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Peter Singer on Animal Rights

Animal Ethics

It would only be surprising to one who assumes that my case for animal liberation is based upon rights and, in particular, upon the idea of extending rights to animals. I make very little use of the word 'rights' in Animal Liberation , and I could easily have dispensed with it altogether.

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Michael Fox on Concern for Animals

Animal Ethics

From this perspective, the animal-rights debate seems considerably less urgent and a relatively "safe" area of controversy. One wonders why here (as elsewhere) there is so much concern for the plight of animals and evidently so little for that of humans.

Fox 40
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J. J. C. Smart on the Moral Status of Animals

Animal Ethics

If so, then he is to be excused; but nobody today can think that any particular moral theory has an advantage over the others based on the status it accords animals. Peter Singer, like Smart, is a utilitarian, but he told me personally several years ago that his argument for animal liberation is independent of utilitarianism.

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"Animal Rights Terrorism"

Animal Ethics

For the record, I am opposed to violence in behalf of animals. I can't think of anything that does more harm to the cause of animal liberation. In the long run, the best thing we can do for animals is engage in rational persuasion. I leave you this fine evening with a column by Debra Saunders.

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J. Baird Callicott on Wild Life

Animal Ethics

The land ethic, in sum, is as much opposed, though on different grounds, to commercial traffic in wildlife, zoos, the slaughter of whales and other marine mammals, etc., as is the humane ethic.

Ethics 40
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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 1 of 13

Animal Ethics

A third of a century ago, when the modern animal-liberation movement was in its infancy, Martin published an essay entitled “A Critique of Moral Vegetarianism,” Reason Papers (fall 1976): 13-43. His book on atheism is among the best I have read on that topic, which is why I used it in my Philosophy of Religion course many years ago. (I