Critter News

JULY 19, 2009

Sunstein is a Harvard law professor who has written about animal protection issues. He is the co-editor, for example, of Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, which examines views both in favor and against animal law.

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Animal Protection Protection Obama Animal Welfare 100

Animal Person

JULY 20, 2009

Brief commentary follows this e-mail I received regarding greyhounds, animal rights and Ireland. We're simply asking you for just a couple of hour to help greyhounds in serious trouble right now. Need reminding why cruelty to animals is wrong? I wonder how well that works.

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Greyhounds Animal Rights Rights Ireland 100

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2015

A recent Gallup poll (conducted May 6-10, 2015) found that 32% of Americans believe that "animals deserve the exact same rights as people to be free from harm and exploitation," while only 3% of Americans feel that animals don't need much protection from harm and exploitation "since they are just animals."

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Morals 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

But prejudices die hard, all the more so when, as in the present case, they are insulated by widespread secular customs and religious beliefs, sustained by large and powerful economic interests, and protected by the common law. The animal rights movement is not for the faint of heart.

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Animal Rights Movement Animal Rights Rights Los Angeles 40

Animal Person

JANUARY 6, 2010

The way I see it, there are three camps on this one: People who think that dolphins or Great Apes or chimps could function as a gateway to other animals getting rights. You could be for or against animal rights and believe the gateway theory.

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Dolphins Animal Rights Rights Animal 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2015

Tell me, what happens if we rip away hunting when hunting protects more wildlife land in Africa than national parks? Although lip service was paid to the fact that lions are endangered and a lion was poached, the language of anger was the language of animals rights. And that lions are really cute. Ah, you’ve blocked me.

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Lions Hunting Sierra Leone Buffalo 207

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

This Lion should not be shot, as it is a protected reserve that forbids shooting. The interests of those working for conservation and those working for animal rights and animal welfare don’t always perfectly align like you might think they do. Lions are a resource, and one to be managed and protected.

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Lions Killing Hunting Hunters 183

Animal Ethics

MARCH 5, 2007

I don't expect that many readers will be converted to the cause of animal rights by reading this book. Nor have I dealt with advances in the legal protection of animals both in practice and in theory. Franklin, Animal Rights and Moral Philosophy [New York: Columbia University Press, 2005], xvii-xviii)

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Animal Rights Rights Animal Morals 40

Critter News

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

Despite efforts by animal rights activists to stop this hunt, it is scheduled to continue. New Jersey’s first bear hunt in five years is just a week away and set to go on as planned despite a last-ditch effort by several animal rights organizations to have the hunt postponed. That really sucks. From North Jersey.com.

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New Jersey Bears Hunting Culling 100

Critter News

MAY 23, 2011

An animal rights group based in the United States has ranked Quebec “the best province to be an animal abuser” in a report on Canada’s animal welfare record. That sucks. From the Montreal Gazette.

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Animal Abuse Animal Welfare United States Animal 100

Critter News

MARCH 23, 2010

According to this interview, he credits animal rights extremists for fueling the public backlash against animal protection. Tags: UK animal research. Discouraging article.

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Critter News

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

Full story posted on Global Animal and from the Huffington Post. Do whales deserve constitutional protection against slavery? On February 8, a federal judge said ‘no,’ stopping a historic case filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against SeaWorld for violating the 13th Amendment on slavery.

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PETA San Diego Whales Whaling 100

Critter News

DECEMBER 2, 2011

Animal-rights activists claim an orca is being held in an "inadequate tank" in the Miami Seaquarium. The activists claim Lolita is being "kept in an inadequate tank, without companions of her own species or adequate protection from the sun.". Read the rest of the article in the Courthouse News Service.

Miami 100

Miami Animal Legal Defense Fund Ethical Treatment Whales 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2013

In the past I have attributed some of this conflict to differences between the conservation mindset and that of animal rights/animal welfare. And embattled minority should be protected. I still think that distinction is important, but it isn’t sufficient to explain what is going on here.

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Tigers Hunting Game Protection 172

Critter News

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Animal rights groups are seeking leave to appeal to the high court in their ongoing fight to have Lucy the elephant moved to a warm-weather U.S. In their Supreme Court application, the groups say private citizens have a right to seek legal remedies to ensure that governments enforce animal protection laws.

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Elephants Ethical Treatment Zoos PETA 100

Critter News

JUNE 17, 2009

".prejudices die hard, all the more so when they are insulated by widespread secular customs and religious beliefs, sustained by large and powerful economic interests, and protected by the common law. The animal rights movement is not for the faint heart." --Tom Regan.

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Animal Rights Movement Laws Animal Rights Collecting 100

Critter News

JULY 27, 2011

The second bear to meet its end this year on the Trans-Canada Highway has prompted an animal rights group to call for immediate repairs to a fence line intended to protect wildlife in Banff National Park. Apparently, there's room for improvement. From the Calgary Herald.

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Bears Canada Killing Wildlife 100

Critter News

JULY 24, 2009

There are so many fronts on the war for animal rights (and I'm increasingly believing that "war" is the right word for it) and often times it's hard to know what to do. The protection of marine animals may fall under "environmentalism," but these are artificial divisions.

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Marine Life Seals Animal Rights For Animals 100

4 The Love Of Animals

MAY 11, 2010

The International Fund for Animal Welfare ( IFAW ), is a non-profit organization working to save animals in crisis worldwide, to help protect our oceans’ whale population. IFAW advocates for the protection of wildlife in their habitats, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and rescues individual animals.

Whales 100

Whales Whaling International Fund For Animal Welfare IFAW 100

Critter News

DECEMBER 24, 2010

Follow-up from the Utah scandal in which shelter animals were being sold for research purposes. The Davis County Commission has agreed to pay the legal fees of an animal rights group after settling a lawsuit over animal shelter records. The settlement provides limited protections for the county from further litigation.

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PETA Shelters Ethical Treatment Utah 100

Animal Person

AUGUST 16, 2011

Hal Herzog’s “ Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat ” (Harper 2011), though fascinating, is ultimately depressing for vegans and animal rights activists. Over at Animal Rights and AntiOppression , we’ve been discussing tactics and sharing our thoughts and experiences about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to advocacy.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 23, 2009

The question of words is whether to talk about the rights of animals is likely to mislead.

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Animal Person

JANUARY 27, 2010

I've been blogging here less partly because I've been blogging at Animal Rights & AntiOppression (check out my latest post " On Corporate Personhood and Animal Rights " and the better-than-the-post comments) but also because I've been feeling like a broken record and I don't want to bore anyone.

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Animal Person

MARCH 10, 2010

I credit Will Potter as the catalyst for shifting my focus away from critiques of other activists and activist groups (particularly his post, " While the Government Continues Attacks on Activists, Animal Rights Groups Protest Each Other " back in 2008). I'm not saying that criticism of PETA, or any other group, isn't warranted.

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Animal Person

APRIL 14, 2009

Here's another direct action and its result, as described in an interview by Larry Mantle on KPCC Radio (it's the one called " Animal Rights vs. Animal Testing "). He speaks of the "mixed message of the animal rights community" that animals are so much like us, yet not enough like us to experiment on.

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Animal Liberation Front UCLA Animal Liberation Primates 100

Animal Ethics

JUNE 11, 2008

So far McCloskey is on solid ground, but one can quarrel with his denial that any animals but humans have interests. I should think that the trustee of funds willed to a dog or cat is more than a mere custodian of the animal he protects. The animal itself is the beneficiary of his dutiful services.

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2004 Animal Rights Rights Animal 40

Animal Person

MAY 11, 2009

Yesterday's " Do Small Victories Affect Big Picture in Animal Rights Debate? Both, of course, were seen as victories, but the article's author, Richard Foot, asks: Do such successes mean the animal rights movement is winning its long, controversial campaigns to gain the same legal protections for animals as those ascribed to humans?

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Foie Gras Seals Protest Protesting 100

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 15, 2012

But though the rights view must look with favor on any attempt to protect the rights of any animal, and so supports efforts to protect the members of endangered species, these very efforts, aimed specifically at protecting the members of species that are endangered, can foster a mentality that is antagonistic to the implications of the rights view.

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Endangered Species Species Los Angeles Morals 40

Critter News

MAY 24, 2009

From the press release: “To characterize protest and speech as terrorist activities is ludicrous,” said Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) cooperating attorney Matthew Strugar. And it is not just animal rights activists who are in danger here. These activities are protected by the First Amendment.

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AETA Protest Protesting Protesters 100

Animal Person

JUNE 16, 2010

For all our devotion, though, we sometimes seem not to recognize the needs and wants of animals. We unwittingly partake of activities that hurt, physically and mentally, the very creatures we admire and seek to protect from harm (5).". Coetzee The Lives of Animals veganism. There is story. There is passion. There is pain.

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Advocacy Vegan Ethics Animal Rights 100

Animal Person

APRIL 26, 2009

Vamsee Juluri, Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, takes me back to graduate school when he writes of the importance of the stories we tell ourselves in " Use Free Speech to Celebrate Animal Life, Not to Enjoy Their Suffering." They certainly depict cruelty to animals, right? What do you think?

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Animal Person

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

For only $450,000, we could buy almost all of the habitat neded to protect Ecuador's remaining frogs. Or an animal that could use the aid of human intervention, such as the Florida panther, which has benefited from the culverts built to help it safely cross highways (221).

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Polar Bears California Condor Bald Eagle Lions 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2014

Animal rights types start emerging from the woodwork and comparing conservationists to Nazis, obsessing about the purity of a species (see attempts to control Ruddy Ducks to save White-headed Ducks). Conservation, as I have observed before, is interested in protecting the population and the ecosystem over the individual.

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Species New Zealand Ducks Game 166

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 6, 2007

Here is an excellent article by Gayle Dean on the Bush Administration's excessive use of the rhetoric of terror, especially as it is being selectively applied to animal rights advocates.

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Animal Abuse Laws Animal Rights Protection 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

The Argument from Animal Rights A stronger argument is made by people who maintain that animals have rights. In particular, it has been argued that animals have a right to life. So, even if animals are killed painlessly and raised for food in humane ways, it is wrong to kill them.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Suffering Killing 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 30, 2012

In 2002 the German Parliament amended Article 26 of the Basic Law to give nonhuman animals the right to be “respected as fellow creatures” and to be protected from “avoidable pain.” Half of the sixteen German states already have some sort of animal rights provisions in their constitutions.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 14, 2012

Theoretically, one could, it is true, create legal rights that accord with or protect moral rights, but that is not the same as creating these moral rights in the first place. If there are moral rights, they do not "come to be" in the way legal rights do. (

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Rights Morals Los Angeles Libya 40