Animal Ethics Study Group
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The Animal Ethics study group at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics meets several times a semester over a vegan lunch (or via Zoom) for a presentation and lively discussion about a current issue in animal ethics. Our presenters come from diverse fields including law, conservation biology, anthropology, history, veterinary medicine, agricultural research, psychology, philosophy, and genomic/genetic research science. Often, the presenters bring works in progress or new publications to share with us. Participants are equally as diverse and come from both the Yale community and beyond, with many coming from other professional fields.
We share a common interest in learning about the factual underpinnings of contemporary animal issues directly from scholars in the fields. The group’s diversity adds to the richness of the discussions and captures divergent points of view in civil, but enthusiastic debates. The study group sponsors two events: a lunch time seminar and a public lecture series around related animal ethics issues. If you are interested in more in-depth studies of animal ethics, the Summer Institute in Bioethics often offers a 3-week intensive seminar on Animal Ethics & One Health as part of our summer program.
Chair
Lisa Moses, VMD, DACVIM, Faculty, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
Contact Us
For more information or to be placed on the email list for upcoming study group meetings, email lisa.moses@yale.edu.
Seeking more structured programming within animal ethics?
Learn more about our virtual animal ethics programs.
2025-2026 Lecture Series
Please join us for these Zoom-based lectures, open to the public. Email lisa.moses@yale.edu to register.
October 15, 2025 at 12 noon ET, on Zoom: Larry Carbone, DVM, PhD
”What’s sentience got to do with it? The conflicted place of sentience in lab animal welfare policy”
Sentience is often the necessary entry ticket for animals’ moral and legal protections, heralding legal protections for lobsters, fish and others. In this session, I review the challenges of assigning a hierarchy of sentience to animals, and the many cases in which other considerations, from cuteness to intelligence to evolution, override sentience, favoring certain animals over equally sentient others.
Larry Carbone is a veterinarian with a lifetime career focus on welfare protections for animals in laboratories. He is a product of Cornell University, in evolutionary biology (BA), veterinary medicine (DVM) and history of science/veterinary ethics (MA; PhD). He is a diplomate in two veterinary specialties: the American College of Animal Welfare and the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. He has practiced laboratory animal medicine at Cornell University and at the University of California San Francisco, where he established the campus Animal Welfare Assurance Program. He has retired from veterinary practice and now lives in Valencia, Spain.
November 14, 2025 at 12 noon ET, on Zoom: Christina Warner, Barrister, London, UK
Ruby’s Law: Protecting Animals in the Context of Domestic Abuse
This talk will explore the intersection of family law, domestic abuse, and animal welfare, drawing on the pioneering Ruby’s Law campaign. The campaign seeks legislative reform in the family courts to ensure pets are legally recognised as victims in domestic abuse cases, strengthening protective measures for both humans and animals. The research, advocacy, and legal strategies underpinning the campaign, as well as its broader implications for safeguarding vulnerable families will be discussed.
Christina Warner is an award-winning barrister and human rights & animal protection specialist. Her practice focuses on domestic abuse and child protection, with a particular interest in cases involving the intersection of family law and animal welfare. She is the founder of Ruby’s Law (2025), a pioneering campaign advocating for reforms to explicitly protect pets in domestic abuse proceedings and ensure their interests are meaningfully represented in the courts.
Friday, December 5 at 12 noon ET on Zoom: Emma A. Gjerdseth, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Yale School of the Environment
Crush and Burn: How the destruction of ivory fails to save elephants
Elephant populations have declined by half since 1979. In response, activists have promoted destroying confiscated and stockpiled ivory to “send a message” to reduce elephant poaching and ivory demand. As a result, more than 280 tons of ivory has been destroyed between 1989 and 2017. This is the first paper to estimate the causal effect of the amount and location of these destructions on the elephant poaching rate across African and Asian countries with elephants. I use data from CITES’ Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants program from 2003 to 2019, paired with information on ivory destruction events. The main result is that the destruction of ivory does not reduce poaching rates. On the contrary, in African countries with elephants, ivory destructions increase poaching rates, with negative spillover effects from in-country events on the rest of the continent. This suggests the negative supply shock from the destructions dominate and incentivize poaching by increasing the (illicit) ivory price
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X24002365
Bio: I’m a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Yale School of the Environment, where I work on projects related to the valuation of natural capital and environmental services. I’m an environmental economist doing research related to environmental policy, wildlife and ecosystem conservation, and economic development, combining quantitative methods in policy evaluation and ecosystem service valuation. I hold a PhD in Applied Economics from Oregon State University and a Masters in Agriculture and Resource Economics from University of California, Davis.
Wednesday, Jan 14 at 12 noon ET on Zoom: Jane Hallam, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Yale School of the Environment
Non-Invasive Molecular Methods for Studying Wildlife
Advances in molecular ecology are transforming how we study and protect animals. Using environmental DNA (eDNA) and related techniques, my research explores how we can detect species, diets, and parasites from water, air, soil and scat to reveal hidden biodiversity and ecological interactions- without capturing or disturbing wildlife.
Jane Hallam is a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale School of the Environment, and uses eDNA and other molecular tools to study wildlife ecology and biodiversity across a range of ecosystems. Following a previous career in animal husbandry—as an aquarist and zoo keeper—her research is now animal welfare–driven, focused on developing non-invasive approaches to biomonitoring that inform management and conservation science.
Thursday, April 16th at 12 noon ET on Zoom
Dog owners’ use of training methods and their ethical stance on the treatment of animals
Weber, Tracy, Thomas Bøker Lund, Björn Forkman, Kevin McPeake, Iben Meyer, and Peter Sandøe. 2026. “Dog Owners’ Use of Training Methods and Their Ethical Stance on the Treatment of Animals.” Anthrozoös 39 (1): 41–64. Doi:10.1080/08927936.2025.2597086.
Why do dog owners choose specific animal training methods, including aversive methods such as prong and shock collars? It may have little to do with the training’s effectiveness. This study demonstrates that owners’ ethical belief systems also play a role.
To discuss their paper, we will be joined by Tracy Weber and Peter Sandøe
Tracy Weber earned a Master of Science (with distinction) in Clinical Animal Behavior from the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. She owns and operates Peaceful Pups Dog Training in Seattle, WA, (https://www.peacefulpups.net/) and specializes in rehabilitating dogs with challenging issues, such as fear and aggression.
Peter Sandøe was originally trained as a philosopher at the University of Copenhagen and at Oxford University. He has been professor of bioethics at the University of Copenhagen since 1997, presently with his chair divided between the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Department of Food and Resource Economics. Since 2020 he has been director of the Centre for Companion Animal Welfare. He is committed to interdisciplinary work combining perspectives from natural science, social science, and philosophy. Besides co-authoring more than 230 papers in international journals with peer review and around 450 other academic papers, covering a wide range of issues, but with a majority relating to different forms of animal use, he has written several books. These include Ethics of Animal Use (2008, co-authored with Stine B. Christiansen), Companion Animal Ethics (2015, co-authored with Clare Palmer, and Sandra Corr), and Wildlife Ethics (2023, co-authored with Clare Palmer, Bob Fischer, Christian Gamborg, and Jordan Hampton), all published by Wiley-Blackwell. For more information about his research in the field of animal ethics, animal welfare, human-animal relations, and veterinary ethics, see www.animalethics.net. Peter is also an active participant in public outreach and debates, both nationally and internationally.