A slow but steady shift in perspective on the need to address ethical issues within the professional activity of animal scientists has been underway for almost twenty years. Increasingly the issue is less whether animal scientists should be discussing ethical issues in their classes, at their professional meetings and in their interactions with client groups, but how they should do so. This paper will provide some arguments in support of this general trend, and will make some suggestions about how animal scientists can increase their capacity to address ethical issues as part of their professional responsibility.