Companion Animal Ethics

Companion Animal Ethics explores important ethical questions and problems that arise when humans keep animals as companions. This context raises unique questions, because unlike most forms of animal use, we can be so close to the animals that we mistake our needs for theirs.

The authors draw on a wide range of disciplines including history, psychology, ethical and political theory, and the veterinary, behavioural and social sciences to underpin their arguments. In addition, international experts are involved in co–authoring specific chapters to ensure that the book is supported by the latest scientific findings.

Provocative and timely, Companion Animal Ethics offers illuminating insights into the ethical responsibilities and dilemmas raised by keeping animals as companions. It is important reading for those studying and practicing animal science and veterinary medicine, those working in animal ethics and welfare, and is of interest to anyone who lives with an animal companion.

Published as a part of the prestigious Wiley Blackwell UFAW Animal Welfare series.  UFAW, founded in 1926, is an internationally recognized, independent, scientific and educational animal welfare charity.

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1. History of Companion Animals and the Companion Animal Sector

Chapter 2. The development and role of the veterinary and other professions in relation to companion animals

Chapter 3. Human Attachment to Companion Animals

Chapter 4. Companion Animal Welfare

Chapter 5. Theories of Companion Animal Ethics

Chapter 6. Breeding and Acquiring Companion Animals

Chapter 7. Selective breeding

Chapter 8: Feeding – and the Problem of Obesity

Chapter 9. Companion Animal Training and Behavioural Problems

Chapter 10. Routine Neutering of Companion Animals

Chapter 11. Performing convenience surgery: tail docking, ear cropping, debarking and declawing

Chapter 12. Treating ill animals, and end–of–life issues

Chapter 13. Unwanted and unowned companion animals

Chapter 14. Ethics and Broader Impacts of Companion Animals

Chapter 15. Other Companions

Chapter 16. Companion animals and the future

Peter Sandøe is Professor of Bioethics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he has been teaching animal ethics to veterinary and animal science students for nearly two decades. He is co–author of Ethics of Animal Use (Wiley Blackwell, 2008) and co–editor of Dilemmas in Animal Welfare (CABI, 2014).

Sandra Corr is Clinical Reader in Small Animal Surgery, at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, UK. She is a European Specialist in Small Animal Surgery, who spends her time teaching veterinary students, and working in referral practice. She has published widely in veterinary and comparative journals.

Clare Palmer is Professor of Philosophy at Texas A & M University, USA. She is the author of Animal Ethics in Context (Columbia University Press, 2010), the editor of Animal Rights in the Ashgate International Library of Essays on Rights (2008) and co–editor of Killing Animals  (Illinois University Press 2006).