Animals, Ethics, and Justice
Beyond the Human: Sharing the Planet with Nonhuman Animals

Session: Understanding That Birds Are Individuals: Insight into Chicken Personality
Speaker: Dr. Maria Goller

About the Series
Animals, Ethics, and Justice: Beyond the Human is a webinar series organized and hosted by Dr. Kathrin Herrmann that explores what it means to live responsibly with other animals on a shared planet.
Across societies, nonhuman animals are often treated as resources, tools, or background to human life in areas such as science, food systems, urban environments, education, and environmental policy. This series brings together scholars, educators, practitioners, and advocates who are working to rethink these relationships through the lens of animal protection, ethics, and justice.
The series is grounded in the concept of multispecies justice, which recognizes that animals are morally relevant beings whose lives are shaped by human institutions. From this perspective, protecting animals cannot be separated from addressing broader challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and planetary health.
Rather than focusing narrowly on welfare improvements or harm reduction, the series asks how our legal, economic, educational, and scientific systems might be transformed in order to support more ethical, just, and compassionate forms of coexistence between humans and other animals.
Across the series, speakers will discuss topics including human–animal relations, animal ethics and political theory, wildlife coexistence, the role of companion animals in society, education and knowledge production, climate change, and the political and economic structures shaping life across species.

Webinar: Understanding That Birds Are Individuals
Insight into Chicken Personality

Birds are often perceived as lesser beings with less individuality, personality, and intelligence than mammals. Their appearance and behavior can make them seem mysterious and distant from human experience. While parrots and corvids are sometimes recognized for their intelligence, other birds are frequently dismissed as unintelligent, reflected in everyday expressions such as “birdbrain,” “silly goose,” or “chickening out.”
These misconceptions have real consequences. When birds are perceived as unintelligent or lacking individuality, it becomes easier to justify their exploitation. Chickens are among the most exploited animals on Earth. More than 75 billion chickens are killed each year for human consumption, and approximately six billion male chicks are killed shortly after hatching because they are considered economically useless in the egg industry.
In this talk, Dr. Maria Goller will share insights from her experience living with and caring for chickens. She will introduce individual birds who lived in her home and describe their distinct personalities and social relationships. Drawing on both personal observations and scientific studies of chicken cognition and behavior, the talk will challenge common misconceptions about birds and examine the limitations of how science has traditionally approached bird intelligence.
Finally, the webinar will explore what modern animal agriculture—both industrial and organic—often misunderstands about chickens and why recognizing birds as individuals raises important ethical questions about how humans treat them.
Register ahead of the webinar at: https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gLb3WvFySZSfnzaaBokzlg#/registration

About the Speaker

Maria Goller, PhD

Dr. Maria Goller majored in biology and holds a PhD in animal behavior and ecology. She grew up observing animals outdoors and remains happiest exploring wilderness areas on solo backpacking trips, where she encounters diverse wildlife, plants, and fungi. A lifelong birdwatcher, Maria is particularly interested in vocal communication and social interactions between individuals. Her work combines observational behavior research with conservation storytelling to help people better understand animals and recognize the importance of protecting the planet and all who live on it.
Maria is featured in the documentary “Maria & The Flock,” directed by Austin Meyer and produced by We Animals, which follows her work caring for rescued chickens at the California sanctuary Animal Place. The film highlights the individuality, resilience, and complex social lives of chickens while revealing the lasting impacts of industrial animal agriculture on birds who survive it.
Watch the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKEwKi6ccIc