Bringing Together Science and Animal Law

Lori Marino on December 16, 2021

The Kimmela Center presents a new Continuing Law Education (CLE) webinar: “Using Law and Science to Help Animals.”

Produced jointly with the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. The one-hour webinar features Kimmela Director Lori Marino and Clinical Professor Kathy Hessler, Director of the Animal Law Clinic & Aquatic Animal Law Initiative at Lewis & Clark. Together, they discuss how lawyers can effectively use science in their animal protection legal work.

Science and animal law are closely linked, as much of animal law is based on the science of welfare, animal cognition and even genetics. Thus, scientific knowledge and familiarity can empower animal law and policy efforts in the great majority of cases.

Kimmela is committed to bringing relevant scientific knowledge to practicing attorneys, law students and scholars and advocates to help them learn how to employ scientific knowledge to optimize their work for animals.

This webinar is part of an ongoing project being conducted in collaboration with the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, an organization dedicated to advancing animal law and policy to protect animals.

The webinar is approved for one Oregon continuing legal education credit. (Check for eligibility in other states.)

“I Am NOT an Animal” – a Kimmela White Paper

Lori Marino on November 26, 2021

We are proud to announce the first Kimmela Center white paper, entitled “I Am NOT an Animal!” Denial of Death and the Relationship between Humans and Other Animals, by Lori Marino and Michael Mountain.

This paper is part of a long-term project that examines the psychological dynamics of our treatment of nonhuman animals in the context of our deep fear of death.

In 1973 cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker published his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death, in which he put forth the thesis that when we humans are reminded of our own mortality (even unconsciously), we defend against that idea by denying our mortal animal nature, along with whatever may remind us that we are animals. Instead, we are driven to claim superiority and human exceptionalism in an attempt to transcend our mortality.

Becker’s theory became the basis for the field of social psychology known as Terror Management Theory (referring to how we deal with the anxiety of mortality awareness). And in the years that followed, hundreds of scientific studies demonstrated that reminders of our own mortality create a strong psychological need to proclaim that “I am not an animal!” and how this need drives the urge to dominate and exploit people who appear to threaten the cultural views in which we cloak ourselves to defend against mortality.

More recently, studies have taken Terror Management Theory a step further by showing that mortality anxiety also drives us toward dominating, exploiting and abusing nonhuman animals and the natural world.

In our new white paper, updated from the 2015 peer-reviewed paper in Anthrozoos, the authors employ Terror Management Theory to explain our continued exploitation and abuse of other animals and what this means for our future on this planet.

Webinar: Dolphin Assisted Therapy, Autism, and Pseudoscience

Lori Marino on October 25, 2021

We are pleased to announce our next live webinar entitled Dolphin Assisted Therapy, Autism, and Pseudoscience.

  • Wednesday November 17th at 7:00PM ET
  • Register for the webinar here.

Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT) is a type of dolphin swim program offered worldwide that is purported to be an effective treatment for autism and other conditions. These programs typically involve the participant touching, swimming with, or being towed around by captive dolphins while engaged in more traditional tasks. Parents of autistic children and others are charged thousands of dollars and led to believe that they are engaging in real therapy.  There is no oversight or accreditation for DAT.

Several peer-reviewed scientific papers have shown that DAT rests upon weak methodological grounds and there is currently no evidence that DAT has any long-term therapeutic impact. Yet, it continues to be marketed to desperate parents and people seeking relief for their problems.

In this webinar we describe the standard DAT protocol and discuss why it is a pseudoscience, i.e. a practice mistakenly considered scientific.  We also discuss the considerable risks to participants of injury and disease transmission associated with swimming with captive dolphins as well as the exploitive and abusive practices that force dolphins into DAT performances.  And we highlight some of the faulty assumptions that may follow when one pursues some experience touted as a “therapy” and offer some important questions to ask providers.

The Blood Harvest of Horseshoe Crabs is a Moral Fiasco

Lori Marino on August 3, 2020

At a time when we are dealing with a viral pandemic that began with our exploitation of other animals and nature we continue to abuse other animals to solve the very problems we create. In this case it is the horseshoe crab whose blood is used in biomedical research and now being considered in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine despite the availability of a synthetic alternative. Hundreds of thousands are ‘harvested’ for this purpose. Horseshoe crabs have existed on earth for over 450 million years, predating dinosaurs and flowering plants – as well as surviving five mass extinctions. Yet it is unclear if they will survive our exploitation of them in a highly lucrative biomedical industry.

