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A Message from the Director

16th September 2013

Thanks to our many supporters, the Centre is making progress.

  • The Centre has launched the Religion and Animals Research Project to examine the positive and negative ways in which religious beliefs affect our treatment of animals.  My Huffington Post article on ‘Is Religion Bad for Animals?’ has already aroused much interest.
  • We shall be holding an annual Oxford Summer School on Animal Ethics. The first will be on the topic of Religion and Animal Protection and will be held at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, from July 21-23, 2014.
  • The long awaited The Global Guide to Animal Protection will be published in December 2013 by the University of Illinois Press. Over 300 pages with 180 contributions, it is the first work to offer a truly global perspective on animal protection, and is destined to become a classic. ‘This Global Guide reflects a growing worldwide sensitivity to animals and a developing sense that–as a matter of justice–they deserve our compassion and respect. It has my warm support’–Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from the book’s foreword.
  • The book series on Animal Ethics published in partnership with Palgrave Macmillan continues apace with more than 12 published volumes. The latest is Alastair Harden’s Animals in the Classical World: Ethical Perspectives from Greek and Roman Texts which is published this month. It breaks new ground in providing an ethical analysis of classic texts.
  • Fellows of the Centre are now working on the first Handbook of Practical Animal Ethics, which will be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
  • The  Journal of Animal Ethics published in partnership with the University of Illinois Press continues to increase its international readership. The latest issue in November  includes Corinne Painter on ‘The Vegetarian Polis: Just Diet in Plato’s Republic and in Ours’, Piers Beirne on ‘Hogarth’s Animal’s, Steven McMullen on ‘Can Economists Speak for Farmed Animals?’, and two review articles on Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka’s Zoopolis:  A Political Theory of Animal Rights together with their reply.

We are putting animals on the intellectual agenda as never before.  We are beginning to be noticed. We are slowly but surely winning the all-important battle of ideas.

But all this work couldn’t happen without the generous help of our supporters. Please look at our overview of innovative ways in which people can help.  And no matter how small, every contribution is deeply appreciated.

I would like to reiterate our invitation to become formally affiliated to the Centre as an Associate, Ambassador or Partner by making a one-off contribution.

Thank you so much for your help.  We believe that the future is getting brighter for animals and all our work is at last contributing to a changed intellectual climate.

With every good wish.

Andrew Linzey Signature

The Revd Professor Andrew Linzey
Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics