Animal Ethics

AUGUST 24, 2012

With regard to wild animals, the general policy recommended by the rights view is: let them be! Tom Regan , The Case for Animal Rights , updated with a new preface [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004], 361 [italics in original] [first edition published in 1983])

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Los Angeles 2004 Animal Endangered Species 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 15, 2012

The rights view is not opposed to efforts to save endangered species. If people are encouraged to believe that the harm done to animals matters morally only when these animals belong to endangered species, then these same people will be encouraged to regard the harm done to other animals as morally acceptable.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 28, 2012

With the argument of the present chapter serving as the backdrop, the conclusion we reach is that to deny consciousness or a mental life to mammalian animals is an expression of human chauvinism. (

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 27, 2012

On Kant's view, rational beings, by which he means moral agents, are ends in themselves (have, that is, independent value, or worth, in their own right, quite apart from how useful they happen to be to others). As such, no moral agent is ever to be treated merely as a means. Moral agents (rational beings) are ends in themselves. (

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 12, 2012

Quite the contrary, just as would be true in the case of my son, what we should say is that part of the harm done to these animals by factory farming is that they do not know this. (

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Animal Person

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

And I received confirmation of something I've known since 2004, when we adopted retired racing greyhound, Violet Rays: That there's sort of a critical period for dog-behavior acquisition, and if it's missed, the dog isn't likely to mature into the type of loving being whose behavior we've come to associate with "pet" dogs.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 8, 2012

Tom Regan , The Case for Animal Rights , updated with a new preface [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004], 197-8 [italics in original; endnote omitted] [first edition published in 1983]) Cruelty is manifested in different ways.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 21, 2007

My original interest was narrow: animal rights. Eventually these interests brought me to Joel Feinberg [1926-2004] and Tom Regan, and that opened up my philosophical world. It ranged over music, politics, and philosophy, but the most interesting subject was how each of us came to discover and fall in love with philosophy.

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Animal Person

JUNE 8, 2009

It's one that's brought on, no doubt, by the acts of vandalism and intimidation of radical animal-rights groups, but I think it also serves to insulate the research community from any responsibility it might otherwise have to increase transparency and public engagement with the work.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 14, 2012

Whether individuals have legal rights depends on the laws and other legal background (e.g., the United States) citizens meeting certain requirements have the legal right to vote or run for elected office; in other countries (e.g., Libya) citizens do not have these rights. First, moral rights, if there are any, are universal.

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Rights Morals Los Angeles Libya 40

Critter News

APRIL 16, 2009

Here in Seattle, NARN (Northwest Animal Rights Network) has been staging protests at a local restaurant that serves foie gras. In addition, back in 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill making foie gras illegal starting in 2012. They've caught a lot of grief over it.

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