Moral concern for animals today is unprecedented, yet paradoxically, humans are killing animals at an unprecedented rate. In this presentation international lecturer, ethologist and best-selling author Jonathan Balcombe will outline new scientific insights about animals' inner lives, showing them to be keenly perceptive, cognitive, aware, and sensual. Our fixation on pain and suffering is incomplete as a basis for ethical concern for animals; pleasure deserves much greater consideration than we have given it. The capacity for pleasure has important moral implications, including quality of life, intrinsic value, and the concomitant harm of death. Balcombe seeks to refute the popular portrayal of wild nature as nasty, brutish and cruel. Virtuous behavior is especially prominent in social Read more →