International Centre for Animal Rights and Ethics - ICARE

26/09/2026

What ethical ideas underpin arguments for animals’ rights, and how can they shape law and policy? 🤔

🎓 In Module 3 of the CIARL On-Demand Course, Professor Lori Gruen explores the philosophical foundations of animal rights, examining the moral theories that shape how we understand animals’ status, rights and treatment.

You’ll explore:
📚 Classical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on our moral obligations towards other animals
⚖️ How ethical theories influence animal rights law and policy
🔍 Critiques of traditional theories and alternative approaches to understanding animal rights

Why does this matter for animal advocacy? The ideas behind our arguments influence how we understand the problems animals face, justify legal and policy change, and respond to competing perspectives.

Through a recorded lecture and curated readings, you’ll develop a stronger understanding of these philosophical foundations. You’ll also have the opportunity to apply what you learn through an optional practical exercise. ✍️

Whether you work in advocacy, law, policy or research, or are just beginning to explore a career in animal advocacy, this module will help you think more critically about the arguments behind the rights we seek for animals.

CIARL On-Demand is free and self-paced. No formal legal qualification is required.

➡️ Ready to learn? Apply now:
https://icare-animals.org/ciarl-ondemand

26/09/2026

🌐🇪🇺 How have international and EU legal frameworks shaped the legal protection of animals, and where could they go next?

🎓 In Module 2 of the CIARL On-Demand Course, Dr Elien Verniers covers the emergence and development of International and EU Animal Rights Law.

You’ll explore:
📚 the historical foundations and evolution of international and EU legal frameworks concerning animals
⚖️ how international instruments, regional legislation and institutions have shaped animals’ legal status and protection
🔍 the opportunities and limitations of existing frameworks
🏛️ emerging approaches, including Animal Rights Constitutionalism

You’ll also have the opportunity to put the module into practice through an optional self-assessed exercise, moving beyond the lecture material and engaging critically with the legal frameworks discussed. ✍️

The aim is to help you understand not only what international and EU law currently does for animals, but also how legal developments, institutions and emerging doctrines can shape future possibilities for advancing their rights. 🧑‍⚖️💡

Whether your work involves advocacy, policy, research, legal reform, or you want a stronger understanding of how animal rights develop beyond the national level for your next career move, this module provides an important foundation.

CIARL On-Demand is free and self-paced. No formal legal qualification is required. 🐾

➡️ Ready to learn? Apply now: icare-animals.org/ciarl-ondemand

01/09/2026

CIARL On-Demand is now free. 🎓

⚖️ If you want to understand Animal Rights Law more deeply and use that knowledge more effectively for animals, you can now take ICARE’s Contemporary Issues in Animal Rights Law (CIARL) On-Demand course for free, at your own pace.

📚 Across 8 expert-led modules and approximately 50 hours of learning, you’ll explore some of the key questions shaping Animal Rights Law today while developing skills to:

• analyse legislation and case law
• strengthen your legal research and reasoning
• understand different legal approaches to animals across jurisdictions
• think more strategically about legal and policy interventions
• build stronger arguments and advocacy for animals

✍️ You’ll learn through:

• recorded expert lectures
• curated readings
• a quiz for each module
• optional practical, self-assessed exercises
• a final quiz

The aim is not simply to learn about Animal Rights Law, but to help you understand it, analyse it and use it more effectively in practice. 🐾

Participants who meet the course requirements will also earn a certificate of completion.

🔗 Ready to learn? Apply now:
icare-animals.org/ciarl-ondemand

31/08/2026

⌛️ Today is the final day to become a Founding Advocatalyst during ICARE's anniversary month, and we’re halfway to our goal of 15.

Shammy Coello Jairala took part in ICARE's summer course last year. 📚 Her experience captures what we want ICARE’s programmes to give animal advocates: strong foundations, practical tools and a clearer path from knowledge to action. ⚖️🐾

Your monthly support would help us continue developing rigorous, accessible programmes for advocates working for animals around the world, and support them beyond a single course or event. 🌐

🧑‍⚖️ If you want to help more animal advocates strengthen their legal and policy work for animals, will you join us month after month?

€10 per month is a helpful starting point, but please choose any amount that feels sustainable for you.

💜 Become an Advocatalyst today at icare-animals.org/donate.

If monthly giving is not possible, sharing this post could help us reach someone who is ready to join. 🔁

28/08/2026

Earlier this month, we asked whether 15 supporters might help ICARE build a more dependable foundation for the work ahead.

We’re halfway there. 💌

To everyone who has already become an Advocatalyst: thank you so much. 🙏 Your monthly commitment gives a small organisation doing long-term capacity-building work like ICARE something particularly valuable: unrestricted support we can plan around. 🦉

Many grants are tied to a particular project. Monthly gifts provide flexible support that helps ICARE sustain accessible and rigorous animal rights education and practical legal and policy tools to support animal advocates working for change in their own contexts. 📚⚖️

⌛️ With four days remaining in our anniversary month, will you help us reach 15 Founding Advocatalysts by 31 August?

€10 a month is a helpful starting point, and any sustainable amount matters.

