2010 Animal Matters Series Lectures

Judicial Ethics Meets Animal Rights: The Posner-Singer Debates

Sheldon Krimsky, MS, PhD

Professor, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning; Adjunct Professor, Public Health and Family Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine

Widely respected for his research focused on the linkages between science and technology, ethics and values, and public policy, Professor Krimsky is the author of eight books and a host of other scholarly works spanning nearly three decades. He has served on numerous advisory and editorial boards, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for seminal scholarship exploring the normative dimensions and moral implications of science in its social context. His topic—the notable exchange between Judge Richard Posner and Bioethicist Peter Singer as they debated animal rights in Slate Magazine in 2001.

Veterinary Ethics in the Real World

Gary Block, DVM, MS, DACVIM

Ocean State Veterinary Specialists, East Greenwich, RI

Past president of both the Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association and the Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics, Dr. Block is board certified in small animal internal medicine and practices at his 30 doctor private specialty hospital. He obtained his MS degree at the Center for Animals and Public Policy in 1997 and is a longstanding advocate on issues of animal welfare and human animal bond. He is an AVMA delegate and on the leadership council of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association. His lecture will center upon the current status of ethics in clinical veterinary medicine.

Ethics, Pain, and Laboratory Animals

Larry Carbone, DVM, PhD, DACLAM

Laboratory Animal Resource Center, University of California, San Francisco

Assessment of the relative risks of pain and pain medicines on animal health and well-being and on research data is essential. Noted laboratory animal veterinarian and author of What Animals Want: Expertise and Advocacy in Laboratory Animal Welfare Policy, 2005, Dr. Carbone also recently lectured at the 2009 AVMA/AAVMC Animal Welfare Symposium. He will discuss the ethical imperative to take animal pain seriously, and the logistical, ethical and epistemological challenge of putting that ethic into action.

Helping Hands: Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Help

Megan L. Talbert

Executive Director, Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled, Inc., Allston, MA

Helping Hands is a national nonprofit serving quadriplegic and other people with severe spinal cord injuries or mobility-impairments by providing highly trained monkeys to assist with daily activities.

Paws in Stripes

Toni McLellan

Director of Operations, Animal Refuge League, Westbrook, ME

Paws in Stripes is a partnership between the Animal Refuge League and the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Prisoners who take part in Paws in Stripes play a major role in the socialization of select puppies from our shelter. The prisoners teach the animals basic manners while helping them experience a variety of new people, places, sounds and textures.

Reaching the Animal Mind

Karen Pryor

Clickertraining, Waltham, MA

Husbandry training is the evolution of a new technology for changing and building behavior in domestic and wild species of animals. Internationally known behavioral biologist Karen Pryor is a pioneer in the development of force-free training methods, and one of the leading proponents of operant conditioning.

Canines for Combat Veterans

Rev. Dr.Cynthia Crosson and Kathy Foreman

NEADS/Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, West Boylston, MA

NEADS trains all breeds and mixed breeds of dogs to help people who are deaf or physically disabled live more independently. Our speakers will describe the program that places young dogs with prisoners for training, eventually placing them with disabled Veterans, including a pilot study program to place dogs whose primary purpose is to aid with combat PTSD symptoms and triggers.

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