The Ethics of Animal Shelters

This edited volume explores the ethical issues involved with work in animal shelters. In the first half of the book, the contributors, in consultation with animal shelter staff, explore the ethical dilemmas that often arise in animal shelter work. The second half of the book investigates those dilemmas more deeply and identifies the moral issues that underlie them. This project was developed in conjunction with the Montreal SPCA, and should appeal to those interested in animal ethics, in animal shelter work, and in normative ethics generally.

Ethical dilemmas and decision-making are a persistent feature of the everyday operations of animal shelters and animal protection organizations. These organizations frequently face difficult decisions about how to treat the animals in their care, decisions that are made all the more difficult by limited funding, material resources, and human labor. Moreover, animal protection organizations must also determine how to act within and toward the wider social and institutional environment in which non-human animals are routinely exploited. The first section of The Ethics of Animal Shelters contains practical recommendations developed by ethicists in response to the ethical challenges identified by employees of the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. These challenges arise across the organization''s activities, including its internal structure; shelter operations; public campaigns and advocacy work; dealing with the public, animal agriculture and governmental agencies; and their work with feral animals. The second section offers philosophical analyses of the ethical challenges unique to animal shelters. Issues explored include the killing of shelter animals; shelter animals'' diets; medical decision-making procedures; adoption policies; and the role shelters might play in transforming social attitudes and norms.