Human-animal hybrids - or ‘chimeras’ - might sound strange, but they offer great hope for new life saving therapies, as long as key ethical boundaries are respected.
Zoos, emphasising natural behaviour and conservation, remain more popular than ever.
Gabriel Pollard/Flickr
Harness Racing Australia has announced it will ban the use of the whip. The decision is a world first for any horse sporting body, so what about the rest of the horse racing industry?
Australians are becoming more aware of where their meat comes from, but it’s still and ethical minefield.
Vicki/Flickr
The huge numbers of unwanted dogs killed by the greyhound racing industry has led the New South Wales government to outlaw the sport.
Researchers in Maine pose with terns after measuring, weighing and banding the birds. But what if they weren’t scientists?
Amanda Boyd, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr
Why do so many people take safety risks or abuse wild animals for the sake of a photo with them? In one researcher’s view, scientists may encourage this trend by sharing their own wildlife selfies.
The grizzly, or brown, bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is posed to lose protections under the Endangered Species Act.
Jim Peaco, Yellowstone National Park
The grizzly bear of Yellowstone is expected to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. But a survey of grizzly bear researchers finds flaws in how wildlife experts evaluate scientific data.
A makeshift shrine to Harambe, the zoo gorilla whose death has raised some uncomfortable moral questions.
William Philpott/Reuters
The history of displaying exotic animals seems to be one of evolving public expectations about what constitutes acceptable conditions. Is it a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same?
The use of live animals in the visual arts provokes important ethic questions. Pictured: Pierre Huyghe Untilled (2011-2012).
Courtesy the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris; Esther Schipper, Berlin.
An exhibition of works by contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe raises questions around the ethical treatment of animals by artists - and whether live animals have a place in the visual arts.
Should primates such as chimpanzees be given rights normally reserved for humans?
phil/Flickr
The question of furnishing non-human animals with rights normally reserves for humans is more complex than it might seem.
The NHMRC code on animal use requires researchers to minimise harm, pain and distress but doesn’t provide guidance on how to do it.
International Fund for Animal Welfare Animal Rescue Blog/Flickr
Draft guildelines for the use of non-human primates in research will dilute what protections these animals have, despite numerous reasons to stop the practice entirely.
Zoos provide succor for species having a tough time of it in the wild.
B. A. Minteer
Today, many zoos promote the protection of biodiversity as a significant part of their mission. As conservation “arks” for endangered species and, increasingly, as leaders in field conservation projects…
A US appeals court is currently hearing the case of a chimpanzee named Tommy and is to decide if he has the right to bodily integrity and liberty, just like a person. The case, brought by the Nonhuman…
YouTube footage of a man kicking a squirrel off a cliff has prompted outrage, yet we all need to stop and think about how we treat animals.
YouTube
An online video apparently showing a French tourist kicking a squirrel off a cliff in Grand Canyon National Park was greeted with horror and incredulity after being posted (and since removed) on YouTube…
Animals in circuses are kept in anything but natural surroundings.
DirkJan Ranzijn
The idea of animals as spectacle – in zoos, circuses, aquaria, tests of strength and even criminal proceedings – is an old one, dating back to at least ancient Greece and Rome. Similarly, the use of animals…
Looking out for each other.
EPA/Zoological Society of London
More than 20 years ago, the university department where I was doing my PhD was fire bombed by animal rights activists. At the time, I was conducting research into animal welfare, as were many of the staff…