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Tom Regan on Cruelty

Animal Ethics

Cruelty is manifested in different ways. The central case of cruelty appears to be the case where, in Locke's apt phrase, one takes "a seeming kind of Pleasure" in causing another to suffer. Let us term this sadistic cruelty. Cruelty of either kind, sadistic or brutal, can be manifested in active or passive behavior.

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The Florida FWC illegally killed 34 pythons and one 10-year-old pregnant Boa constrictor

Reddit Animals

Reptiles that are not treated ethically simply do not make good pets. And their behavior is completely consistent with what we would understand as "animal sentience. " It affects the way we think about animals, and affects our views on animal cruelty.

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Enjoy of the Ethical Synergy of Healthy Eating in 2010!

Animal Ethics

Elsewhere in this blog (see here , here , and here ), I have written about ethical synergy , the regularly observed phenomenon that simultaneously showing respect for persons (including oneself), animals, and the environment typically benefits all three groups (including oneself).

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Leonard Nelson (1882-1927) on Duties to Animals

Animal Ethics

Moral philosophers, even those belonging to the Critical School [the followers of Kant and Fries], have often represented duties to animals as indirect duties to oneself or to other men. For instance, maltreatment of animals is forbidden on the ground that it encourages cruelty, that is, a disposition that obstructs fulfillment of duty.

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H. J. McCloskey on Punishment of Cruelty to Animals

Animal Ethics

[T]here is another class of cases where the state is accorded the right to interfere with the individual when he is not interfering with any other person, namely, where cruelty to animals is involved. Yet it is legislation that few of us should wish to condemn as lacking in justification. (It who cannot protect their interests.

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Meat, Cancer, and the Cumulative Case for Ethical Vegetarianism

Animal Ethics

Ethical vegetarianism is the thesis that killing and eating animals is morally wrong whenever equally nutritious plant-based alternatives are available. The case for ethical vegetarianism starts with several uncontroversial premises. It is not just a few outspoken animal rights fanatics who hold this view. He’s right.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

To the Editor: Re “ Animal Abuse as Clue to Additional Cruelties ” (news article, March 18): As someone who deals with dozens of cruelty-to-animals cases every week, I applaud states that are imposing stricter penalties on people who hurt animals and that are working to establish online registries of animal abusers.