1. Oscar Horta Alvarez was born on 7 May 1974 and is a Spanish animal rights activist and moral philosopher who is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and one of the co-founders of the nonprofit organization Animal Ethics.
Oscar Horta has worked on the concept of speciesism and on the clarification of the arguments for the moral consideration of nonhuman animals.
In 2022, Oscar Horta published his first book in English, Making a Stand for Animals.
Oscar Horta completed an undergraduate degree in philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1999, going on to complete a doctorate in philosophy at the same institution in 2007.
Oscar Horta's thesis was entitled Un desafio para la bioetica: la cuestion del especismo.
From 2005 to 2009, Oscar Horta was a lecturer in the Department of Logic and Moral Philosophy at USC.
Oscar Horta subsequently took up a visiting researcher position at Rutgers University from 2009 to 2010 and a research fellowship at the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology from 2009 to 2011.
Oscar Horta returned to USC in 2011 as a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Anthropology, becoming a professor in 2018.
Oscar Horta co-founded the animal advocacy organisation Animal Ethics in 2012.
Oscar Horta has acted as an organiser and spokesperson for the Spanish animal rights organisations Derechos para los Animales and Alternativa para la Liberacion Animal ; these organisations later merged to form Equanimal.
Oscar Horta is a member of the advisory board for the Sentience Institute, UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics, and Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering.
In 2022, Oscar Horta published Making a Stand for Animals, his first English-language book.
Oscar Horta has defined speciesism as discrimination against those who do not belong to one or more species, understanding by discrimination an unjustified unequal consideration or treatment.
Oscar Horta's account denies that speciesism is confined to discrimination on the basis of species alone.
Oscar Horta argues that, contrary to what he describes as an idyllic view of the wilderness, animals suffer significantly in nature from disease, predation, exposure, starvation, and other threats.
Oscar Horta rejects speciesism, and thus argues that we have good reason to intervene in natural processes to protect animals from this suffering when it is possible to do so without causing more harm.
Oscar Horta argued that such initiatives could be expanded, and that in order to avoid controversies with environmentalists opposing such initiatives, pilot programs could start by focusing on wild animals living in urban, suburban, or agricultural environments.
Oscar Horta has published philosophical works in Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, English, Italian, French, and German.