UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics

Núria Almiron has published the article "The Propaganda Narrative Behind Animal Experimentation" in Oxford Academic.

Abstract:

This article argues that the dominant narrative supporting animal experimentation exhibits the core features of propaganda, with significant implications for ethical and democratic deliberation. Drawing on the propaganda theory literature, the article defines propaganda as an organized, large-scale communicative effort that conceals its persuasive intent, employs systematic content bias, and undermines the public’s capacity for independent judgement in order to preserve or advance institutional power. This article then engages with scholarship on organized strategic intent and discursive methods used by the animal experimentation industrial complex to assess whether this definition applies to the pro-animal experimentation narrative. On the basis of this literature review, it becomes evident that this narrative systematically conceals its persuasive aim, employs misleading and selectively framed information, and relies on emotional and moral appeals that obscure scientific limitations. Taken together, these dynamics are shown to crystallize into three overarching propagandistic mechanisms—selective transparency, selective compassion, and the weaponization of science—through which the narrative suppresses independent judgement, fosters social division and partisanship, and privileges the interests of the animal experimentation industry over those of animals, patients, and citizens. In doing so, the article situates animal experimentation within broader debates on propaganda, democratic accountability, and ethical decision-making. It concludes that pro-animal experimentation discourse functions as propaganda insofar as it significantly diminishes the quality of democratic deliberation by restricting informed public debate on a socially, morally, and scientifically consequential practice.

Access to the article here: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/62987/chapter/565527950?login=false

Eze Paez and Núria Almiron have published the chapter “The Neglected Majority: Nonhuman Animals as Legitimate European Union Environmental Policy Stakeholders” in the De Gruyter Handbook of European Union Environmental Policy, edited by Anthony R. Zito and Ekaterina Domorenok (2026), and published as part of the De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences Handbooks series.

Abstract:

This chapter argues that nonhuman animals are legitimate stakeholders whose interests should be given priority in drafting European Union (EU) environmental policy. So far, however, EU policy in this regard has been informed by an environmentalist approach that fails to give full consideration to individual animals’ interests, leading to wrongful interventions such as culling, support for insect farming or certain forms of rewilding. In contrast, we advance an alternative environmental policy framework that takes seriously animals’ interests, creating new regulatory opportunities for animal farming and environmental management. The proposed framework also calls for the creation of new EU institutions with the brief of identifying and representing animals’ best interests. To be successful, this framework has to overcome a series of challenges—such as how to institutionalize animals’ interests as stakeholders, how to gather in an ethical way the evidence necessary for drafting sound policies or how to identify the criteria for the ethical management of human-nonhuman animal conflicts. We provide some policy examples that may fit our framework and some that are excluded by it.

Access to the chapter here: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111321523/html

On 6 July 2026, the UPF-Centre of Animal Ethics will host the Seminar: "“Decoding” Nonhuman Animal Communication with Artificial Intelligence", by Caatje Kluskens, from Wageningen University and visiting researcher at UPF-CAE.

📍Sala En Construcció, Campus Poblenou (UPF)

🗓️ Monday, 6 July 2026- 17:00

In this talk, Caatje Kluskens, PhD candidate in the Philosophy Group at Wageningen University and visiting researcher at UPF-CAE discusses current AI for nonhuman animal communication projects, the epistemic debates surrounding them, and the broader question of what it might mean to listen to nonhuman animal voices.

The talk proposes that the technology is most valuable for the questions it forces us to ask about language, intelligence, and the moral consideration of other animals. Those questions, however, do not emerge and circulate independently. The extent to which AI for nonhuman animal communication can function as a site of inquiry depends on whether it is represented as one. The responsible media representation of the technology is therefore not an afterthought, but a condition for any meaningful outcome for nonhuman animals.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Dr. Núria Almiron, co-director of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics, is editing a Special Issue for the journal Animals (MDPI) entitled:
“Species Framed as Invasive or Pests: Influence, Governance, and Storylines in Conservation Biology.”

This Special Issue invites contributions from scholars working on topics such as communication, policy, ethics, conservation, and human–animal relations. Interdisciplinary perspectives are particularly welcome, especially those critically examining how certain species are framed, governed, and ethically justified within the discourse of invasion Biology.

📆Submission deadline: 30 September 2026
🔗Call for Papers – https://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals/special_issues/H78175O991

Submissions are now open. Scholars are warmly encouraged to contribute to this timely discussion.

Recommended reports & databases:

We have created this section on the CAE website to share reports and databases that we consider to be key reference resources.

You can access here: https://www.upf.edu/web/cae-center-for-animal-ethics/recommended-reports

Paula Casal ha sido entrevistada por Hugo Tavera en "Liberación animal, cincuenta años después: una conversación con Paula Casal". La entrevista ha sido publicada en la Revista LOGOS.

RESUMEN:

En 2025 se cumplieron cincuenta años desde la publicación de Liberación animal, el fundamental libro de Peter Singer, que sentó las bases del movimiento moderno por los derechos de los animales. Con motivo de este aniversario, entrevistamos —a través de algunos correos electrónicos— a la destacada filósofa Paula Casal, profesora en el departamento de Derecho de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra y codirectora del Centre for Animal Ethics, de la misma universidad. Casal obtuvo su doctorado en Filosofía, en la Universidad de Oxford, bajo la dirección de Gerald A. Cohen, y ha sido profesora en las universidades Reading, Keele, Harvard y Oxford, entre otras. Su trabajo ha aparecido en revistas, como Ethics, Economics and Philosophy, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Studies y Utilitas. En español, es coautora de Un reparto más justo del planeta y, junto a Peter Singer, de Los derechos de los simios. Casal también es la presidenta del Proyecto Gran Simio España, del que además es cofundadora. Al finalizar el intercambio de preguntas y respuestas, la doctora Casal revisó el documento, reproducimos a continuación el resultado de este intercambio.

Acceso a la entrevista aquí: https://revistasinvestigacion.lasalle.mx/index.php/LOGOS/article/view/4955

El Consell Municipal de Convivència, Defensa i Protecció dels Animals de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona, en la seva sessió plenària del 28 de maig de 2026, ha aprovat l’alta com a nou membre de l'UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics.

En el si d’aquest òrgan consultiu municipal, l’UPF-CAE desenvoluparà una tasca d’assessorament per tal de contribuir al disseny d’institucions i polítiques públiques no especistes respectuoses amb els drets de tots els animals no humans.

La persona escollida per l'UPF-CAE per exercir la seva representació en el Consell és l’Eze Paez, professor Ramón y Cajal al Law & Philosophy Group de la UPF i membre del Comitè Científic del Centre.

El 14 de junio de 2026, Marta Tafalla asistirá a la Feria del libro de Madrid para firmar ejemplares de su libro "Paradojas de la experimentación en animales".

La autora estará ubicada en la caseta 335 de Plaza y Valdés Editores, en el bloque 22B.

📍 Parque de El Retiro (Madrid)
🗓️ 14 de junio de 2026 - 11 a 13h

Invisibilization of Animal Journalism: Ideological Gatekeeping, Soft Censorship, and Marginalization of Antispeciesist Journalists in Spanish Written Media | Animal Ethics Review Invisibilization of Animal Journalism: Ideological Gatekeeping, Soft Censorship, and Marginalization of Antispeciesist Journalists in Spanish Written Media Article Sidebar PDF (English) Citacions a Google Acadèmic DOI: https://doi.org/10.31009/aer.2026.v6.03 Main Article Content María Ruiz Carrera...