Animal Protection in Switzerland: History and Ethical Underpinnings
« Animals outnumber humans in Switzerland. How should we organize our coexistence? In his talk, ethicist and activist Nico Müller (University of Basel) explains how animal rights philosophy answers this question. At its core, the animal rights movement makes a political demand: Animals should be protected from human violence by means of legal rights. This challenges a status quo where violence against animals, though rarely visible, is more abundant than ever. Think confinement, mutilation, separation, and slaughter. In the eyes of animal rights advocates, traditional animal welfare legislation only micromanages this violence, but does almost nothing to curtail it. The struggle for effective protection for animals however faces strategic challenges. How do you fight for the rights of someone who cannot speak up for themselves? How do you draw attention to violence and suffering that is continuously normalized and made invisible? And how do you translate utopian visions of an animal-friendly Switzerland into realistic political action?
About the speaker:
Dr. des. Nico Müller is a postdoc researcher in ethics (University of Basel) and president of the NGO Animal Rights Switzerland. He studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Zurich before conducting a PhD project on animal ethics at the University of Basel. »
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Un événement organisé par Student Sustainability Commission ETH Zurich – SSC