Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages

In this research, we develop a reporting framework based on an ethical account of the Australian live sheep export (LSE) industry’s current operations. We demonstrate that LSE operates within a legitimacy vacuum constituted by a repeated cycle of events that we characterize as scandal-response-obdur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2022-09, Vol.180 (1), p.35-56
Main Authors: Christensen, Mark, Lamberton, Geoffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accounting
Agribusiness
Agriculture
Animal welfare
Animals
Annual reports
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Cost benefit analysis
Cruelty
Cruelty to animals
Curiosity
Education
Enforcement
Epistemology
Ethics
Exports
International trade
Jurisdiction
Legitimacy
Livestock
Management
Market shares
Meat industry
Original Paper
Philosophy
Profits
Quality of Life Research
Quarantine
Regulation
Scandals
Sheep
Welfare
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this research, we develop a reporting framework based on an ethical account of the Australian live sheep export (LSE) industry’s current operations. We demonstrate that LSE operates within a legitimacy vacuum constituted by a repeated cycle of events that we characterize as scandal-response-obduracy with a constant factor being animal cruelty on an industrial scale. The lack of legitimacy is facilitated by an obdurate regulatory context, an absence of consumer awareness of industry practices, jurisdictional impediments to enforcement of animal cruelty laws and foundational epistemic vices upon which the industry calculates an unethical cost benefit analysis of current practice. While legitimacy theory would expect demise of the LSE industry, its prolonged continuation is more than a curiosity. It presents an opportunity to understand how focus on vice epistemics and reporting of animal welfare may contribute to emancipatory change in the form of improved animal welfare in agricultural industries.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-021-04857-6