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R. G. Frey on Animal Suffering

Animal Ethics

My view, then, is not that which it has often been taken to be in discussion and which Singer, Regan, Clark, and others blast in their work; I am not suggesting that, because they lack language, animals can be factory farmed without suffering. Animals can suffer, which they could not unless they were conscious; so they are conscious.

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John Passmore (1914-2004) on Animal Suffering

Animal Ethics

Neither Aquinas nor Kant nor Newman denied, however, that animals could suffer: Descartes and Malebranche thought differently. It is impossible, they argued, to be cruel to animals, since animals are incapable of feeling.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

While ever more consumers are going vegetarian or vegan, almost every consumer is demanding that companies take steps to reduce animal suffering. Tracy Reiman Executive Vice President People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Los Angeles, Oct. McDonald’s, are you listening?

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Reasons Consistently Applied

Animal Ethics

I suspect that many regular readers of Animal Ethics are already vegetarians. That's because those who read Animal Ethics with regularity know that there are many compelling reasons to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. This precept is variably stated as follows: Avoid killing or harming any living being.

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 13 of 13

Animal Ethics

CONCLUSION There is no doubt that moral vegetarianism will continue to be a position that attracts people concerned with the plight of animals and with humanitarian goals. Suppose first that there is a moral obligation to protest cruelty to animals or to commit onself [ sic ] to feeding the hungry people of the world. One final point.

Morals 40
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John Passmore (1914-2004) on the Moral Status of Animals

Animal Ethics

In other words, what they hated—and by no means perversely—was the enjoyment of animal suffering; to the mere fact that the bears suffered as a consequence of human action they were indifferent. That, on the whole, is the Christian tradition. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals 40
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Philip E. Devine on the Overflow Principle

Animal Ethics

If capacity for pain were the only feature of persons which entitled them to our consideration, then vegetarians would be right in attacking the person/animal distinction. This approach to animal suffering allows us to reach a happy compromise between the utilitarian and non-utilitarian approaches to the problem of cruelty to animals.

Morals 40