Companion Animal Welfare: A Focus on Ethics and Laws
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 10
Special Issue Editors
Interests: veterinary internal medicine; ethics and law; animal welfare
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: veterinary internal medicine; ethics and law; animal welfare
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Companion animals play an essential role in human society, raising complex questions about welfare standards, ethical obligations, and legal responsibilities. As global awareness of animal rights continues to grow, there is an urgent need to examine how ethical frameworks and legal systems address the well-being of companion animals across diverse cultural and regulatory contexts.
This Special Issue aims to explore the intersection between ethics and law in companion animal welfare, highlighting current challenges, innovative approaches, and future directions for research and policy development. We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions that critically analyze legal frameworks, ethical debates, and their practical implications for improving companion animal welfare worldwide. We invite contributions addressing current challenges, comparative legal perspectives, policy development, enforcement mechanisms, and the ethical dilemmas that arise in veterinary practice and animal management. By fostering interdisciplinary dialog between law, ethics, veterinary science, and animal welfare studies, this Special Issue seeks to advance knowledge and inform both scientific and societal approaches to ensuring the well-being of companion animals. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: legal frameworks and enforcement; ethical considerations in ownership, breeding, and euthanasia; regulation of trade, adoption, and breeding practices, liability and legal responsibility for neglect and abuse; technology and innovation for animal welfare; and companion animals in therapy, service roles, and public spaces.
Dr. Michela Pugliese
Prof. Dr. Annamaria Passantino
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- companion animal welfare
- animal ethics
- animal law
- euthanasia
- animal rights
- legal frameworks
- responsible ownership
- breeding and trade regulation
- animal protection policies
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