An exploratory study of British Millennials’ attitudes to the use of live animals in events

Ethical issues related to animal rights have gained significant exposure in the past few decades. As a result, animal welfare concerns have continuously been at the forefront of public debate. This has had a major impact on Western culture, expressed in the growing popularity of lifestyle changes towards reducing and abandonment of animal use across different industries. However, animal use in planned events remains insufficiently studied and absent from most event management literature. Therefore, this research aims to explore the opinions of Millennials on the use of live animals in events. The literature discusses anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism and cognitive dissonance, as reoccurring themes. A combination of a focus group and semi-structured interviews was undertaken, and the analysis identified entertainment, financial benefit and tradition as the main reasons for using live animals at events. Awareness and transparency on animal welfare issues within the events industry were stated by interviewees as points for improvement together with the lack of a clear definition of animal welfare, especially when it comes to captive and performing animals, as well as the uncertainty regarding animals’ stakeholder status in events.