Education for Animal Welfare

This book deals with the role of education in improving animal welfare and reducing animal suffering inflicted by humans. It embraces situations in which humans have direct control over animals orinterfere directly with them, but it considers also indirect animal suffering resulting from human activities. Education is regarded in the broad sense of creating awareness and facilitating change. First, consideration is given to a number of specific themes in which education can make an important contribution towards reducing animal suffering, and subsequently an examination is made of a number of interrelated contexts in which education can address the various themes.The considered educational themes are animal suffering and sentience that have both scientific and moral aspects, the issue of human discrimination against animals known as speciesism and the need for attitudinal change by humans, the role and existing limitations of legislation in providing protection toAnimals, the matter of enforcement of animal protection legislation, the achievement of reform to improve animal protection by legislative and other means, the training of professionals, careers, and users involved with animals to provide better protection, the scope for science to contribute to improved animal protection, and animal protection as a regional and international issue.