Animal ethics in relation to desensitisation and extreme compartmentalisation

In: Open access government, Volume 39, Issue 1, p. 509-511

Abstract

Animal ethics in relation to desensitisation and extreme compartmentalisation
Dr Rebekah Humphreys, a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter, discusses animal ethics and the morality of our treatment of animals in testing and intensive farming. Having become interested in the subject since studying it at university as part of a BA Degree in English and Philosophy, I have researched animal ethics (a sub-discipline of philosophy) for the past 25 years. I became conscious of the ways in which animals were being used in animal experimentation and factory farming (partly because of the work of Compassion in World Farming and (what is now known as) Cruelty Free International. This led me to an MA in Ethics and Social Philosophy before completing a PhD, specialising in animal ethics. I wanted to examine the justifications given for the suffering of animals used in these practices to understand how such treatment could be possible on such a vast scale (more than 100 million animals are used in research globally every year, with 4 million being used in the UK alone (RSPCA, 2023a); and approximately 50 billion animals are factory-farmed worldwide every year (CIWF, 2023)). My current research includes issues of justice, equality, desensitisation, compartmentalisation, and dignity in relation to animal ethics, ethology, and environmental ethics.