Animal Ethics, Examples and Morals

Bernard E. Rollin on the Moral Status of Animals

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Philosophers have shown that the standard reasons offered to exclude animals from the moral circle, and to justify not assessing our treatment of them by the same moral categories and machinery we use for assessing the treatment of humans, do not meet the test of moral relevance. 41 in A Companion to Bioethics , 2d ed.,

Morals

Morals Animal 2009 Humane

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 12 of 13

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Pacifists like Gandhi are often cited as examples of people who are vegetarians and who are opposed to violence. People who do not eat meat for moral reasons tend to be less brutal than people who do eat meat.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Inhumane Meat

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 1 of 13

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

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. You will, therefore, agree with Martin about moral vegetarianism but not about Christianity. Another reason is moral.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Meat Vegan

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 4 of 13

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. What Is an Animal Part? The last example suggests the difficulty of making a clear distinction between an animal part and an animal product. They suggest that any simple moral vegetarianism is impossible.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 9 of 13

Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Animal Rights A stronger argument is made by people who maintain that animals have rights. In particular, it has been argued that animals have a right to life. According to Benn, only moral agents have rights.

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Morals Vegetarian Suffering Killing

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 2 of 13

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 21, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. SOME PROBLEMS OF MORAL VEGETARIANISM With respect to traditional moral vegetarianism some problems immediately come to the fore. Who exactly is not supposed to eat animals or products of animals?

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Morals Vegetarian Meat Lions

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 11 of 13

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Human Grain Shortage All of the clearly moral arguments for vegetarianism given so far have been in terms of animal rights and suffering. It is argued that beef cattle and hogs are protein factories in reserve.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Meat Cattle

Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) on Beefy Morals

Animal Ethics

APRIL 10, 2009

Nor is it only among schoolboys that over-eating is rampant, for the tables of the wealthy are everywhere loaded with flesh-meat, and the example thus set is naturally followed, first in the servants' hall, and then, as far as may be, in the homes of the working classes. A nice moral bond of union, truly, between colonies and motherland!

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Morals Paraguay Vegetarian Meat

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

Reddit Animals

APRIL 11, 2023

Many of these changes (loss of legs, different type of locomotion, highly modified skull, loss of eyelids, ambush predator hunting strategy) have caused snakes to appear less "anthropomorphic" than lizards or turtles for example. You can dislike something and still recognize the ethical significance of that animal.

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Pythons illegal Florida Killing

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

Animal Ethics

MAY 25, 2008

One restriction on the absolutism of man's rule over Nature is now generally accepted: moral philosophers and public opinion agree that it is morally impermissible to be cruel to animals. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection

Tom Regan on Endangered Species

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 15, 2012

If people are encouraged to believe that the harm done to animals matters morally only when these animals belong to endangered species, then these same people will be encouraged to regard the harm done to other animals as morally acceptable. This is not what the rights view implies.

Endangered Species

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Tom Regan on Utilitarianism

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2012

The initial attractiveness of utilitarianism as a moral theory on which to rest the call for the better treatment of animals was noted in an earlier context. Because animals are sentient (i.e., Because animals are sentient (i.e.,

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W. D. Ross (1877-1971) on the Right and the Good

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Now when we ask what is the general nature of morally good actions, it seems quite clear that it is in virtue of the motives that they proceed from that actions are morally good. Thus a morally good action need not be the doing of a right act, and the doing of a right act need not be a morally good action.

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Kristof

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

For example: Does Kristof own stock in a rival company?) Eating meat and using mousetraps are as different (morally speaking) as night and day. This shows that Kristof has not given much serious thought to the topic of the moral status of animals. This is cynicism. Cynicism is the imputation of bad motives.

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Meat Morals New York Times New York

Philip E. Devine on the Overflow Principle

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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Philip E. Devine on Vegetarianism

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

There are two approaches a vegetarian might take in arguing that rearing and killing animals for food is morally offensive. He might argue that eating animals is morally bad because of the pain inflicted on animals in rearing and killing them to be eaten. Nor could he object to the painless killing of wild animals.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Meat Morals Cows

Plant Rights

Animal Ethics

MAY 4, 2008

If Smith thinks that plant rights and animal rights stand or fall together, then he is confused, for there is a morally relevant difference between plants and animals, namely, that only the latter are sentient. Addendum: Smith appears not to understand the animal-rights movement. Animals have weight on the moral scale.

