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A Big Thank You for a Year to Remember

23rd December 2024

Rosie

Dear Friends

As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to say a huge thank you for all the support we have received this year.

Clair is especially grateful to everyone who reached out and sent well wishes after her accident. Limited screen time has meant she was not able to reply to all the wonderful messages, but they helped her immensely on her road to recovery. She is now doing really well, and almost entirely recovered.

The Centre, with your help, continues its work to put animals on the intellectual agenda. 2024 was an exciting year and we want to share some of our achievements.

  • Clair had a great first year as a Research Fellow in Animal Ethics at Wycliffe Hall and has really enjoyed becoming a part of the community. It is the first post of its kind at the University of Oxford.
  • We held a successful book launch for Animal Theologians at Wycliffe Hall in February 2024. Animal Theologians was the result of eight years of collaboration. The event was attended by more than 60 people and Clair gave this speech.
  • Our ethical critique of predator control on the Scottish moors, entitled Killing to Kill was mentioned in the Scottish Parliament. Scotland (as well as Wales) has now banned snares, a major step forward.
  • Thanks to your wonderful support our match campaign raised $39,460 which was matched by our wonderful benefactor. With all this incredible support Adam and Clair are working towards releasing the film in Spring 2025. Please do continue to share and follow the film on Instagram.
  • The Ninth Annual Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School at Merton College, University of Oxford (5-8 August, 2024) overcame construction challenges and was one of our most inspiring years. The topic was Animal Thinkers: Celebrating the Pioneers of Ethical Sensitivity to Animals and so many of you who attended spoke of how re-energising and revivifying the experience was for your work for animals. Thank you to everyone who travelled from near and far to be part of the Summer School. In total over 150 scholars and students attended from around the world with scholars from 19 countries and presentations from over 65 academics.
  • The Oxford University Animal Ethics Society continues to thrive. Over 200 students signed up at Freshers’ Fair and our meetings were never attended by less than 30 people. There were nine student presentations, covering subjects, such as animals and disability ethics, insect consciousness, and animal property rights.
  • The Journal of Animal Ethics published with the University of Illinois Press remains the premiere place to publish academic work on animal ethics. Our online usage figures are now up to 58,000 a year, indicating impressive growth and interest in the field. In the 2023-4 academic year, we published two issues in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. We published some excellent articles, such as: Augustine of Hippo on Nonhuman Animals by Christina Hoenig, “The New Superstition, the New Tyranny”: The Ethics and Contexts of John Cowper Powys’s Antivivisection by Felix Taylor, The Life and Times of Turnspit Dogs: A Paradigmatic Case of Animal Labor in Early Modern Industrial Production by Onur Alptekin, and Beyond Sentience: Legally Recognizing Animals’ Sociability and Agency by Michaël Lessard 

On a personal note, Clair found a neglected cat in a terrible condition. We named her Rosie [pictured above] and she turned out to be pregnant, and gave birth to Alife, Tilly, and Shadow. Now we have 7 cats, plus one visiting cat called Marmalade! Max and Loki, our dogs, continue their mischief – all of these adventures can be followed on our Instagram: oxfordanimalethics.

As always, our work is only possible because of your tremendous support. We are incredibly grateful to all of you who have bought a book, read the journal, come to an event, or supported the documentary. Building this vibrant animal ethics community is the work we are most proud of.

For those of you who would like to support the Centre this Christmas there are many ways to support the Centre:

  • You can give a PayPal donation as a one-off.
  • You can become a monthly supporter.
  • You can put us in your will.
  • You can donate to us from the USA in a tax-free way, through Americans for Oxford.

If you would like to discuss any of these options, please email Clair at depdirector@oxfordanimalethics.com.

As always, we are deeply grateful for your support.

We wish you and yours a peaceful and joyous Christmas.

Warmly
Clair and Andrew