Join the Animal Ethics Volunteer Research Team

One of the main objectives of Animal Ethics is writing research reports and articles and making them available to the general public, activists, and people in the scientific and academic communities.

To date, we have published more than 150 articles about different issues related to why and how we should be concerned about the lives of sentient beings.

However, there is still much more work that needs to be done. In particular, while some issues have already been explored, others remain unknown to most people, including people such as animal advocates and influential people who may be concerned about the situation of animals.

This is particularly the case for animals living in the wild, as most people have little knowledge of their true situation, their suffering, and what can be done to help them. There appears to be little understanding of the situation of small animals, such as many invertebrates, and their capacity to feel. In fact, scant attention is given to arguments for considering sentience, instead of other criteria, as the basis for moral consideration.

Animal Ethics is working to make more knowledge available about these and other issues that are important to all sentient beings. This is a huge task, so your help can be invaluable. Many people, from different countries around the world, have been collaborating to make the publication of our materials possible. Perhaps you can help us too!

What you can help with

The different tasks you can collaborate on include:

• Preparing bibliographic lists
• Designing research projects
• Finding information
• Researching issues and writing papers and reports
• Reviewing the work others have done
• Proofreading and editing
• Translating
• Creating graphs and infographics
• Helping with math and statistics

Fields we research

The fields we work in include the following:

• The consideration of nonhuman animals according to ethical theories and the arguments against speciesism
• The interests animals have and why they are relevant
• The criteria indicating that a being is sentient and how the criteria can be applied to different animals
• The situation of animals in the wild and ways we can aid them
• The ways nonhuman animals are exploited by human beings today and how we can stop contributing to such exploitation
• Ways to improve and increase the impact of animal activism
• Ways we can foster changes in the situation of animals
• The best methods for long term transmission of new ideas in order to maximize our impact in the future

No particular technical skills are required to join our team. You can help by looking for information online or at your library about a specific topic. If you’re a researcher or a student, then it’s likely that there will be relevant applications of your field of study to the development of this work. Below is a list with some of the subjects you can help us to research depending on your training:

The science of ecology and other fields in biology such as biostatistics

• Learning how animals suffer and understanding the conditions of their lives in different ecosystems; learning how ecosystems can change in ways that can reduce or increase the suffering and large scale deaths of animals
• Considering how models of animal suffering in nature can be better designed

Neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and cognitive sciences in general

• Doing research to identify advances related to the basis of consciousness and the structures and functions for consciousness to be present
• Examining what is currently understood about what kinds of entities can have experiences that can be positive or negative

Ethology, entomology, veterinary science, and zoology

• Examining what the indicators of sentience are in animals, especially small invertebrates, and what the interests and preferences of these animals appear to be
• Increasing exposure to what the actual lives of animals are like, both those who are exploited and those who live in the wild

Philosophy

• Rebutting speciesism and defending impartiality towards all sentient beings
• Refining the arguments for intervening in favor of sentient nonhuman animals
• Examining what the fundamental aims should be to work for a better world

Sociology, anthropology, and psychology

• Examining how these social sciences can be applied to identify the best approaches for increasing public concern about sentient beings and how to make a difference for them
• Learning how biases and socially prevalent attitudes impede our proper understanding of issues crucially relevant to the situation of sentient beings

History

• Analyzing how attitudes towards nonhuman animals have varied in different contexts; analyzing how similar changes have taken place in other cases that are relevantly similar to the case of animals
• Explaining future trajectories that may affect different sentient beings

Communication and arts

• Determining the ways our message can be best presented and conveyed to make it more attractive to the public and to achieve changes for nonhuman animals

Law

• Explaining the situation of nonhuman animals in different legal systems, and how animals can be best legally defended in them
• Explaining how it may be possible to bring about legal changes for animals in different places

Politics

• Bringing the interests of all sentient beings, not only human beings or groups of human beings, into the political arena in different political systems

Mathematics

• Working with statistics and calculus relevant to several areas of research listed above

Other fields

It’s likely that if you work in a field that isn’t listed above, you will still have important contributions to make to our research for the sake of animals. Don’t hesitate to let us know what your ideas regarding this are!

In addition, there are other helpful tasks you can perform that will enable us to disseminate our research:

Languages

You can help by editing or proofreading texts written or translated by other people. If you’re fluent in more than one language, you can help us translate our research into other languages.

Design and infographics

People with abilities in graphic design, video editing, and infographics can help us to increase the impact of our research by improving the way it’s presented.

Please contact us to collaborate

When you join our research team, we’ll discuss areas of work considering your interests, skills, and time as well as our research agenda. Our aim is to maximize the impact of your work in a way that suits your availability.

Don’t worry that your work might not be of the required quality or sophistication. It’s likely that after you have done some research on a certain topic, you’ll discover that what you produce can indeed be useful to other people. In addition, bear in mind that you won’t work alone. Qualified people on our team will be helping you to complete your draft. At the end of the process, our editors ensure that our team produces work consistent with our standards of quality.

If you’re very busy and can only contribute a small amount of work on a specific issue, your help will still be much appreciated. Similarly, if you’re a student or have a job that only allows you to work at limited times during the year, you can just let us know when you have some spare time, and we can determine what kind of research you can do during the times you’re free.

If you can’t join our team as an active member, there are other ways you can help:

• Support our work by making a tax-deductible donation to Animal Ethics
• Help us to increase the impact of our research by sharing it on social media and other platforms
• Let other people who may want to help us know about this and encourage them to be part of it
• Volunteer with Animal Ethics in other ways

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!