Global event in Oxford explores moral reasons behind housing animals in confinement settings
The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School 2025 is set to return for its 10th annual event, with a focus on ethical issues concerning animals. The event, which will take place from August 4th to 7th, 2025, at the historic and beautiful Merton College in Oxford University, will delve into various aspects of animal captivity over several days.
Dr Clair Linzey, the Director of the Oxford Annual Animal Ethics Summer School, has emphasized the need to broaden the conversation around captivity to include various scenarios like farms, aquariums, sanctuaries, and companion animals. The Summer School aims to address questions such as the moral justification of various animal confinement practices, the reasons for human desire to keep animals captive on a large scale, the harm caused to animals by denying them freedom, and strategies for reducing animal captivity legally, culturally, and politically.
The Summer School will feature a diverse lineup of speakers from various disciplines and continents, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. While specific names and topics for the 2025 event have not been disclosed yet, past participants have included experts in animal ethics, philosophy, theology, law, economics, and conservation.
The event will feature two concurrent programs. One program will focus on "Evaluating the economic justifications for confinement in animal agriculture," while the other will explore "The ethical imperative for a pre-emptive ban on octopus farming." A highlight of the Summer School will be a panel discussion on aquaculture as the next moral frontier, scheduled for Tuesday evening.
Delegates can look forward to a champagne reception and a Gala Dinner on the penultimate evening of the Summer School. Throughout the event, there will be ample opportunities for delegates to socialize, discuss lectures, and workshops during meals and evening socials. The full program will conclude with discussions on "Taking sentience seriously: Zoos and domestic animals" and "How captive animals are vulnerable to zoonotic disease."
The speakers will discuss the ethical, legal, historical, economic, religious, ecological, and other implications of animal captivity in various contexts, including agriculture, fur farming, experimentation, aquaculture, fashion, breeding, trade, menageries, zoos, canned hunts, circuses, aquariums, and homes.
For more information on the speakers and their specific subjects for 2025, a programme link is usually provided, but this year, it can be found in the "link in bio" on Instagram. The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School promises to be an enlightening and thought-provoking event for anyone interested in animal welfare and ethics.
- Lifelong learning and education-and-self-development can be fostered by attending the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School, as it discusses various aspects of animal captivity and its ethical implications, featuring experts from diverse disciplines.
- The Summer School emphasizes the importance of continued learning (lifelong-learning) by addressing a range of topics related to animal captivity, such as economic justifications, octopus farming, aquaculture, and breeding, among others, while delving into strategies for reducing it legally, culturally, and politically.
