Animal Ethics’s 2019 strategic plan

30 Jan 2019

The capacity of Animal Ethics has increased very significantly in the last year and a half, and we can now pursue more and larger projects.

In previous years, our focus was to educate people in different spheres (chiefly the general public, animal advocates, and academics) about antispeciesism and wild animal suffering. We now are focused on reaching more influential people, especially in scientific fields, to promote and support the creation of a new field of research called welfare biology. Welfare biology is focused on learning more about the harms that animals suffer in the wild and how to act to prevent them.

Another main aim this year is learning about how to best carry out antispeciesist and wild animal suffering-focused work in Asia. We are already researching this in China, and expect to complete a longer research project about this in a few months. We plan to start researching in India as well.

We will continue doing research on other issues related to animals’ interests, as well as outreach work. Our website has expanded, and including all languages it has more than a thousand articles. This year we expect to reach 1,200.

We will continue to give seminars and talks (in 2017 and 2018, we gave or organized on average one talk every six days). Our focus is to reach influential people in academia and advocacy. In social media work, we will prioritize improving our education work and communicating better with those who already follow us.

We will continue to supply our printed materials to other animal advocates who use them in their own work. Our own staff will no longer be involved in leafleting activities and focus instead on the areas listed above. The only exception to this will be the distribution of leaflets in Chinese, which we will continue to do. We will also look for ways to collaborate with other animal advocates focused on speciesism and wild animal suffering.

In general, our approach to outreach is focusing not on increasing the number of those we reach, but on having an impact where our influence can make the biggest difference.

As you’ll see in the plan, our main goals for 2019 are the following:

1. Promote and support work in the new field of welfare biology

Acquire knowledge about impactful lines of research

Get welfare biology work started by scientists

2. Promote wild animal suffering concern and advocacy

Influence animal advocates and effective altruists

Provide supporting information and tools

3. Increase the efficiency of our workflows

Improve our onboarding processes and training

Leverage the use of technology wherever we can

4. Expand our antispeciesist work internationally, focusing on Asia and Latin America

5. Improve and expand our online education work