The study of animal welfare and animal ethics, by scientists and philosophers, respectively, has had a common goal since the 1970s. Both areas of study strive to understand and express the proper type of relationship that should exist between humans and animals. However, with very little communication between the two groups, different concepts, assumptions, and vocabulary have emerged. In a sense, the two groups became two ‘cultures’. Some philosophers have obstructed the advancement by scientists because they tended to: focus on the individual as opposed to the population or species, promote single ethical principles rather than considering conflicting principles, dismiss the traditional ethics of care, responsibility and community with animals, only use ethical theory to find solutions (with little regard for empirical knowledge), to use single moral categories to cover different taxonomic groups, and to propose blanket solutions to a variety of animal use practices. On the other hand, ethicists did not accept the views of some scientists. Some scientists were proponents that subjective experiences and suffering could not be measured scientifically, and that welfare could be measured only as an empirical concept. However, there are some ethicists that have used the empirical results of animal welfare research to resolve animal ethics issues. This work uses more concrete notions (that could be analyzed scientifically) to express moral concerns about animals, places value on the traditional ethics of care, responsibility and community with animals, understands that good and bad animal use practices can be discriminated between using empirical analysis, and recognizes that different types and levels of ethical concern are required for different taxonomic groups. Similarly, the methods used by some animal welfare scientists have become more compatible with the methods of some ethicists. Such scientists are becoming more interested in the scientific study of subjective states of animals and the relationship of normative and empirical components in the assessment of animal welfare. A more integrated field of study may result as the scientific and philosophical approaches continue to converge. Also, as the cultures continue to converge, both empirical information and ethical reflection will be used to provide better answers to questions about the proper relationship between humans and animals.