In our latest essay entitled The Blood Harvest of Horseshoe Crabs is a Moral Fiasco, I am joined by Dalhousie University philosopher Andrew Fenton as we explore the ethical justifications used to defend this use of horseshoe crabs. We conclude that the welfare and conservation of these animals is being compromised for the sake of convenience and that the blood harvest is a moral failure.

Read the essay here.

Kimmela Center Launches Scholar Advocacy Webinar Series

Lori Marino on July 30, 2020

The Kimmela Center has launched a webinar series on scholar advocacy, an empowered professional path that combines scholarship in various fields with advocacy (for animals in this case).

The main reason for this series is that students, especially those in the natural sciences, are often led to believe that academic scientists should not engage in animal advocacy. They are often told that they can either be a scientist or they can be an advocate, but that they cannot (or should not) do both.

Similarly, working scientists who advocate for the animals they study are often criticized for their advocacy work. The claim is that “science is objective.”

It is true that the process of scientific inquiry and methodology needs to be rigorously objective. But how scientific data are employed to create change does not have to be neutral. Indeed, it is anything but neutral in advocacy for humans – for example in relation to children, patients and homeless people. And there is no reason why this should not apply equally to advocacy for animals. It takes advocacy based in science and scholarship to drive the cultural shift that’s taking place in how we relate to nonhuman animals. Animal advocacy is becoming mainstream.

The Kimmela Center is at the forefront of the movement to promote scholar advocacy for animals.

This year we initiated a live webinar series on scholar advocacy beginning with Scholar Advocacy in Neuroscience and Psychology. Dr. Lori Marino of The Kimmela Center was joined by Dr. Greg Berns of Emory University, Dr. Syd Johnson of Upstate Medical University, Dr. Bob Jacobs of Colorado College, and Dr. Becca Franks of New York University, as they discussed their professional paths as neuroscientists, neuroethicists, and animal psychologists who also advocate for animals in different ways. Greg Berns talked about how he advocates for animals as a neuroscientist by limiting his research to non-invasive and non-coercive studies. Becca Franks discussed how she engages in animal welfare research and teaching. And the whole group provided valuable advice to students in the webinar audience who are navigating the often-complex world of academic neuroscience and animal advocacy.

Our second live webinar, Scholar Advocacy in Marine Mammal Science, featured Dr. Marino, Dr. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute, Dr. Deborah Giles of Wild Orca, Kara Elizabeth Henderlight of the American Cetacean Society, and Mariah Kirby, a biology educator. Together, they talked about why they believe it is important to advocate for the protection, conservation and rights of marine mammals, both free-ranging and in captivity.

Upcoming webinars will focus on scholar advocacy in animal law, farmed animal protection, and many other areas.

Please go here for updates on upcoming scholar advocacy webinars and news about other activities and events sponsored by The Kimmela Center.

And thank you for making these good things possible. Your tax-deductible donation, large or small, helps support young scholar-advocates, develops scholar-advocacy professional programs, and empowers scholarship-based animal advocacy efforts of all kinds.

Webinar: Scholar Advocacy in Neuroscience and Psychology

Lori Marino on May 29, 2020

The Kimmela Center will hold its first webinar on Scholar Advocacy in Neuroscience and Psychology on Wednesday June 3rd, 2020 from 3–4 pm Eastern Time.

For more information and to register, go here.

Scholar-advocacy is a professional path that promotes the connection between scholarship and animal advocacy. It takes various forms but has at its core the foundational concept that there is no inherent conflict between scholarship (specifically, science) and advocacy for other animals.

In the neurosciences and psychological sciences, this means advancing research that does not involve coercive, invasive or terminal methods, being sensitive to and supportive of students who want to be academic scientists but not vivisectionists, and using research findings to advocate for better protections for other animals.

In this webinar we will explore scholar advocacy with six scientist-animal advocates:
L. Syd Johnson (Upstate Medical University)
Greg Berns (Emory University)
Becca Franks (New York University)
Bob Jacobs (Colorado College)
Elric Elias (University of Colorado, Denver)
and Kimmela Executive Director Lori Marino (formerly Emory University).

Each panelist will talk about their “journey” as a scholar advocate and answer your questions online.

Join us whether you are a student or established scientist who wants to be a neuroscientist or psychologist studying animals while also advocating for their protection.