NSPCA - Ethics and Animal Ethics

Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality ; that is, about concepts such as good and bad , right and wrong , justice , and virtue - Wikipedia.

Animal ethics is the study of human concern for animals – Wikipedia.

A morally good person is, among other things, someone who is kind to animals and people, and is truthful and fair in what he or she does and says. An ethically good person has some understanding of why he or she is like that and thinks about this understanding. So morals focus mainly on what we decide actually are good or bad, or right or wrong thoughts and actions, whereas ethics deals mainly with how we decide what is right or wrong, or good or bad.

We all adopt moral and ethical positions; whether or not we know it and can describe them. Over the centuries thinkers in ethics have tried to explain these different positions. They have also developed many different concepts to help us decide what is good and bad, right and wrong, in all aspects of daily life. These include how we can decide what are acceptable and unacceptable ways for people to use animals in farming, health, recreation and, more recently, in all aspects of animal-based science. As a result, we now have available to us a range of ideas on how to decide what is ethical behaviour towards animals. Some of the ideas, which relate particularly to the use of animals in research, teaching and testing, are briefly outlined below. They include:

Animal welfare emphasises how well an animal is coping with its environment and how well it is being managed by people. When an animal’s major needs are being met its welfare is good. There are five main areas of need. These can be broadly described as nutritional, environmental, health, behavioural and mental needs. These areas of need can guide us when we want to find out how to prevent an animal’s welfare from being harmed. They also show us where animal welfare problems can occur, and they help us work out how to prevent or correct those problems.

People who are concerned about animal welfare mainly emphasise giving practical help to improve the lot of animals as they are used now. Their focus is on the animal’s state of welfare, not on how important we think animals are in relation to people. This contrasts with the main focus of animal liberation and animal rights groups who want to make fundamental changes to the ways we think about the place of animals in our world. Thus, animal welfare groups tend to emphasise working in the world as it is, and animal liberation/rights groups tend to emphasise changing the world into what they think it ought to be. Both welfare and liberation/rights groups aim to improve the lot of animals, but they often disagree on how that should be achieved.

Animal welfare groups usually oppose the use of animals in research, teaching and testing. They have a long-term goal of ending such animal use. However, they know it is not realistic to expect that the scientific use of animals will come to an end in the very near future. So they work actively to improve the welfare of the animals used in science until abolition of that use can be achieved. They therefore strongly support all measures that minimise any harm done to animals used in science.

Five ways in which the animal`s welfare may be affected and how these welfare issues may be prevented or corrected are shown below.

ISSUE	PREVENTION/CORRECTION
Water shortage, food shortage, unbalanced diet	By ensuring ready access to fresh water and an appropriate diet in sufficient quantities and with a composition that maintain full health and vigour.
Environmental challenge	By providing a suitable environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area, whether outdoors or indoors.
Disease or injury	By prevention or by rapid diagnosis and treatment.
Behavioural restriction	By providing sufficient space, proper facilities and the company of the animal’s own kind.
Suffering (mental and physical)	By minimising the conditions that produce unacceptable levels of anxiety, fear, distress, boredom, sickness, pain, thirst, hunger, and the like.