Between Advocacy and Academy

Three years since the first conference, held in Newcastle in 2009, Minding Animals International has organized the second International meeting in Utrecht, in The Netherlands. John Coetzee's public lecture opened up the talks on the evening of Tuesday July 3rd, 2012 in the civic centre. On the same afternoon two other important events were also taking place in the city centre, namely the ICAS Satellite Symposium and the Interfaith Service. It was apparent that the people from all over the world who came to listen, intended to make the most of this valuable opportunity to work together on Animal Studies. The conference continued over the following days and ended on July 6th evening with Marc Bekoff's public lecture, held in the Dom church. Over the following days there were several important lectures, presented by scholars from all over the world. Between the keynote lectures which took place there were parallel sessions, simultaneously held in different rooms of the university building. Each session dealt with a specific subject and some of them, dealing with the wider aspects, were developed throughout the whole day and over the following days. The main topics covered were: “Animals and Law”, “Political Philosophy and the Representation of Animals in Politics”, “Public Perception of Animals”, “Animals in Art”, “Animal Ethics”, “The Human-Animal Relationship”, “Animal Welfare and the Environment”, “Animals in Popular Media”, “The Human-animal Relationship: Various Cultural Expressions”, “The Influence of Animals on the Physical and Mental Health of Humans”, “Animal Welfare: the Veterinarian Role”, and “Animals and Religion”. It is worth mentioning the “Animals and law” and the “Political philosophy and the representation of animals in politics” where one of the most significant points at issue was the way of representing animal interests in political systems. It involved animal advocacy, political philosophy, veterinary practices and deeply investigated the matter of animal rights and whether they should be implemented into current laws.