TIR speaks again at the Animal Ethics Summer School in Oxford
Around 180 participants from all over the world gathered in August at the Summer School of the Centre for Animal Ethics in Oxford. The multi-day event focused on ‘The Ethics of Captivity’. The Foundation for the Animal in the Law (TIR) was represented at the conference by a small delegation and gave a presentation on ‘Animal modifications to captive conditions’.
September 6, 2025
From 4 to 7 August 2025, Merton College at Oxford University hosted the tenth international summer school of the Centre for Animal Ethics. The renowned Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics founded in 2006 by theology professor Andrew Linzey, is an independent institute dedicated to promoting the ethical status and practical protection of animals through academic study and public debate. The Oxford Centre has over a hundred fellows from about twenty countries worldwide who conduct research in the natural sciences or humanities and have made outstanding contributions to the field of animal ethics. The Oxford Centre also publishes the Journal of Animal Ethics (JAE) and its own animal ethics series in collaboration with various partners. TIR has maintained close and very friendly contact with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics for many years, and its managing director, Dr Gieri Bolliger, has also been a Fellow of the Centre since 2020 (see TIR-News of 7 December 2020).
At this year's Summer School, around 180 experts from the fields of theology, animal ethics, animal rights, psychology and other areas discussed a wide range of aspects of the conference theme ‘The Ethics of Captivity’ in over 70 presentations. The full programme can be found here.
The Foundation for Animals in Law (TIR) was also represented at the event with a highly acclaimed specialist presentation. In her talk ‘Animal modifications to captive conditions’, our librarian and bookbinder Moena Zeller explored the growing tendency in the animal industry to tailor animals to specific husbandry requirements at the expense of their natural needs. This highly problematic tendency is evident in the legal regulations governing the keeping of domestic, farm and wild animals alike.
TIR was represented at the Summer School in Oxford by an interdisciplinary delegation of four. In addition to Moena Zeller, Alexandra Spring, Gabriela Gschwend and Managing Director Dr Gieri Bolliger also attended the conference on behalf of TIR. We would like to thank the organisers, in particular Prof. Andrew Linzey, Dr Clair Linzey and their fantastic team for once again running the entire event to perfection, and we are already looking forward to the Animal Ethics Summer School 2026, which will be entitled ‘Companion Animals’. Further impressions from last year's Animal Ethics Summer Schools can be found here.
