Further information

For more information, consult the following articles on the RSPCA Knowledgebase:

• RSPCA Australia purpose, vision, values, principles and objectives
• RSPCA Australia animals charter
• What is good animal welfare?
• Are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hunters exempt from animal cruelty laws? 
• What is animal sentience and why is it important?
• At what stage of development do animals become sentient?
• Position Paper GP1 - Animal Welfare Legislation
• What are the welfare issues with animals used in research? 
• How is animal research regulated in Australia? 
• What is the Animal Research Openness Agreement and why is it important? 
• How many animals are used in research in Australia? 
• What are the 3Rs in animal research? 
• What is the RSPCA’s view of the use of animals in research? 
• Why are animals used in research? 
• How can I avoid animal testing in the products I purchase? 
• What happens to bobby calves? 
• Why are calves separated from their mother in the dairy industry? 
• How do young calves cope with transport? 
• Position Paper B1 - Welfare of bobby calves destined for slaughter 
• Do octopi and lobsters feel pain? 
• Are squid and octopi protected by animal welfare legislation? 
• Are crustaceans protected by animal welfare legislation? 
• What is the most humane way to kill crustaceans for human consumption? 
• What can be done to improve the welfare of fish and shellfish in restaurant aquaria? 
• Can enclosed yabby traps harm animals and are they legal to use? 
• Is intensive aquaculture similar to intensive land-based livestock production? 
• Do fish feel pain? 
• How can habitat loss affect animal welfare? 
• What is humane vertebrate pest control? 
• How can you measure the humaneness of a pest animal control method? 
• How can pest animal control programs be made more humane? 
• A national approach towards humane vertebrate pest control 
• Is there a need to kill kangaroos or wallabies? 
• What is the RSPCA’s view on killing sharks to reduce shark incidents? 
• How would a national identification registry help improve horse welfare? 
• What are the animal welfare issues with Thoroughbred horse racing? 
• What are the animal welfare issues associated with horse jumps racing? 
• What are the animal welfare issues with greyhound racing? 
• Why does the RSPCA oppose the export of racing greyhounds? 
• What do I need to consider before adopting an ex-racing greyhound? 
• Information Paper - National Horse Identification and Traceability 
• The most important participant. A framework for Thoroughbred Welfare
• Epidemiology of horses leaving the racing and breeding industries
  
• What is Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS)? 
• What do I need to know about Brachycephalic dogs? 
• What are the welfare issues associated with narrowed nostrils in dogs (stenotic nares)? 
• What is Brachycephalic Ocular Syndrome? 
• What are the welfare risks associated with difficulty giving birth in brachycephalic dogs? 
• How can owners of dogs with exaggerated physical features help their pets? 
• What can breeders do to avoid exaggerated physical features that compromise dog welfare? 
• Position Paper A5 - Responsible companion animal breeding 
• GP - General Policies 
• A - Companion Animals
• B - Farm Animals
• C - Animals in Sport, Entertainment, Performance, Recreation and Work
• D - Animals in Research and Teaching
• E - Wild Animals 

Further reading

• Fraser D (2012). A “practical” ethic for animals. J Agric & Environ Ethics 25:721–746 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-011-9353-z

• Fraser D (2008). Understanding animal welfare. Acta Vet Scand 50(S1) https://doi.org/10.1186/1751-0147-50-S1-S1

• Dean T (2022) Can you be too moral? TEDxSydney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7XWBmXWT0

• Dean T (2014) Evolution and moral ecology. PhD thesis, UNSW https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/17194

• Bennett B, Archer-Lean C (2023) Understanding camp dogs: the relationship between Aboriginal culture and western welfare. AlterNative: Int J Indig Peoples 19(2):293-302 https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231167671

• Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities. https://www.amrric.org/
  

• Kotzmann J (2023) Sentience and intrinsic worth as a pluralist foundation for fundamental animal rights. Oxford J Legal Stud 43(2):405–428  https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqad003

• Kotzmann J (2020) Recognising the sentience of animals in law: A justification and framework for Australian states and territories. Syd Law Rev 42(3):281-310. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.537561239425522

• Animalethics, Faculty of Health and Medical Science, University of Copenhagen https://animalethics.ku.dk

• Lund TB, Kondrup SV, Sandøe P (2019) A multidimensional measure of animal ethics orientation – Developed and applied to a representative sample of the Danish public. PLoS ONE 14(2):e0211656 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211656

• Lund TB, Denver S, Nordström J, Christensen T, Sandøe P (2021) Moral convictions and meat consumption—A comparative study of the animal ethics orientations of consumers of pork in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. Animals 11(2):329 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020329

• Hansen LA, Kosberg KA (2019) Ethics, efficacy, and decision-making in animal research. Chapter 11 in Hermann K and Jayne K (eds) Animal experimentation: Working towards a paradigm change. Brill, Leiden and Boston https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/38145/9789004391192_webready_content_text.%20pdf?sequence=1#page=314

• Hansen LA (2013) Institution animal care and use committees need greater ethical diversity. J Med Ethics 39:188-190 https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2012-100982

• Bolton SE, von Keyserlingk MAG (2021) The dispensable surplus dairy calf: Is this issue a “Wicked problem” and where do we go from here. Front Vet Sci 8:660934 https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.660934

• Bolton SE, Vandresen B, von Keyserlingk MAG (2024) The advice? Think bigger: Community perspectives on dairy farming, including surplus calves an Australian focus group study. J Dairy Sci 108(2):1855-1868 https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-25424

• Wahltinez SJ, Stacy NI, Hadfield CA, Harms CA, Lewbart GA, Newton AL, Nunamaker EA (2022) Perspective: Opportunities for advancing aquatic invertebrate welfare. Front Vet Sci 9:973376 https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.973376

• Coghlan S, Cardilini A (2024) The use and abuse of moral theories in conservation debate about killing animals. Conservat Biol 38:e14280 e14280 https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14280  

• Kopnina H, Coghlan S (2022) Invasion biology and its discontents: Human supremacy, language, and animal treatment. Visions Sustainab 18 https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/6512

• McManus P (2022) Animal-based entertainment industries, animal death and Social Licence to Operate: an analysis of ‘The final race’ and the 2019 Melbourne cup. Social & Cultur Geograph 24(7):1242-1261 https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2053194

• Stallones L, McManus P, McGreevy P (2023) Sustainability and the thoroughbred breeding and racing industries: An enhanced one welfare perspective. Animals 13(3):490 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13030490

• Packer RMA, Wade A, Neufuss J (2024) Nothing could put me off: Assessing the prevalence and risk factors for perceptual barriers to improving the welfare of brachycephalic dogs. Pets 1(3):458-484 https://doi.org/10.3390/pets1030032

• Packer RMA, O’Neill DG, Fletcher F, Farnworth MJ (2019) Great expectations, inconvenient truths, and the paradoxes of the dog-owner relationship for owners of brachycephalic dogs. PLoS ONE 14(7):e0219918 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219918

Links to other resources

• Animalethics, Faculty of Health and Medical Science, University of Copenhagen
• Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities
• Love is Blind 

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