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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1373778
This article is part of the Research Topic Veterinary Public Health: Veterinary Medicine’s Current Challenges in a Globalised World View all 10 articles

Culture of Care: The Question of Animal Agency in Laboratory Animal Science

Provisionally accepted
Katharina Ameli Katharina Ameli 1,2*Stephanie Krämer Stephanie Krämer 1
  • 1 Chair of Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Welfare, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
  • 2 Interdiciplinary Centre for Animal Welfare Research and 3R (ICAR3R), Justus-Liebig Universität, Giessen, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Based on empirical qualitative interviews and previous research, Culture of Care describes a complex mosaic of mutually dependent core categories. The perception and understanding of the agency of laboratory animals play subordinate roles. The aim of this qualitive research was to analyze the perception and understanding of animal agency among experts in the field of animal-based research. It became apparant that animal agency as a (theoretical) construct does occur in the theoretical reception of the Culture of Care model. However, it is not conclusively established in everyday practice. Rather, the results led to the assumption that strategies have been developed to largely eliminate laboratory animals' agency. One recommendation would be an integration of animal agency through practicing multispecies ethnography in laboratory animal sciences.

    Keywords: Human-animal studies, qualitative research, Expert interviews, multispecies ethnographie, Animal Ethics

    Received: 11 Mar 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ameli and Krämer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Katharina Ameli, Chair of Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Welfare, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.