim of the conference is to explore this link, what meaning it might have, its ethical significance, and what implications, if any, that should follow for the making of social and legal policy. This will be the first academic conference devoted to this subject in the United Kingdom.
For additional information: www.oxfordanimalethics.com; www.league.org.uk.
