Animal Welfare and Theories
of Justice
Dr Justin Greaves
University of Warwick
This presentation
• The origins of the
workshop
• Links between
public policy and
political theory
GoLD project
• £1million + – funded by RELU
• Studied the epidemiological, political
and legal aspects of endemic infectious
disease control of cattle in the UK
• Allows stakeholders to be better
informed of the potential impact of
different policy and regulatory changes
Welfare concerns
• It is of welfare concern that livestock
health is sub-optimal
• Livestock diseases can potentially affect
the health of humans and wildlife
• Animal welfare is a factor in a decision to
control endemic animal disease
• Initiatives to improve disease control need
to be developed within the broader context
of animal welfare
• As part of the
project Wyn Grant
gained interesting
insights from a
secondment to the
Animal Welfare
team at Defra
Future research
• GoLD also threw up a number of
interesting questions about animal welfare
which fell outside the scope of the project
• Workshop has two aims:
(1) To discuss the substantive issues
concerning justice, animal welfare and
animal health
(2) Discussion of possibilities to take the
inquiry further (Leverhulme bid?)
A gap in the market?
• Very few political ‘scientists’ work in this
area
• Two exceptions are Rob Garner at
Leicester and Alasdair Cochrane at LSE
• Therefore, an important gap in the
market to tap into
• Some aspects of the debate have been
underplayed or ignored
Relevant and topical debate
• New books (& articles) by Garner and
Cochrane
• Animal Welfare Bill, draft Animal Health
Bill (dropped by Coalition government)
• EU Animal Health Strategy (EU also
drafting legislation on animal health)
• New report by the RSPCA – the Welfare
State: Five Years Measuring Animal
Welfare in the UK 2005-2009
Issues to consider (1)
• The challenge of ensuring animal
welfare whilst food supplies continue at
a time when there are food security
concerns and rising or volatile prices
• The need to balance the interests of
animals, farmers and consumers
• Ideal and non ideal theories of justice –
a need for ‘practical’ solutions?
Issues to consider (2)
• Conflicts between the
interests of different
animals
EG: bTB – [the extent
of] transmission from
diseased badgers to
cattle. How do we
balance the interests
of badgers against
cattle?
Issues to consider (3)
• How should we understand the nature
of, and relationship between, disease,
health and welfare for animals?
• What are the implications in terms of
public policy?
Public policy/political theory
• We hope such
research activity will
provide a
mechanism for more
effectively
integrating public
policy and political
theory
Centre for Ethics, Law and
Public Affairs
• We intend our activity to feed into
CELPA
• New centre established to address
issues of public concern from the
perspective of philosophy
• The analysis of ethical and political
ideals and their application to different
aspects of public policy
Another issue to consider
• Public policy should rest on a sound
normative basis and the best ‘scientific’
evidence available
• For example, a badger cull may be
scientifically sound, but that does not
necessarily make it normatively justified
• See Weale (2010) and Sanderson
(2009) articles in Political Studies
Some concluding thoughts
• Could such issues help inform a new
‘theory of justice’ for animals?
• A need to bring together:
(1) The normative issues discussed by
moral, political and legal theorists
(2) The debates about policy and
farming
Thank you for listening
• Some helpful links
• My webpage (and research interests)
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/
staff/greaves
• CELPA
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/
research/celpa