The Handbook of Practical Animal Ethics
General Editors: Andrew Linzey and Clair Linzey
The Handbook will be the first dedicated to practical animal ethics. It will (1) comprise essays principally written by leading academics from Europe and the US; (2) be progressive in orientation, addressing cutting edge issues; (3) be multidisciplinary in approach comprising historical, philosophical scientific, legal, anthropological, religious, psychological and sociological perspectives; (4) be the flagship volume of the Palgrave Macmillan Series on Animal Ethics, and (5) be a project of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and will draw upon the expertise of the 72 scholar Fellows associated with the Centre.
The primary market is for academics and students. There are now scores of emerging courses in animal law, animals and philosophy, animals in literature, animals and political theory, animal studies, and courses in animals and religion. While it is not designed as a course text, it will be important secondary or general reading for the growing number of people taking up these courses. Moreover, it will be an essential text for academics of a range of disciplines now researching the field. It will be a must for libraries wanting an authoritative work of reference.
There will be four Assistant Editors who will be in charge of each of the four sections (killing, suffering, captivity, and control). They will commission in consultation with the General Editors around 7 original essays for each section that best cover the practical issues. The choice of contributors will include, but not necessarily be limited to, Fellows of the Centre. The entire text will be around 200-250,000 words. There will be at least 28 essays of around 4-6,000 words, 4 sectional introductions and one (longish) general introduction, plus a bibliography. It may be that we need to add more essays under some of the sections to ensure adequate coverage, but we are confident that a manuscript of at least 200,000 words will emerge.
The work will take 18 months from signing of the contract, aiming for a completion date of January 2015. This will give contributors 6 months to do their pieces, 6 months for the editors to write their introductions, and a final 6 months for the general editors to mop up the final text for publication.
Section 1. The Ethics of Killing
This section will comprise seven or more essays that critically examine the justifications for killing in specific contexts and the effect that it may have on human subjects. It will encompass the ethics of killing sentients, including killing for food, for sport and recreation (hunting, shooting, angling, bullfighting, dogfighting, etc), euthanasia of companion animals, killing involved in animal testing, and killing (‘culling’) for conservation purposes.
Section 2. The Ethics of Causing Suffering
This section will comprise seven or more essays that address the issue of sentiency in animals, the putative justifications for causing suffering, and the effect that it may have on the human perpetrators. It will focus on suffering in food production, in sport and recreation, animal testing, including genetic manipulation and cloning.
Section 3. The Ethics of Captivity
This section will comprise seven or more essays which address the physiological and psychological harm done to free living and domestic animals through captivity, and examine the adequacy of the various moral justifications. Specifically, this section will comprise issues of captivity and confinement (including rearing, handling and transport) especially in zoos, safari parks, aquariums, food production, and to companion animals. (Ed: Thomas White – twhite@ethicsandbusiness.org)
Section 4. The Ethics of Control
This section will comprise seven or more essays that critically examine the prevalent ideologies of ownership and dominance that justify human control over animals. Both free living and companion animals will be included in this section, as well as animals used in food production, in sport and recreation, in international trade, animal testing, genetic manipulation and cloning.
