Author: QAD Bloggers

14/10/2017

Upcoming Talk: “Posthumanist Education: Rethinking Human-Animal Relations in Teaching and Learning”

Pedersen-Posthumanist Education

APPLE and the Lives of Animals Research Group are delighted to be hosting a lecture by Dr. Helena Pedersen (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) an internationally renowned scholar of critical animal pedagogy, entitled “Posthumanist Education: Rethinking Human-Animal Relations in Teaching and Learning”.

Educational institutions have traditionally privileged human perspectives and interests, while using animals as scientific objects or ‘resources’ for our teaching and learning, rather than as subjects in their own right. This lecture explores how human-animal
relations take shape in a range of educational settings and discusses possibilities and
visions for transforming education in a critical posthumanist direction.

This Lecture will be held at the Queen’s University Club (158 Stuart Street, Kingston), on Tuesday October 17th from 3:00 to 5:30pm.
Refreshments will be served.
All welcome.

Facebook event.

26/09/2017

Queen’s Journal article on dog haemophilia research

 

The Queen’s Journal published an article on “Fighting for transparency with Queen’s haemophiliac dog colony”, covering an issue that Queen’s Animal Defence has been dedicated for for a long time.

In the basement of Botterell Hall, below the scattered study spaces and underground lecture halls lie some of Queen’s more contentious research labs.

The live animal research facilities hold a range of companion species, including dogs. Most famously, a research colony of schnauzers, spaniels and beagles carrying the sex-linked gene for haemophilia  (a rare blood clotting disease) have been held and studied at Queen’s since 1981.

Although the research conducted on the colony has given rise to ground-breaking leaps in understanding the disease, it has met resistance around Kingston. In April 2014, The Kingston-Whig Standard published an article(link is external) citing lack of transparency in animal research at Queen’s. The Journal published articles in 2006, 2014 and 2015 citing an increased demand for accountability when it comes to live animal research on campus.

Read the entire article here.

26/06/2017

Exciting News: the University of Windsor announces launch of Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods (CCAAM)

Dr. Charu Chandrasekera - CCAAM

Charu Chandrasekera is the founding executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods.

In a courageous and visionary step, the University of Windsor has recognized that the future of biomedical research depends on replacement of the use of animal models with a ‘human model’ that produces knowledge directly relevant to our understanding and treatment of human disease. CCAAM, under the direction of founder Dr. Charu Chandrasekera, will officially launch in October, and will move Canada to the forefront of the international movement to replace animal models with science that is human-centred, and humane.

According to the National Institutes of Health, treatments developed in animal models have a 95% failure rate in human clinical trials – representing a mind-boggling waste of resources that could be more effectively invested in alternative technologies and methodologies such as organoids, computer modelling, the development of human bio-banks, and other approaches.

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20/03/2017

Evolve Our Prison Farms

eopf logo

Evolve Our Prison Farms (EOPF) is a Kingston-based initiative that arose during Correctional Service Canada’s public consultation concerning possible re-instatement of prison farms. EOPF proposes an “evolved farm” model of plant-based agriculture for prison farms. This model incorporates ecological sustainability, interspecies ethics, food security and public health, rehabilitation, and meaningful employment and community development opportunities.

To date, most of the grassroots organizing on the prison farm issue has focused on re-instating the old model of animal agriculture (dairy and egg farming), despite its ethical, environmental, health and financial costs. In particular, a highly sentimentalized (and euphemistic) discourse of prisoners engaging in ‘therapeutic’ and ‘caring’ relationships with animals has been promulgated, despite the realities of forcibly confining and inseminating animals, coercing them to work, separating cows from calves, and slaughtering and butchering animals. In what possible way is it ‘therapeutic’ for prisoners to be encouraged to ‘bond’ with animals while depriving, harming and killing them?

EOPF offers a truly progressive vision of ethical and ecologically responsible farming, and meaningful activity and life skills development for prisoners. Continue Reading