Why Animal Culture Matters for Animal Welfare Policy by Kristin Andrews

In this talk, Kristin Andrews will discuss why animal culture matters for animal welfare policy. The growing recognition that other animals, like humans, are cultural beings invites us to take a fresh look at what counts as welfare for captive animals. When cultural capacities and practices important to captive animals are impeded or disrupted intentionally (because they appear “abnormal” or threaten health) or unintentionally (because they are not noticed) animal welfare can be negatively impacted. Given animal culture, good behavioral management will include a different way of looking at animals’ social relationships, a different way of looking at enrichment, and an appreciation of the community’s (perhaps distributed) body of knowledge. Broadening the concept of welfare beyond physical health and functioning, affective state, and “natural” behaviors to include something like cultural autonomy has significant ramifications for animal welfare practice and policy. It also raises the question of preserving diverse animal cultures and respecting animal cultural heritage, including recognizing the significant differences between captive and wild animal cultures. Finally, animal culture should lead us to re-evaluate the kinds of information scientists can gain from studying captive animals.

Kristin Andrews is York Research Chair in Animal Minds and Professor of Philosophy at York University, and she was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada in 2015. Her research is at the intersection of philosophy, social cognition, moral cognition, and animal cognition. She is the author of several books, including most recently How to Study Animal Minds (Cambridge 2020)—an argument for rethinking methods in comparative psychology; and The Animal Mind second edition (Routledge 2020) – a survey of how empirical work on animal minds can help to inform debates in the philosophy of mind.  Andrews serves on the Board of Directors for The Borneo Orangutan Society Canada, which has the mission to promote conservation of orangutans and their habitat and to educate the public. She is currently writing a book on social norms, animal culture, and the consequences of recognizing other animals as members of communities with their own normative structures.