協会概要

アニマルウェルフェア(動物福祉)とは

　アニマルウェルフェアとは別に、日本では「動物愛護」と称される考え方があり、西欧においては「動物の権利／動物の解放」ともいわれる考え方があります。いずれもその大本には、動物を大切にし、人といかに動物が共に良く暮らしていきたいという願いがあります。そうした動物を大切にしたいという願いは「それぞれの立場がどのような考えで、どのように進められているのか」を俯瞰的に眺め、動物との関係を体系的かつ科学的に捉えた上でなされることによって、一層効果的に進めることができ、また有用なものとなります。
　本協会は、アニマルウェルフェア以外の考えを単純に否定的に捉えることなく、動物を考える上で基盤となる理論についてエビデンスをもとに習得することを目指します。

The concept of animal welfare has received increasing attention in recent years. In Japan, there is a unique idea related with "animal protection", that tends to be motivated strongly by emotion. In the West, there is also the concept of "animal rights/animal liberation".
The main idea behind these thoughts is the wishes for the animals to be respected and to live happily together with people.
The purpose of this organization is not to protect animals or to evaluate the practice of protecting or caring for animals from a particular perspective. Such practical activities may be necessary, but it will be more effective and useful if we take a bird's eye view of how we think and treat animals and understand our relationship with animals systematically.
Therefore, this organization aims to learn theories based on evidence that will be the basis for thinking about animals, and to learn practical methods of constructing better relationships with animals from a variety of perspectives based on these theories.

人間社会において
動物は5つのカテゴリーに分けられます

■１ペット・コンパニオン動物／慈しんだり、憩いをもらったりする対象

■２産業動物／食物やその他の資源として利用する対象

■３実験動物／多くは”生きた試薬”として扱われる対象

■４動物園動物／日常では目にすることができない様々な動物を目にすることで、楽しむことに加え、生き物やそれが生息する環境への眼差しを学ぶ対象

■５野生動物／野生動物は、人とは関わりを持たない動物と捉えることがあるが、人から一切かけ離れて存在する生き物も自然も原則最早存在しない。その意味で、野生動物もまた人と関わりを持つ対象と捉えられる

Based on their specific relationship with humans, animals can be broadly divided into five categories.　The first is the pet/companion animals. They are objects of compassion and relief.　The second is industrial animals. They are used for food and other resources.　The third category is laboratory animals. Most of them are treated as "live reagents".　The fourth category is zoo animals. In addition to the enjoyment of seeing various animals that you cannot see in your daily life, the animals are the objectives for learning how to look at living things and the environment they live in.　The fourth category is zoo animals. In addition to the enjoyment of seeing a variety of animals that cannot be seen in daily life, visitors can also learn about animals and It is an object of study to learn to look at the environment it inhabits.　Finally, there are wild animals. Wild animals are often thought of as animals that have no relationship to humans. However, in reality, there is no creature or nature that exists apart from humans. In hence, wild animals can also be related to humans.This organization will consider any of the animals without focusing on any category. We also aim to reexamine the relationship between animals and humans and learn how to develop a better relationship.