Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 24 May
12:45 PM - 1:15 PM
While it may be true that nature is red in tooth and claw, it seems that for animals subject to human law – rather than the law of nature – life is much more like a lottery. For an animal, where you are born, and why you were bred, is critically important. This is because animal welfare laws in Australia and around the world are inconsistent. If a rabbit is bought as a family pet and then sold to a fur farm, the law will protect the same rabbit very differently. In this presentation political scientist Dr. Siobhan O’Sullivan outlines inconsistencies in Australia’s animal protection laws and explains why for animals it is critically important to be born good looking, popular, and highly visible to the community.
Featuring
Siobhan O'Sullivan
Dr. Siobhan O’Sullivan is a research fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She specialises in animal protection issues including the structure and functionality of animal welfare laws.
Dr. O’Sullivan has published widely on animal issues, including articles in Environmental Politics and Environmental Values.
She is a member of the Knowing Animals Past and Present research team at the University of Melbourne. The team conducts interdisciplinary research into animal issues and hosts a monthly reading group.
Animals, Equality and Democracy is Dr. O’Sullivan’s first book. It describes inconsistencies in animal welfare laws and explores the relationship between the community seeing animal suffering and opposing it. She argues that the way we construct animal welfare laws is not consistent with liberal democratic values.
Siobhan O’Sullivan is a member of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.