Animal Ethics virtual events in 2020
This year we are carrying out many online events as a substitution for canceled live events. We had extensive plans for 2020 in terms of events to spread information, especially in universities, all around the world. We managed to do some events very early this year in places like India and Spain. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, we had to cancel most of our activities, and have decided to do them online when possible and have added other events.
In line with this, we are hosting a series of online interviews with people who have made important contributions to the defense of animals, including both academics and people involved in advocacy. Some examples are Steve Sapontzis, Jo-Anne McArthur, Siobhan O’Sullivan, and Mark Bernstein.
Our activists in India are also presenting online webinars for Indian attendees to introduce audiences to the concepts of antispeciesism and wild animal suffering. These webinars are meant to complement the series of university talks we were giving in India before the pandemic, and to partially substitute for the canceled events.
In addition, we have been presenting similar webinars in Portuguese as a substitute for the seminars we were going to carry out at universities in Brazil. We have presented an introduction to the debate on the moral consideration of animals and on the work of Animal Ethics. We have also carried out two other webinars explaining in detail the question of wild animal suffering and our obligations towards animals living in the wild. Our representatives have been also present in other online events, such as the 1st International Online Conference on Animal Law.
In addition to this, we will be presenting a two-month course beginning in July for the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, addressing issues such as the arguments for the moral consideration of sentient beings, the harm of death and the magnitude of the harm of death, and wild animal suffering.
The present situation has driven some of our international supporters, who in some cases organize events for us in different countries, to do more work focused on having our texts available in different languages. As a result of this, soon we will be announcing the publication of our website in new languages in addition to the eight it is already available in.
Despite the online events we are doing, the present situation has been detrimental to Animal Ethics. Our canceled events included talks and seminars in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and India. We will try to compensate for this with further events over the next several months. We also must ask you for your support to help us continue with our work for animals.