Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2011

We should not abandon our meat-eating habits, but remoralize them, by incorporating them into affectionate human relations, and using them in the true Homeric manner, as instruments of hospitality, conviviality and peace. Where there are conscientious carnivores, however, there is a motive to raise animals kindly.

Meat 40

Meat Vegetarian Battery Fast Food 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 6, 2009

Nevertheless there is, as far as I can determine, no moral duty not to eat meat, and one who eats meat is not thereby committing any moral error. The question is whether becoming a vegetarian in order to protest animal suffering or as a way of committing oneself to feeding the hungry people of the world is good but not obligatory.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Protest Protesting 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2011

He says he hunts out of a need to take responsibility for his family, who evidently live where the supermarkets offer no meat. He says meat tastes more precious when you’ve watched it die. Animals suffer when killed. May I recommend a trip to a slaughterhouse? No pearly phrases can make that any better.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Mountain Lions Deer 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 24, 2008

Not all meat eaters are cold, cruel, selfish individuals insensitive to animal suffering. Many, if not most, of the meat eaters I know are deeply concerned about the fact that the animals they eat are raised in factory farm conditions. Life without meat seems unbearable to them.

Vegan 40

Vegan Lacto-Ovo Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

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. Plant-based diets significantly reduce one risk of these chronic degenerative diseases.

Lacto-Ovo 40

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian Vegan Veal 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

The fact that geese mate for life, and that the mate of the poor goose that was slaughtered would step forward, was enough to make me swear off meat forever, if I hadn’t already. Doesn’t he realize that he does not have to engage in this voluntary activity, which causes moral conflict for himself and suffering for the animals?

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

Since chickens of the strain raised for meat production aren't typically raised in cages, the label "free roaming chicken" can legally be applied to chickens that were painfully debeaked and then permanently confined in an overcrowded shed with 100,000 other chickens each of whom had 7/10 of a square foot of floor space.

Factory 40

Factory Factory Farm Factory Farming Gestation Crates 40