The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence - 9781845193249

NEWS RELEASE 1 November 2011 TOP HONOUR FOR INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL PIONEER Oxford animal theologian Professor Andrew Linzey has been awarded a top university honour for his pioneering work around the world. The University of Winchester is to recognise Professor Linzey with an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in recognition of his work in animal theology in a graduation ceremony on 9 November. Professor Linzey, who is Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, said: "I am delighted to accept this award on behalf of my colleagues at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who are in the forefront of pioneering this subject internationally.” ?Animal ethics is now an emerging discipline with scores of university courses world-wide, and this is a tremendous boost to those working in this field.” ?Animal ethics explores the challenges that new thinking poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations.” Professor Elizabeth Stuart, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor commented: ?At Winchester we value and celebrate those who champion the voiceless and challenge the dominant paradigms. We shall honour one of the animals’ most thoughtful and passionate champions, someone who I believe will be remembered as one of the most pioneering and influential theologians of his day.” Professor Linzey was made an Honorary Professor of the University of Winchester in 2007, and in the same year his book Creatures of the Same God was the first to be published by Winchester University Press. He is also co-editor of the Journal of Animal Ethics published by the University of Illinois Press. ?Winchester has one of the most progressive departments of theology in the country, and I am delighted to be associated with it,” said Professor Linzey. The RSPCA gave one of its highest awards, the Lord Erskine Award, to Oxford theologian, the Reverend Professor Andrew Linzey at a special ceremony held at the RSPCA Headquarters in Horsham on 11 September 2010. Professor Andrew Linzey is one of the world’s leading ethicists on the status of animals and the pre-eminent theologian on animal issues. He is the founder and the Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics (www.oxfordanimalethics.com) and a member of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oxford. This is the first time that the award has been given to a theologian. On hearing of the award, Professor Linzey said: ?This is a tremendous affirmation of the work we have been doing at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. I am happy to accept this award on behalf of all the fellows of the Centre who are pioneering ethical perspectives on animals.” Professor Linzey has written or edited more than 20 books including seminal works on animals: Animal Theology (1994), Animal Gospel (1999), Creatures of the Same God (2004), and The Link Between Animal Abuse and Human Violence (2009). His latest book, Why Animal Suffering Matters published by Oxford University Press in 2009 has been described as ?a paradigmatic example of how practical ethics ought to be done”. (Christopher Libby, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4.1. 2010). Andrew Linzey is also Honorary Professor at the University of Winchester, and Special Professor at Saint Xavier University, Chicago. In addition, he is the first Henry Bergh Professor of Animal Ethics at the Graduate Theological Foundation, Indiana. The post is named after Henry Bergh, the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and pioneer in animal protection. The RSPCA’s award is named after Lord Erskine (1750?1823) who pioneered the first anti-cruelty legislation in the United Kingdom. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (as it then was) was founded a year after his death in 1824. Many philosophers, including Aquinas, Locke, Schopenhauer and Kant, have assumed that there is a link between cruelty to animals and violence to people. During the l