The Human and Animal Institute was founded in 2020 out of the vision of professionals specializing in human-animal relations and seeking to promote a positive change in our society’s relationship with animals. Our starting point is that animals do not exist to serve us; they have consciousness, personality, and emotions – traits that impose a deep moral responsibility on us towards them. This approach is consistent with the most advanced social and ethical trends of recent decades, as they are revealed in the work programs of many different organizations and the agendas of multitudes of individuals.
Against this background, our uniqueness lies in our strategy: we work on projects over particularly long timescales, in collaboration with the most institutionalized and authoritative frameworks, and we focus on systemic improvements in the institutional treatment of animals while relying on the work of experts. The Institute's work is based on studying the nature of human-animal relationships on several levels: understanding the various motives for harming animals, analyzing the processes that deepen and perpetuate harm, analyzing conflicts between humans and animals, and developing practical solutions. To achieve these goals, we lead educational and mediation work, based on several fields: natural sciences, social sciences, applied knowledge, and moral thought.
