A mind stimulation from Minding Animals

The Minding Animals Conference was excellent. Held in Newcastle the weeklong animal studies event brought together about 500 people, leading academics, animal rights activists, interested members of the public and just a few politicians.

Below are comments on some of the sessions I enjoyed. There was so much more and I would urge that you keep an eye on the conference website for papers, the blog site and podcasts.

A few session highlights. Donald Broom of Cambridge University, the world’s first professor of animal welfare and animal welfare advisor to the British government delved into animal pain. He explained that anatomically, physiologically and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals.

And we heard that bees have joined bomb disposal teams. Quite seriously bees are trained to detect and land on unexploded bombs, as their landing is so light the bomb does not explode.

The conference brought together an impressive array of participants. In between sessions I met people from the European Union, North America and most Australian states. One impressive fact I picked up was that members of the European Parliament receive more letters about animal welfare than about any other topic.

I spoke in a session with Andrew Bartlett on Are Politicians Doing Their Fair Share For Animals? The answer here was a straightforward ‘No’ and then we set out our ideas on how we do get more MPs on side. The key is public action. If you look at the big society shifts – outlawing slavery, establishing public education, ending apartheid, women winning the right to vote, on the job safety, and so many environmental issues – mass actions and the accompanying change in public opinion is followed by MPs coming on board.

I also spoke about the antics of the Shooters Party in the NSW parliament and their latest attempt to gain government support for a bill to allow shooting in national parks, private safari parks and the expansion of the list of native species that can be shot. The battle to stop this madness becoming law is still real.

Earlier changes that have set up the Game Council in NSW mean that duck shooting seasons are back in NSW. Overseas visitors to the conference were amazed that we were heading down this path as they were phasing out hunting.

Timothy Faulkner’s talk on the future of Tasmanian Devils, Sympathy for the Devils, provided a glimmer of hope in what has been a bleak story.  The breeding program at Reptile Park is highly successful with no little Tassie devils born with the terrible facial tumours.

Newcastle art scene was also part of the conference buzz with all key local galleries for the first time-shared a theme and a week of openings in parallel with the Minding Animals conference.