Science Bar “Animal welfare and rights: a question of ethics?”

Live on the UM YouTube channel.

Animal welfare, protection, and rights: a growing concern

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

While the law of January 28, 2015 modernized the status of animals by recognizing them as living, sentient beings, Parliament has now adopted a bill aimed at strengthening the fight against animal abuse. The text focuses in particular on banning the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores, fur farming, and the presence of wild animals in circuses.

However, pets, farm animals, and wild animals are not equal, either in law or in people's minds. There are also significant cultural differences from one country to another around the world.

There also seem to be disparities in moral consideration, a hierarchy among species based on criteria of usefulness, domestication, aesthetics, nuisance, or dangerousness... Animal ethics are therefore being reexamined as a whole.

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

• Marianne Celka, Doctor of Sociology, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Paul Valéry Montpellier University, researcher at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Studies on Reality and Social Imaginaries (LEIRIS);
• David Gomis, Zoological Director of Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier;
• Elise Huchard, Research Fellow at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences (CNRS-University of Montpellier);
• Claire Vial, Professor of Public Law, Director of the Institute of European Human Rights Law (IDEDH).

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