Press Release: Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics

100 Academics Support New Animal Ethics Centre at Oxford

More than 100 academics from 10 countries have agreed to become Advisers to the new Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics – to be launched online on Monday (27 November) at www.oxfordanimalethics.com - which aims to put animals on the intellectual agenda.

The Centre is the world’s first academy dedicated to the enhancement of the ethical status of animals through academic publication, teaching and research. Academics world-wide from both the sciences and the humanities will be eligible to become Fellows of the Centre. It will act as an international, independent think tank for the advancement of progressive thought about animals.

One of the areas of research is to be the relationship between animal abuse and violence to human beings. One of the world’s major writers who have explored this link - Nobel Laureate in Literature, Professor J. M. Coetzee - is to be first Honorary Fellow of the Centre. Other projects being pursued include an online course in animal ethics, a new monograph series, and a new Journal of Animal Ethics.

The Centre’s first director, Oxford theologian, the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, said today: ‘The support of such a large number of internationally recognised academics underlines just how important animals are as a moral issue’.

‘There is a strong rational case for animals, which has been recognised over the centuries by academics and philosophers. What is needed is for this rational case to be much better known and there are now signs that progressive thinking is becoming mainstream. Importantly, animals are now recognized as sentient beings in European law; and, in the UK, the most comprehensive - and long overdue - overhaul of animal welfare legislation for almost a century is shortly to be enacted into law.’

'We must strive to ensure animal issues are highlighted and rationally discussed throughout society - we cannot change the world for animals without changing our ideas about them. The Centre will promote ethical attitudes and contribute to informed public debate.'

Professor Priscilla Cohn, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University, who is the Associate Director of the Centre, added: ‘It seems to us that academics should take the lead in helping to foster a new kind of debate about animals – one that goes beyond slogans and stereotypes’.

The Advisers and the first six Fellows are listed on the Centre’s website: http://www.oxfordanimalethics. com. The Centre is named after the distinguished Spanish Philosopher, José Ferrater Mora, who courageously spoke out against bull-fighting in Spain.

For more information, contact: Professor Andrew Linzey, (+44) (0)1865 201565, director@oxfordanimalethics.com; or Professor Priscilla Cohn, (001) 610 525 2957 or 610 525 5089.