Workshop: Animals, Compassion and Conservation 7.-9.2.2023 | Environmental Sciences and Humanities

Workshop: Animals, Compassion and Conservation

Ethics and Scientific Methods Relating to Wild Animals, Their Welfare and Conservation

The Environmental Sciences and Humanities Institute at the University of Fribourg (UniFR_ESH) is happy to announce the workshop “Animals, Compassion and Conservation: Ethics and Scientific Methods Relating to Wild Animals, Their Welfare and Conservation”. The event will be held online on the 7^th-9^th of February 2023. For registration, see below.

This workshop will bring together those looking at wild animals with an interest in conservation and animal welfare in order to discuss how their interests should be included in conservation, and how we can care for wild animals in general. The event will be divided into three sections; first, on animal welfare in conservation practice; second, on arguments for and against compassionate conservation, and third, on ethical perspectives on what we owe to wild animals.

At this workshop we aim to tackle the following questions:

What are the goals of conservation practice? How does animal welfare fit into them?
How can conservation, in practice, do more to promote animal welfare?
What implications does the natural suffering of wild animals have for environmental management?
What are the goals of welfare biology, and how can it be developed?

Keywords: compassionate conservation, environmental ethics, animal welfare, conservation science, welfare biology.

Target group: Those working in conservation science, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and animal welfare science/welfare biology.

Times: Please note that each day of the workshop will take place between 8am and 12pm Central European Time. This is to make it possible to have speakers from different time zones, but please check that this works for you.

Confirmed speakers: Prof. Ngaio Beausoleil (Massey University, NZ); Dr. Adam Cardilini (Deakin University, Australia); Asher Soryl (University of Otago, NZ)

Agenda

Day 1, 07.02.

Animal welfare in the wild

Time	Item	Speaker
8.00-8.15	Welcome to Session 1	Prof. Ivo Wallimann-Helmer University of Fribourg, Switzerland
8.15-9.00	Plenary talk: Can conservation welfare be compassionate?	Prof. Ngaio Beausoleil Massey University, New Zealand
9.00-9.25	Using expert opinion to understand how we can integrate welfare and conservation to ensure evidence-based management at cetacean stranding events	Dr. Rebecca Boys Massey University, New Zealand
9.25-9.35	Coffee break
9.35-10.00	Animal welfare in conservation translocations: what do stakeholders think?	Karmel Ritson Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
10.00-10.25	Conservation vs. wild-animal suffering: how can population dynamics help?	Dr. Nicolas Salliou ETH Zürich, Switzerland
10:25-10:35	Coffee break
10.35-11:00	The welfare of wild animals	Dr. Vittoria Elliott and Dr. Anne Clay Wild Animal Initiative, USA
11.00-11:30	Panel discussion with all speakers in Session 1

Day 2, 08.02.

Compassionate conservation

Time	Item	Speaker
8.00-8.15	Welcome to Session 2	Dr. Miriam Zemanova University of Fribourg, Switzerland
8.15-9.00	Plenary talk: Compassionate conservation: doing more good for animals and the environment	Dr. Adam Cardilini Deakin University, Australia
9.00-9.25	Is conservation behaviour a problematic distraction?	Dr. Jane Johnson Macquarie University, Australia
9.25-9.35	Coffee break
9.35-10.00	Non-lethal deer management in a rewilding context in the Highlands of Scotland	Emilia Leese Birchfield Highlands Forest Rewilding and Natural Capital Laboratory, UK
10.00-10.25	Saving animals? The tension between the legal duty to care and the laissez-faire intuition	Veerle Platvoet University of Helsinki, Finland
10:25-10:35	Coffee break
10.35-11:00	Science, values, and democracy in conservation science	Prof. Soazig Le Bihan University of Montana, USA
11.00-11:30	Panel discussion with all speakers in Session 2

Day 3, 09.02.

Ethical theories on how to relate to wild animals

Time	Item	Speaker
8.00-8.15	Welcome to Session 3	Tristan Katz University of Fribourg, Switzerland
8.15-9.00	Plenary talk: The ethics of pest control: balancing animal welfare, conservation, and indigenous values	Asher Soryl University of Otago, New Zealand
9.00-9.25	Wild animal suffering and genetic engineering – an ethical assessment	Dr. Leonie Bossert University of Tübingen, Germany
9.25-9.35	Coffee break
9.35-10.00	Animal population ethics and prioritizations in conservation	Prof. Oscar Horta University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
10.00-10.25	Counting positive wild animal welfare	Dr. Heather Browning and Dr. Walter Veit University of Southampton, UK University of Bristol, UK
10:25-10:35	Coffee break
10.35-11:00	Non-consequentialist arguments in defence of assisting wild animals	Diego Exposito University of Sheffield, UK
11.00-11:30	Panel discussion with all speakers in Session 3
11:30- 11:45	Wrap-up and conclusions	Dr. Miriam Zemanova Tristan Katz University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Call for contributions

We invite researchers and practitioners working in the field of animal welfare, species conservation, and/or animal or environmental ethics to propose contributions to this workshop by submitting an approximately 200-word abstract. Contributions should be approximately 15 minutes long and will be followed by time for discussion. The deadline for submission was 31. December 2022.

Organizers

Dr. Miriam A. Zemanova, UniFR_ESH
Tristan Katz, UniFR_ESH

Contact

If you have any, please email miriam.zemanova@unifr.ch or tristan.katz@unifr.ch.

Registration

Please fill in the form below. A certificate of attendance can be provided upon request.

7.-9. February 2023

ONLINE

Registration open! See below.