Workshop in International Wildlife Wellbeing: From Theory to Action

This workshop is designed to bring together animal, environmental, and international law experts to discuss how international law can more effectively address individual wildlife well-being. To date, international laws addressing animals have focused primarily on species conservation, and while such a focus is necessary, it is not sufficient. The overall goal is to put wildlife well-being issues on the international agenda and have them addressed more successfully such that acts of cruelty committed against wildlife are prevented and subsequent wildlife suffering can be obviated, or at least mitigated.

This workshop will raise a broad range of issues including: entrapment and capture; whaling and hunting, including trophy hunting; holding wild animals in captivity, including in private and public zoos and aquariums; the use of wild animals in tourism; other forms of sports and entertainment; human-wildlife conflicts over land use; and, of course, international trade. The hope is for a second workshop that would then focus on drafting guidelines for improving international law and policy for wildlife protection—the creation of a wildlife well-being ethic.