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John Passmore (1914-2004) on the History of Animal Cruelty

Animal Ethics

Man-hunting is ruled out as a sport but not, at least with the same degree of unanimity, fox or bird hunting. So while it is generally agreed that it is wrong to experiment on human beings without their consent in the expectation of making scientific discoveries, there is no such general opposition to animal vivisection.

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John Passmore (1914-2004) on the Moral Status of Animals

Animal Ethics

And by this they mean not only that it is wrong to enjoy torturing animals—which few moralists would ever have wished explicitly to deny, however little emphasis they might have placed on cruelty to animals in their moral teaching—but that it is wrong to cause them to suffer unnecessarily. That, on the whole, is the Christian tradition.

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On Trial: Animal Torture Videos vs. Free Speech

Animal Ethics

Code, Title 18.48, made it a federal crime to knowingly create, sell, or possess a depiction of animal cruelty with the intention of placing that depiction in interstate or foreign commerce for commercial gain. Is the NYTimes right to support striking down the law banning depictions of animal cruelty on First Amendment/free speech grounds?