Māori Concepts in Animal Ethics: Implications for the Three Rs
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Authors
Stewart, GT
Birdsall, S
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Journal Article
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Informa UK Limited
Abstract
Our aim is to explore how Māori concepts can refresh thinking about animal ethics. As sources of data for this exploration, we draw on interviews with Māori expert informants, as well as information gathered from relevant literature. First, we overview the two main theoretical traditions of animal ethics, unifying and relational, followed by an account of the development and current status of the Three Rs (Replace, Reduce, and Refine) for animal ethics in practice. We then introduce central Māori ethical concepts and how they interconnect within the traditional Māori cosmos. Two more “Rs” fall out of the Māori concepts: Relate and Respect. Māori views of animals center on whakapapa, a unique Indigenous Māori concept, roughly equated to genealogy, which encapsulates in Māori terms how animals are related, both to humans and to primordial forces, thus commanding respect from humans–as kin, and as ethically significant beings in their own right. This Māori argument illuminates the logic of respect that underpins the Three Rs principles for reducing harm to animals in research, testing, and teaching.Description
Keywords
50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 5001 Applied Ethics, Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
Source
Anthrozoos, ISSN: 0892-7936 (Print); 1753-0377 (Online), Informa UK Limited, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/08927936.2024.2389645
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© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.