Animal Welfare Discussion Group

This discussion group explores how to do the most good for animals — drawing on the tools and frameworks of effective altruism to think rigorously about which interventions, causes, and careers are likely to have the greatest impact. Over five weeks, we'll move from foundational questions — why animal interests matter morally, and what EA methodology offers advocates — through to practical debates about strategy, global context, and long-term thinking. The goal isn't to arrive at a fixed set of answers, but to develop sharper frameworks for reasoning about genuinely difficult questions, and to leave with a clearer sense of where your own efforts might make the biggest difference.

“This fellowship helped to answer almost all of my big questions about animal welfare and its impact, and gave me very useful insights into career opportunities in this space.”

— Alec, Economics MPhil

Our Syllabus

Week 1: Effective Altruism (EA) and Why animals

This week, we will learn about the EA methodology within the context of animal advocacy, learning about concepts such as scope insensitivity, expected value, cost-effectiveness, and the ITN framework for prioritization. We will also cover the moral case for the importance of animal interests and cause prioritization for animal causes.
Basic concepts in EA

• Conceptually, “Scope Insensitivity” (5 min)

• Conceptually, “Expected Value” (5 min)

• Conceptually, “Thinking at the Margin” (5 min)

The moral case for animals

• Open Philanthropy Project, “Radical Empathy” (10 min)

• Peter Singer, “All Animals are Equal” (30 min)

• Sentience Politics, “The Case Against Speciesism” (10 min)

Animal causes and prioritizing them

• Faunalytics, “Farmed Animal Fundamentals” (10 min)

• See also: Dominik Peters, “An Ethical Diet” (1 min)

• Animal Charity Evaluators, “Wild Animal Suffering” (5 min)

• Animal Charity Evaluators, “Cause Priorities for ACE”

• Read the three following cause profiles: (15 min)

• Legal and Legislative Work

• Capacity Building

• Cultured and Plant-Based Food Tech

Week 2: Effective Animal Advocacy (EAA) and its critiques

This week we will discuss the EA approach to animal advocacy and also some important critiques of it.These critiques are aimed at EAA both in theory and in practice. We will discuss whether these critiques are correct, and the extent to which they can be accommodated within the EAA framework.

Effective Animal Advocacy

• Kelly Witwicki, “Effective Animal Activism” (25 min, video, 2x speed available)

• Jeff Sebo, “Effective Animal Advocacy (pp. 1-7)” (20 min)

Critiques

• Owen Rogers, “Effective Animal Advocacy: Roots And Practice” (5 min)

• Casey Taft, “Misuse of ‘Effectiveness’ Language in Animal Advocacy” (5 min)

• John Danaher, “Effective Altruism: A Taxonomy of Objections” (15 min)

• Jeff Sebo, “Effective Animal Advocacy (pp. 7-17)” (30 min)

• Toni Adleberg, “Common Misconceptions of Effective Animal Advocacy” (25 min)

Week 3: Creating Change

This week, we will study crucial considerations for animal advocacy. We will learn about and discuss various key debates about how to best create change for animals. We will also touch on international advocacy, and the opportunities to intervene at a global scale.

Farmed Animals

• Jacy Reese, “The End of Animal Farming” (15 min, video, 2x speed available)

• Bailey Norwood, “Food Demand Survey (pp. 4-6)” (10 min)

• Sentience Institute, “Individual vs. institutional interventions and messaging” (15 min)

• Sentience Institute, “Momentum vs. complacency from welfare reforms” (15 min)

• Sentience Institute, “Social change vs. food technology” (15 min)

• Sentience Institute, “Animal protection vs. environmental vs. human health focus” (15 min)

Wild Animals

• Animal Ethics, “What you can do” (10 min, video, 2x speed available)

All Animals

• Sentience Institute, “Farmed animal vs. wild animals vs. general antispeciesism focus” (15 min)

Animal advocacy in a global context

• Karolina Sarek, “Are China and India the most promising countries for animal advocacy? A systematic country comparison” (10 min)

• Jeff Sebo, “The year of global crisis/A perfect moral superstorm” (10 min)

  OPTIONAL:

Animals post Covid-19

• Farmed Animals:

• Lewis Bollard, “Doing the most good for animals post COVID-19” (20 min, video available, 2x speed available)

• Bella Forristal, “Antibiotic resistance: Should animal advocates intervene?”” (20 min)

• Wild Animals:

• OIE, “One Health ‘at a glance’” (10 min)

• Jane Cappozelli, “Reducing the burden of disease: the One Health approach” (10 min)

Week 4: Animals and The Long Term

This week, we will study arguments for the importance of the long-term consequences of our actions. We will learn about and discuss various implications of this perspective.

• Claire Yip, “When can I eat meat again?” (15 min, summary + skim)

• Sentience Politics, “The Importance of the Far Future” (15 min)

• Tobias Baumann, “Longtermism and animal advocacy” (15 min)

• Michael St. Jules, “Should animal advocates donate now or later?” (10 min)

• Sentience Politics, “Long-term vs. Short-term focus” (15 min)

• OPTIONAL:

• Jacy Reese, “Why I prioritize moral circle expansion over artificial intelligence alignment” (30 min)

• Abraham Rowe, “Should Longtermists Mostly Think About Animals?” (30 min)

And we will finish with some reflections:

John Dewey: “ We don’t learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience”

At the end of the last group session we will share some personal reflections on the course. It would be valuable that before the session you dedicate some time to reflecting on the following questions. You can write some bullet-points if that helps, but the important thing is that you give the questions a bit of thought.

• Question 1:
  Has this course changed your thoughts on animal advocacy? If so, what are the main changes? What made you update?

• Question 2:
  Do you think you should change your actions in the light of these new thoughts?

These are just some general reflections, but next week you will have the opportunity to think about specific actions you could take through your career.

Week 5: Careers call (No group session this week)

This week, we will study potential paths to impact within animal advocacy. We will learn about and discuss general considerations for career choice, as well as particular careers within animal advocacy. We will begin work on a career planning worksheet.

• Jamie Harris, “Maximize your impact for animals” (35 min, video, 2x speed available)

• Option 1: Select and read at least two career profile (45 min)
  Option 2: Select and read one career profile, and also watch the video below (45 min)

• Animal Advocacy Careers, “Skills Profiles”

• James Sturgeon, “Pathways into animal advocacy research” (25 min, video, 2x speed available)

• Then book a career call with Alex!

Congratulations! 🎉

If you made it this far, you now have a better perspective on
what can be done for animals and some ideas on how to be a part of it!