Anthropology lecturer Shelly Volsche received a grant for “Recognizing and Honoring Individuals in Animal Research” from the Culture and Animals Foundation (CAF), in collaboration with scholars Alexandra Horowitz, Anna Korzeniowska, and Holly Root-Gutteridge. This grant of $4500 will further the group’s research “to fulfill the need for awareness of how animals have been and are used in research, and to provide means to foreground and discuss this work.”
“We believe that ethics has a role not only in research, but also in citation, discussion, and critical evaluation of the results of research — involving non human or human subjects,” Volsche said. “This is especially urgent in animal behavior and welfare research. The considerable evidence that has accrued regarding the emotional and cognitive sentience of nonhuman animals demands that we no longer ignore their often-involuntary roles in our pursuit of knowledge and discovery. Now is the time to challenge existing norms and insist upon the acknowledgment of animals as participants, not tools, in the research endeavor.”