Science Bar: “Animal Welfare and Rights: A Matter of Ethics?”

Live on the UM YouTube channel.

Animal welfare, protection, and rights: a growing concern

From a legal perspective, the status of animals has changed significantly over the centuries: from being merely another piece of property at the disposal of their owner, animals have gradually come to be recognized as sentient beings capable of reasoning and suffering.

While the law of January 28, 2015, modernized the legal status of animals by recognizing them as living, sentient beings, Congress has just passed a bill aimed at strengthening efforts to combat animal cruelty. The bill specifically addresses the ban on the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores, fur farming, and the use of wild animals in circuses.

However, pets, farm animals, and wild animals are not treated equally, either in law or in people’s minds. Furthermore, there are significant cultural differences from one country to another.

There also appear to be disparities in moral consideration, with a hierarchy among species based on criteria such as utility, domestication, aesthetic appeal, nuisance, or dangerousness… Animal ethics is therefore being fundamentally reexamined.

To discuss this topic, four experts from various fields will come together and answer questions live from the online audience:

• Marianne Celka, Ph.D. in Sociology, Associate Professor of Sociology at Paul Valéry University in Montpellier, and researcher at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Studies on the Real and the Social Imaginary (LEIRIS);
• David Gomis, Zoological Director of the Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier;
• Elise Huchard, research fellow at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences (CNRS-University of Montpellier);
• Claire Vial, professor of public law and director of the Institute for European Human Rights Law (IDEDH).

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