The PEPP Framework.
The PEPP (‘Prepare, Engage, Prevent, and Protect’) Framework establishes standards for legal and ethical conduct with respect to nonhuman animal communication technologies (NACTs) and provides guidance to shape decision-making across every stage of their lifecycle.
The Framework applies to all NACTs and is intended fora wide range of NACT actors — researchers, practitioners, funders, engineers, designers, and scientists involved in the design, construction, and deployment of these technologies.
About this summary
This is a high-level distillation of the PEPP Framework, designed to make its core principles accessible to a broad audience. Those endorsing the Framework commit to the full set of principles as elaborated in Listening to Our Animal Kin: Legal and Ethical Principles for Nonhuman Animal Communication Technologies (NYU MOTH Program, November 2025).
In recognition of nonhuman animals as subjects with intrinsic value rather than objects, and grounded in an ethic of kinship, reciprocity, and care for the living world, the PEPP Framework sets out twelve principles for the responsible development and use of nonhuman animal communication technologies (NACTs).
Organized under four pillars — Prepare, Engage, Prevent, and Protect — these principles direct NACT actors at every stage of their work, from design through deployment, monitoring, and remediation.
Prepare
Operationalize experimental design best practices and robust governance protocols from the outset, with continuous diligence and accountability.
Research Design Standards
In designing and deploying NACTs, adhere to scientifically rigorous and protective research standards, including the 3Rs (Replace nonhuman animal subjects where possible; reduce the number affected; and refine methods to minimize harm to individuals, communities, and ecosystems).
Governing Protocols
Establish and publish robust ethics and data governance protocols — including safeguards to protect nonhuman animal data from misuse, commercialization, and cyber-poaching — before any NACT activity begins.
Engage
Consult a diverse set of stakeholders and perspectives to ensure well-informed and equitable implementation in a spirit of kinship with the living world.
Diverse & Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement
Pursue diverse and meaningful stakeholder engagement, in particular with independent scientific experts and, to the maximum possible extent, Indigenous and traditional community knowledge-holders whose ancestral lands and waters are shared with nonhuman research subjects.
Recognition
Acknowledge the contributions of nonhuman animals to your research or work, and share NACT-derived benefits with them and their ecosystems where possible.
Transparency
Operate openly: publish your ethics and governance protocols, share risk assessments, and report impacts (including harms and shortcomings) honestly and proactively.
Prevent
Embed precautionary and risk management practices across the full lifecycle of NACT activity to prevent harms.
Burden of Justification
NACT actors carry the burden of justifying any risk of harm to humans and nonhumans by reference to robust, independent, and scientifically sound evidence.
Risk Analysis and Mitigation
Identify, analyze, and mitigate all risks (direct, indirect, and cumulative) across the full NACT lifecycle. Where severe risks cannot be mitigated, cease the relevant activities.
Precaution
Conceive, design, assemble, and use NACTs in a manner consistent with the precautionary principle. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible harm to a nonhuman animal, a community, or an ecosystem, the planned activity should cease and be replaced with an alternative plan of action.
Protect
Protect the autonomy, best interests, and rights of all humans and nonhuman animals in the context of their ecological surroundings.
Autonomy
Respect the autonomy of nonhuman animals, who should be understood as subjects (rather than objects) with the right to be left alone. Pursue and facilitate only non-coerced participation, and disengage whenever signs of coercion or unwillingness appear.
Best Interests of the Animal
Let the best interests of the nonhuman animal (physical, mental, relational, and environmental), which should be prioritized throughout the NACT lifecycle, guide every decision. Modify or discontinue any activity that would materially harm those interests.
Implementation
Comply with the law and implement these principles with urgency, diligence, and accountability. Identify, from the outset, those individuals responsible for compliance and establish mechanisms for redress.
Remediation of Harms
When harms occur, remediate them urgently and thoroughly — including indirect harms and harms arising from the foreseeable misuse of the technology.
Endorse or download the full PEPP Framework.
The complete report is available for free download. It includes background context, the Framework’s methodology, its values foundation, an analysis of the risks associated with NACTs, detailed commentary on each principle, and key examples of the principles in practice.