Discussion Forum 2024: Animal welfare, ethics and rights

Animal welfare broadly refers to the feelings and physical well-being of an individual animal; its study is an objective scientific discipline. It is often misused and confused with other concepts such as ethics, which refers to decision-making processes about what is morally right or wrong, and animal rights, which are moral or legal entitlements that animals either have or ought to have. This session will explore what these concepts mean, from a scientific and legal point of view, how they overlap and interact with each other, do rights necessarily imply better animal welfare and whether the veterinary and welfare community should be advocating for animal rights. This discussion will lay the groundwork for all our following sessions, putting into perspective the complexities and challenges of safeguarding and improving animal welfare in the UK. This session was sponsored by Vet Partners