The Ethics of Animal Shelters (OUP, 2023), online book launch!

On June 28th 2023, 10 am–1 pm (EDT), we celebrated the publication of The Ethics of Animal Shelters (2023, OUP), edited by Valéry Giroux (Centre for Research in Ethics), Angie Pepper (University of Roehampton), and Kristin Voigt (McGill University).

This edited volume addresses some of the many ethical challenges facing those who work tirelessly rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming animals in need. The book, which is the outcome of a collaboration between a group of ethicists from the Centre de recherche en éthique (CRÉ) and the Groupe de recherche en éthique environnementale et animale (GRÉEA), and the Montreal SPCA, offers practical recommendations to those managing and working in animal shelters and examines the philosophical underpinnings of those recommendations. Topics covered include adoption policy, euthanasia and non-euthanasia killing, medical decision-making, shelter animal diets, and shelters’ role in transforming social norms and attitudes. The volume’s contributors include Frédéric Côté-Boudreau, Nicolas Delon, Élise Desaulniers, Valéry Giroux, Sue Donaldson, François Jaquet, Will Kymlicka, Angela Martin,  Angie Pepper, Agnes Tam, and Kristin Voigt.

The launch event involved a brief introduction to the project and the book by the volume editors and Director of Animal Advocacy and Legal and Government Affairs at the Montreal SPCA, Me Sophie Gaillard. This was followed by a series of critical reflections presented by Lori Gruen (Wesleyan University), Karen Heistand (Royal Veterinary College), and Jessica du Toit (Western University), and responses by the volume contributors. The event concluded with a general Q & A session.