LOJA10281U Animals in Society

This course focuses on the role of animals in society. Today’s society has a complex relation to animals – animals are not ‘just out there in Nature’. Animals are used in production to the benefit of man to produce food, serve as research animals in the medical sector, etc. Moreover, animals are used in nature preservation, as companion animals and in competitive sports, but they also serve as prey for anglers and hunters. For these relations between humans/society and animals, economic and legal aspects are often important - just as uses may cause conflicts over how or indeed if we should use animals and thus highlight how different stakeholders represent different interests. It is within this field, the course will explore three aspects of the human and societal relation to animals:

Animals and society.
This element concerns the non-economic aspects of the use of animals. Departing in salient issues where conflicts over the use of animals can be observed, this element discusses how different societal stakeholders (including e.g. farmers, consumers, citizens, vegans, vivisectionists, etc) view and legitimize the use of animals for different purposes - and the values these different perspectives represent. Thus this element provides a conceptual tool to be used in studies of disagreements over animal uses, and provides insight in the importance of different cultural, religious, historical background.

Economic role of animals for society.
This element introduces economic aspects of animal welfare. The point of departure is a discussion of how the keeping of animals - and the level of welfare these animals experience - can be analysed in a utility maximizing and/or profit maximizing framework. The costs and benefits of animal welfare are discussed taking the position of different stakeholders. Economic efficiency and necessary trade offs in relation to animal welfare are discussed. This leads to a presentation of the economic arguments for regulating animal welfare using the concept of market failure. In particular, the differences between cost benefit analyses and cost efficiency analyses are highlighted.

Regulation of animal use.
This element focus on the regulatory aspects of keeping and use of animals focusing on different regulatory levels (international, EU and national) and different regulatory instruments. A range of instruments (law, economic incentives, moral incentives, information) are introduced, and pros and cons of each type of regulatory instruments are discussed.