International court proposed to tackle animal cruelty
Oxford ethicist suggests collaborative effort to prevent animal cruelty worldwide
An ethicist from Oxford has proposed an approach for tackling animal cruelty on a global scale. Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, suggests that humanitarian organisations worldwide could collaborate in setting up an international court to judge cases of animal cruelty, and assess the culpability of governments.
The call is made in Professor Linzey’s introduction to The Global Guide to Animal Protection, which was published today by the University of Illinois Press. The guide is a collaboration between the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, a world-wide association of academics from all disciplines, and the University of Illinois Press. It aims to raise awareness of human indifference and cruelty toward animals and contains more than 180 introductory articles surveying the extent of worldwide human exploitation of animals from a range of perspectives.
Linzey said: “Individuals and groups should be able to bring cases before the court where governments have failed to take reasonable steps to prevent systematic and widespread occurrence of cruelty to animals. The court would consist of eminent humanitarians drawn from the legal and veterinary professions, together with ethicists, philosophers, theologians, and those accomplished in anti-cruelty work worldwide.”
In the guide, Linzey suggests that previous approaches have neglected to recognise that animal protection is a matter of global concern, and that international strategies are required to tackle what are global problems. He proposes a register to name and shame government and industries found guilty, or who fail to participate in hearings.
The Global Guide to Animal Protection was published in both the UK and USA on December 30 and is available here.
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