[7] ETHICS OF CARE AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS ANIMALS

ARTICLE INFO: Date of Submission: Mar 17, 2026, Revised: Mar 30, 2026, Accepted: Apr 04 , 2026, CrossRef d.o.i : https://doi.org/10.56815/ijmrr.v5i4.2026.63-75. HOW TO CITE: Samir Ali (2026). Ethics of Care and Human Responsibility towards Animals. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research & Reviews. 5(4). 63-75.

Abstract

Ethical issues relating to the moral status of animals and the degree of human responsibility to animals have become a key point in modern ethical debate, especially in the view of ecological crises, industrial exploitation of animals and developing perceptions of animal sentience. The conventional ethical theories, including utilitarianism and rights-based ethics, have provided powerful theories to apply to animal ethics, but they both tend to work with abstract concepts that ignore emotional interaction, relationships, and moral experiences. The ethics of care started as a critique of mainstream paradigms of justice offers an approach to morality that is relational and context-sensitive, which prefigures empathy, compassion, interdependence, and responsibility. The paper discusses ethics of care as a moral theory of the human responsibility towards animals. It identifies the philosophical roots of care ethics, examines its key ideas, compares it to the mainstream anthropocentric ethical approaches, and determines its applicability to the field of animal ethics. The paper also interprets modern problems like animal farming, experimentation, wildlife preservation, and environmental pollution. Lastly, the paper states that ethics of care provides a morally attractive and pragmatically-based methodology of supporting more human and sustainable human-animal relationships.