Colorado State University Animal Ethicist Honored with Humane Award

The American Veterinary Medical association has recognized Colorado State University professor and bioethicist Dr. Bernard Rollin with its Humane Award, which honors efforts on behalf of animals and exceptional compassion for animal welfare.

Rollin is a University Distinguished Professor and is a professor of philosophy, biomedical sciences and animal sciences. Rollin developed the world’s first courses in veterinary medical ethics, ethical issues in animal science, and biology combined with philosophy. Rollin teaches these courses at Colorado State University and has helped universities around the world develop similar programs.

An internationally prominent scholar in animal rights and animal consciousness, Rollin is a member of the Pew National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. He serves on the Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources Council of the National Academy of Sciences. This group serves as the authoritative information source and an educational component for the animal care and use community, providing guidelines based on scientific and ethical principals for the humane use of animals in research and keeps the scientific community informed of laws related to animal use.

He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Shomer Award, given by the Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics to individuals who make significant contributions to veterinary medical ethics, for which he received a unanimous nomination. Recipients of the Shomer award are acknowledged as leaders in the veterinary medical ethics field who have promoted and embodied veracity, compassion, courage and integrity.

He also has been recognized with the Harris T. Guard Award for excellence in teaching and the Veterinary Service Award by the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association, an award that is rarely given and which recognizes outstanding service to veterinary medicine in Colorado. He was named to the Colorado State College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science Gallery of Distinguished Faculty in 1993. He also has been honored with the Henry Spira Award for Animal Welfare from Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives on Animal Testing and the U. S. West Excellence in Education award.  

Rollin has written more than 400 scientific articles and 14 books, lectured more than 1,000 times in 28 countries around the world. He is a principal author of the 1985 Animal Welfare Act and an international voice in animal-use ethics and has testified to Congress about animal welfare issues.

Rollin began working in Colorado State’s Department of Physiology in 1976.

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