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Philip E. Devine on the Vegetarian's Dilemma

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2010

In the first case, there is no way around the suggestion, which many people appear to believe, that animal experience is so lacking in intensity that the pains of animals are overridden by the pleasures experienced by human beings. Think of the difference between eating a hamburger and eating a veggie burger, for example.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Hamburgers Morals Meat

Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) on Consistency

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I, for example, am a demi-vegetarian. I have had no other animal products (no beef, pork, lamb, or turkey, for example) since 1982. That depends on whether there are morally relevant differences between chickens and fish on the one hand and cows, pigs, and sheep on the other. Surely that counts for something, morally.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Chickens Lamb

Meat, Cancer, and the Cumulative Case for Ethical Vegetarianism

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2008

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.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Meat Ethics Lacto-Ovo

"Animal Rights Terrorism"

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 4, 2008

If I can show you that one of your moral principles entails that it's wrong to eat meat, then, to avoid contradiction, you must either abandon the principle or abstain from meat. Here is a brilliant example of this approach. Their only tool is the law of noncontradiction, which says that no proposition can be both true and false.

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Steven M. Wise on Legal Rights for Animals

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 30, 2012

The legal rights of nonhuman animals might first be achieved in any of three ways. For example, the Treaty of Amsterdam that came into force on May 1, 1999, formally acknowledged that nonhuman animals are “sentient beings” and not merely goods or agricultural products. Among its chief values are liberty and equality.

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Rights For Animals Legislation Laws

J. Baird Callicott on Value

Animal Ethics

JUNE 20, 2008

The value that is attributed to the ecosystem, therefore, is humanly dependent or (allowing that other living things may take a certain delight in the well-being of the whole of things, or that the gods may) at least dependent upon some variety of morally and aesthetically sensitive consciousness.

Ethics

Ethics Morals Animal Liberation Humane

Ends and Means

Animal Ethics

MARCH 5, 2008

Only the fourth is respectful of persons, which is a moral imperative. Everyone who cares about animals must emphatically denounce (as well as renounce ) the use of force, coercion, or manipulation to improve the lot of animals. The second is to use coercion (i.e., the threat of harm). The third is to use manipulation (e.g.,

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Animal Advocates' Successes Have Factory Farmers Running Scared

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

The dark secret behind factory farm profits—cruel and inhumane animal husbandry—is getting out. Factory farmers treat animals inhumanely for no good reason. Since morally decent individuals oppose treating animals inhumanely for no good reason, factory farming is becoming an increasingly hard sell.

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Factory Factory Farm Factory Farming Gestation Crates

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 8 of 13

Animal Ethics

JUNE 4, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. In fact, animals used for food do suffer a great deal. Meat-packing companies might encourage, for example, an increased dog population to take up the slack. In other contexts a similar phenomenon has occurred. One can do many things.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Morals Protest Protesting

Tom Regan on Rights

Animal Ethics

JULY 14, 2012

In the United States, for example, citizens once had to be twenty-one years of age to vote in federal elections; now they must be eighteen. The concept of moral rights differs in important ways from that of legal rights. First, moral rights, if there are any, are universal. Possession of moral rights does not come in degrees.

Rights

Rights Morals Los Angeles Libya

Make This the Year You Do Right by Animals

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 2, 2008

For example: 1. For no extra charge, switching to a vegan diet also dramatically reduces your contribution to unnecessary animal suffering. If you are like most people, you think that it is seriously morally wrong to contribute to unnecessary animal suffering. Lose weight—I will lose 10 pounds by March 15th.

Rights

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Resolve to Do Right by Animals in 2007!

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

For examples, see here and here. For example: 1. For no extra charge, switching to a vegan diet also dramatically reduces your contribution to unnecessary animal suffering. If you are like most people, you think that it is seriously morally wrong to contribute to unnecessary animal suffering.

2007

2007 Rights Animal Cruelty Cruelty

Prima Facie vs. Ultima Facie Wrongness

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. In his fresh and candid first post (available here ), Jonathan admitted that he is struggling with the issue of ethical vegetarianism.

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Animal Rights Zone

Bernard E. Rollin on the Moral Status of Animals

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 12 of 13

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 1 of 13

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 4 of 13

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 9 of 13

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 2 of 13

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 11 of 13

Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) on Beefy Morals

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

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

Tom Regan on Endangered Species

Tom Regan on Utilitarianism

W. D. Ross (1877-1971) on the Right and the Good

Kristof

Philip E. Devine on the Overflow Principle

Philip E. Devine on Vegetarianism

Plant Rights

Philip E. Devine on the Vegetarian's Dilemma

Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) on Consistency

Meat, Cancer, and the Cumulative Case for Ethical Vegetarianism

"Animal Rights Terrorism"

Steven M. Wise on Legal Rights for Animals

J. Baird Callicott on Value

Ends and Means

Animal Advocates' Successes Have Factory Farmers Running Scared

Moral Vegetarianism, Part 8 of 13

Tom Regan on Rights

Make This the Year You Do Right by Animals

Resolve to Do Right by Animals in 2007!

Prima Facie vs. Ultima Facie Wrongness

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