World Day for the End of Speciesism in 2024 is a crucial moment for reflection on how we treat and value all sentient beings.
At Animal Ethics, we envision a world where moral consideration extends beyond species boundaries. Speciesism — the unjustified discrimination against individuals based on their species — continues to be a pervasive form of discrimination that affects massive numbers of sentient beings daily. This will continue, and possibly expand, in the future if we don’t address it now by changing the way we think and act toward other sentient beings. This is important for us not just as individuals but also at the level of societies and institutions.
This year, we’re highlighting three key areas where challenging speciesism can make a significant impact:
1. Wild Animal Suffering: Animals in nature experience immense suffering due to disease, starvation, and weather conditions. We’re working to learn more about interventions to alleviate this suffering.
2. Longtermism: Our decisions today shape the future for all sentient beings. We’re advocating for policies and research that consider the long-term welfare of all species, but most importantly, we want to see stable attitude change so that people now and in the future value the wellbeing of all sentient beings. This will lead to better decisions in all aspects of life that affect the wellbeing of others.
3. Opposing Invertebrate Farming: As invertebrate farming expands, quadrillions of potentially sentient beings are at risk every year. Opposing the spread of these practices is crucial before they become large and entrenched industries like the factory farming of land animals. In some cases, we have the opportunity to prevent invertebrate farms before they start. This is already happening with octopus farming. One state in the USA has already banned it, and there’s a bill to ban it nationwide.
This World Day for the End of Speciesism, we invite you to join us in reimagining a world where all sentient beings are valued. Together, we can build a fairer world.
Learn more about in our Introduction to wild animal suffering video course.