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Sociable Aliens

Christine Nicol explores the meaty problem of eating aliens. How would you decide? Jake the Spaceman crashes on a remote planet and has to eat the locals, but how does he choose?

In this 4 part series Christine Nicol, professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Bristol, explores the fascinating and challenging subject of animal sentience and welfare. To help delve into the nuances we set up an intriguing scenario...
Jake the Spaceman (aka comedian Jake Yapp) has crash-landed on a remote planet and doesn't have much food to keep him going until he is rescued. Fortunately, the planet is teeming with alien life forms that are edible, but which ones should he eat? He wants to cause the minimum amount of pain and distress to the creatures, so what does he need to know about the nature of the beings on the planet? Can they feel pain? If so, how can he minimise suffering? Will eating an alien cause distress to others? Is the alien so aware and sensitive to its environment that Jake needs to consider whether it is a non-human person?
Christine will interview animal welfare scientists, philosophers and wildlife biologists to get under the skin of animal sentience and the potential consequences of accepting that animals are conscious, aware creatures.
These big questions generate surprising and challenging insights into our attitudes to other life. When you know absolutely nothing about the alien in front of you, what do you need to know before eating it?

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28 minutes

Last on

Wed 23 Dec 2015 21:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Emotional Aliens

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Alien Persons

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Dr Liesbeth Bolhuis

Dr Liesbeth Bolhuis
Dr Liesbeth Bolhuis is an Assistant Professor in Animal Sciences at Wageningen University in Gelderland in the Netherlands.Β She leads a research team investigatingΒ Behavioural Physiology research. The team's mainΒ focus is to study the .

Many welfare and health problems in farm animals arise from a mismatch between the animals adaptive capacity and the conditions they are exposed to. We investigate how genetic background, early life experiences and characteristics of the environment influence behavioural and physiological processes that reflect or affect animal welfare, health and productivity.

Professor Nickie Charles

Professor Nickie Charles
Nickie Charles is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Sociology Department at the University of Warwick where she teaches courses on Human-Animal relations. She has worked with the Β to explore human-animal relations and has a particular interest in how it is that animals come to be regarded as family members.

She is also beginning to explore the effects of introducing PAT dogs into universities so that students are able to interact with them. Among her most recent books are Μύ²Ή²Τ»ε Μύ²Ή²Τ»εΒ , which she co-edited with Bob Carter.

She has set up an inter-disciplinary research network at the University of Warwick, .

Professor Timothy Clutton-Brock

Professor Timothy Clutton-Brock
Professor Timothy Clutton-Brock is a zoologist best known for his comparative studies of the behavioural ecology of mammals. Whilst his early work focused on social behaviour in primates, he later concentrated on three long-term studies of animals in the wild: red deer on the Scottish island of RΓΉm; Soay sheep on St Kilda, also in Scotland; and meerkats in the southern Kalahari of Africa.

His remarkable revealed how differences in the mortality and feeding behaviour of the sexes are linked to the highly polygamous mating system of these animals. Through this work, he greatly improved our understanding of how sexual and parental behaviours evolve and are related to the ecological conditions in which animals live.

In 1997, he was awarded the of the Zoological Society of London, and in 1998 he received the .

Professor Phyllis Lee

Professor Phyllis Lee
Profesor Phyllis Lee was educated at Stanford University in California and moved to the UK after a spell working withΒ Β in the mid 1970s. She completed her PhD in animal behaviour at Cambridge in 1981 with the eminent ethologists,Β Μύ²Ή²Τ»εΒ , and returned to Kenya in 1982 to study theΒ Β - work which continues to this day.

Previously a Reader in Behavioural Biology and Conservation at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Downing College, she is now Professor and Head of Psychology in theΒ Μύ²Ή²Τ»ε a core member of theΒ .

Professor Mike Mendl

Professor Mike Mendl
Mike Mendl, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Bristol, is a leading animal welfare researcher and has studied a wide range of species including companion, farm and laboratory animals. He is a pioneer in the study of β€˜cognitive bias’, investigating the links between cognition, consciousness and emotion in animals. His applied work, for example on factors affecting aggression and tail-biting in pigs, has also yielded knowledge of practical benefit to improving welfare.

His exceptional achievements in the advancement of animal welfare over many yearsΒ were when he was awarded theΒ  for outstanding contributions to animal welfare science in 2014, and the 2015 .

Professor Peter Singer

Professor Peter Singer
Peter Singer is often described as the world’s most influential living philosopher. In 2005, Time magazine named himΒ , and in 2013 he was third in theΒ .

He is known especially for his work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, for his controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in bioethics, and for his writing on the obligations of the affluent to aid those living in extreme poverty.Β He first became well-known internationally after the publication ofΒ . In 2011, Time included Animal Liberation on its β€œAll-TIME” list of the 100 best non-fiction books published in English since the magazine began, in 1923.

Picture:Β Denise Applewhite - Princeton University

Professor Roger Scruton

Professor Roger Scruton
is a philosopher, public commentator and author of over 40 books. He has specialised in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture.

He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates from the standpoint of a conservative thinker and is well known as a powerful polemicist. He is a fellow of the and a fellow of the .

Professor Dan Weary

Professor Dan Weary
Professor Dan Weary works with students and colleagues in the at the University of British Columbia using behavioural and other non-invasive measures to objectively assess various aspects of animal well-being. One focus of recent work is the dairy cow, and welfare issues important in this species.
His work currently focusses on the development of objective methods of assessing animal well-being. This includes more basic research on how vocal and other behaviors can provide us with information about an animal’s physical and emotional state, as well as how these measures can be applied to find better ways of handling animals

Broadcast

  • Wed 23 Dec 2015 21:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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