Research must benefit the individuals under study.
The work must go beyond benefiting animals in the aggregate and add value to the lives of the individual animal research subjects. For instance, a cognitive study that shows the capacities of fish and illustrates that they are “smart” should also be interesting for the particular fish involved in the research. We do not design research that we expect would come at the expense of unavoidable, unpleasant scenarios for the particular individual fish involved in the study.
Do no harm.
Our research will not harm animals, physically or conceptually. Scholarship embraces language and imagery that shows their personhood and dignity, to portray them as animate, agentic subjects, not objects.
Science can be objective without being objectifying.
What does this mean? It means that data-driven, rigorous, independent research can be conducted honoring the preferences, agency, and subjectivity of animal participants.
