Giving animals a helping hand

Books, essays, films and a media archive: the Zurich-based library of Tier im Recht now conta­ins more than 18,500 items on 200 topics rela­ting to animals. The charity opened its library in 2003. ‘It’s the beating heart of our charity,’ says Vanessa Gerrit­sen, Deputy Execu­tive Direc­tor of Tier im Recht. The charity was estab­lished 25 years ago, and has now become a centre of excel­lence hand­ling ques­ti­ons rela­ting to animals within the fields of law, ethics and society. The library may well offer the most compre­hen­sive coll­ec­tion of lite­ra­ture on rela­ti­ons between humans and animals in any German-spea­king coun­try. It is available to anyone inte­res­ted in it, and offers valuable infor­ma­tion to acade­mics in parti­cu­lar, inclu­ding students. There are work­sta­tions and copi­ers in the library. ‘We want to further expand our holdings and link them,’ says Vanessa Gerrit­sen. ‘This will help us promote prac­ti­cal rese­arch and help make people more aware of how to treat animals responsibly.’ 

Disco­ver the charity Tier im Recht on stiftungschweiz.ch