➡️ If you want to become an Advocatalyst → icare-animals.org/donate

Advocatalysts receive a quarterly update showing what their collective support has helped make possible. 📩

If monthly giving isn't possible for you, sharing this invitation may help it reach someone ready to join us. 🔁

25/08/2026

What does the law mean when it prohibits 'unnecessary suffering'?

When the law says that animal suffering must not be 'unnecessary', it can sound as though animals are strongly protected. ⚖️🐾

⚠️ But there is another side to that rule: if some suffering is prohibited because it is unnecessary, the law may also be accepting a category of suffering that it considers necessary or justified. Different legal systems use different wording, but the recurring question is similar: when can harming an animal be legally justified? 🌐

Is the law asking whether there is a less harmful way to achieve a human purpose? Or does it also ask whether that human purpose should justify harming animals in the first place? And who gets to decide what counts as 'necessary'? ❓️

This distinction matters because a practice can become less harmful without the law ever questioning the practice itself. ❌️ It also matters because ideas of 'necessity' can reflect dominant social norms, while unfamiliar or minority practices receive greater scrutiny.

🔍 Our latest Key Concepts for Animal Rights Law carousel explores this double-edged principle, including an important 2019 German case on the killing of male chicks. 🐥

💬 The question we leave advocates with is deliberately broader: whose interests define 'necessity', and should the human purpose behind animal harm itself have to be justified?

15/08/2026

🎓👏 Congratulations to the 22 participants who completed ICARE’s 2026 Constitutional Animal Rights Law Workshop, and thank you to everyone who took part!

Participants joined us from 15+ countries, supported by 19 scholarships. 🌐

🧑‍🏫 Across 7 expert-led sessions on 25 and 26 June 2026, participants explored constitutional animal rights law from global, comparative, theoretical and practical perspectives—from South Africa 🇿🇦 to Ecuador 🇪🇨 to Finland 🇫🇮. In a 90-minute collaborative mini-lab, they also drafted short constitutional clauses to advance and protect animals' interests. ✍️🐾

The immediate results are encouraging. ⭐️ Survey respondents rated their satisfaction, the workshop’s usefulness and their likelihood of recommending it at 4 or 5 out of 5. Across 11 areas, self-ratings increased from an average of 2.77/5 before the workshop to 3.98/5 afterwards. ⚖️

🙏 Thank you to our participants, lecturers and volunteer team for creating such a rigorous, inclusive and collaborative learning environment.

🫶 Want to help empower animal advocates and advance animal rights worldwide?

🦉 Become an Advocatalyst: icare-animals.org/donate

09/08/2026

Not the kind of chic you can buy. ❌️

For us, 'chic' means questioning the rules that make exploitation appear ordinary, and building legal systems that recognise animals as individuals with legal rights, not resources. 🏛️🐾

⚖️ Law shapes whose interests count, which harms society treats as normal and what change becomes possible.

🦉 At ICARE, we make rigorous animal rights knowledge open and accessible, equip advocates to put it into practice, and work to turn ideas into lasting change for animals and food systems transition. 📚🧑‍⚖️🌱

New here? 🌐 ICARE is an international centre working to advance the recognition and enforcement of animals’ fundamental rights worldwide through education, research and advocacy.

👉️ Your turn. Finish the sentence in the comments:

Kind of chic to __________ for animals. 💬

Save or share this with someone helping to change the rules. 🐝

07/08/2026

Could you be one of 15 people helping give ICARE a stronger foundation for the years ahead? 🦉💜

Over our first two years, ICARE has supported 250+ animal advocates across 100 countries 🌐 with legal knowledge, practical training, mentoring and open resources to strengthen their work for animals and food systems transition. 🎓🐾🌱

We want to keep this work accessible and build more of it.

That requires something especially valuable for a small nonprofit: reliable support we can count on month after month. 🗓️

That is why, during our anniversary month, we are looking for 15 Founding Advocatalysts to join ICARE by 31 August. ⏳️

At €10/month, your support helps us plan ahead, keep legal and policy training accessible, develop open resources, and strengthen the capacity of advocates working towards lasting change for animals. 🚀

A monthly gift is more than support for one project. It helps give ICARE the stability to keep showing up for the people working to change laws, policies and systems for animals. ⚖️

If you believe animal advocates everywhere should have access to the knowledge and tools they need to make change happen, become one of our 15 Founding Advocatalysts.

🤝 Join by 31 August → icare-animals.org/donate

06/08/2026

Looking forward to sharing more about our research with you next month!

On September 10th Faunalytics will host Fauna Connections, a free, remote research symposium for animal advocates.

Our second session is “Levers of Power: Finance, Ballots, and Political Systems” and includes 3 presentations:

Joel Christoph - Following the Money Behind Factory Farming: A Practical Map for Advocates to Influence Development Banks and UN Agencies

Marine Lercier - Can Ballots Help Animals? What Advocates Should Know Before Using Referendums, Initiatives, and Petitions

Lindsey Soffes - What We Lose by Treating Animal Agriculture and Animal Research Separately

Don’t forget to register! https://luma.com/vd9499s6