Animal Ethics

JANUARY 2, 2011

I propose that the moral significance of the suffering, mutilation, and death of non-human animals rests on the following, which may be called the overflow principle: Act towards that which, while not itself a person, is closely associated with personhood in a way coherent with an attitude of respect for persons.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 29, 2008

The degree of restriction placed on human behavior, furthermore, is relatively slight. Whereas it once used to be argued, as by Newman , that the least human good compensates for any possible amount of animal suffering, the current doctrine is that it requires a considerable good to compensate for such suffering.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 23, 2009

When it is asked whether animals have rights, and whether human beings have duties to them, the question, I think, is partly moral and partly verbal. It is this latter view, I believe, that is in the minds of some of those who deny that animals have rights. Let us consider the moral question first.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

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.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 31, 2007

Just days before Barbaro was humanely put down, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act was reintroduced in Congress. In an incredible juxtaposition to the fanfare of Barbaro, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered last year in the United States and shipped to Europe and Japan for human consumption.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2008

What have humane people to say to the tremendous mass of animal suffering inflicted in the interests of the Table?

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

If people had to see what these animals are subjected to or take an active role in their deaths, I believe many more people would think before they eat. We pay lip service to more humane treatment of the animals that we eat, but how many of us look beyond the label on the package of chicken cutlets?

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New York Times New York Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

To learn more about Arizona's precedent-setting victory for farm animals, see here. September 7, 2006, a bill banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption( H.R. Calling an inhumane practice "humane" does not make that practice humane. We can refuse to purchase products of pain deceptively marketed as "humane."

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 4, 2009

Becoming a vegetarian is the most practical and effective step one can take towards [sic; kbj] ending both the killing of non-human [sic; kbj] animals and the infliction of suffering upon them. KBJ: Singer’s claim is that one should not contribute, even incrementally, to animal suffering. That is absurd.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 21, 2008

By comparing the common mind-set that has produced both the past injustices against humans and the current abuses of animals, we can and do inspire debate and convince many people that it is a human obligation to speak out against injustice to all beings. Animal suffering and human suffering are undeniably interconnected.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 2, 2008

(h) Don’t attend circuses that contain nonhuman animal acts. (i) i) Do attend socially conscious circuses like Cirque de Soleil that exclusively feature human performers. (j) j) Donate only to Humane Charities that don't test on animals. A list of Humane Charities is available here. Do it for the animals.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

Consequently, no turkey has suffered or died on my account for the past quarter century. They can't solve the problem of animal suffering all by themselves, so they throw up their hands in defeat and go on eating meat. Addendum: Sometimes, in talking to omnivores, I get the sense that they feel impotent. Surely not.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

(h) Don’t attend circuses that contain nonhuman animal acts. (i) i) Do attend socially conscious circuses like Cirque de Soleil that exclusively feature human performers. (j) j) Donate only to Humane Charities that don't test on animals. A list of Humane Charities is available here. There's more!

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 15, 2006

Given that belief, they no doubt also believe that it is wrong to knowingly contribute to unnecessary suffering. If they are at all informed about modern animal agricultural practices, they know that raising animals intensively in factory farms greatly increases the amount of animal suffering in the world.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 23, 2006

Jonathan Hubbell, a philosophy major at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the newest member of the Animal Ethics blog, and once again, I would like to welcome him aboard. Of course, when hamburgers aren't at stake, most of us think that it would be morally wrong to kill an animal for no good reason.

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