The paper discusses and criticizes views on various aspects of the situations of animals within human societies offered by authors presenting at the seminar held at the Research Centre for Public Policy and Regulatory Governance. They include legal, ethical as well as socio-psychological problems about animal welfare and the attempts to improve the conditions in which animals are treated. The author hints at the theoretical background as well as implications of some of the ideas that are advocated in the ongoing legal and ethical debates over animal welfare. The discussion aims to shed some light on how the cross-disciplinary studies and exchanges that include biologists, psychologists, sociologists as well as legal researchers may contribute to numerous controversies in the contemporary animal law scholarship.