Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

The Argument from Glass-Walled Slaughter Houses Mel Morse, former president of the Humane Society of the United States, once remarked: “If every one of our slaughter houses were constructed of glass this would be a nation of vegetarians.” KBJ: I have no idea why Martin thinks Morse is arguing.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 30, 2007

Horses destined for inhumane slaughter in the U.S. Because animal flesh sold for human consumption abroad must be inspected by a USDA inspector, the court ruling may mean that the few remaining horse-slaughtering plants in the U.S. A previous post on the "Horse Slaughter Bill" (H.R. is available here.

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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. 30, 2007

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 7, 2008

By forgoing meat in our diets, we can reduce, if not eliminate, this massive suffering of animals, merely through bringing market forces to bear upon factory farming. This, however, is precisely what factory farming does.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 11, 2007

The fact that horsemeat has at times been part of humanity’s diet is not in dispute. Horses slaughtered in America today go not to feed the poor and the hungry but to satisfy the esoteric palates of wealthy diners in Europe and Japan. Yes, all food animals should meet a dignified end. John Hettinger Pawling, N.Y.,

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 14, 2009

The ethicist does not wish to forego [sic] his beef and mutton, so he frames his ethics to avoid the danger of such mishap, and while he talks of high themes with the serene wisdom of a philosopher, the slaughter-houses continue to run blood.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2008

What the utilitarian who defends human carnivorousness must say, then, is something like this: that the amount of pleasure which humans derive per pound of animal flesh exceeds the amount of discomfort and pain per pound which are inflicted on the animals in the process, all things taken into account. Is this plausible?

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 24, 2007

14): To the animals being slaughtered, it does not matter whether their killers are local or whether they will be eaten or displayed on a wall. It’s time to stop pandering to hunters and the gun lobby and turn to humane measures to control the deer population and outlaw this barbaric pastime. Their suffering is the same.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 12, 2008

Wild animals and native plants have a particular place in nature, according to the land ethic, which domestic animals (because they are products of human art and represent an extended presence of human beings in the natural world) do not have. as is the humane ethic.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 24, 2008

Before leaving this question of "consistency," as affected by the gradations of our duty of humaneness to animals, a few words may be said on the practice of fish-eating. Salt , The Logic of Vegetarianism: Essays and Dialogues [London: The Ideal Publishing Union, 1899], 57-8 [italics in original])

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 19, 2007

The horrific practice in China of skinning cats and dogs alive for their fur must go down as one of the worst cases of sustained mass cruelty to animals in human history. They are left to die slowly in shock and excruciating agony and their bodies fed to the other animals being reared for the slaughter.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 27, 2008

April 21, 2008 To the Editor: Re “ Million-Dollar Meat ” (editorial, April 23): In vitro meat might not appeal to everyone, but I am guessing that the day PETA awards its prize money will be a happy day for the billions of land animals bound for slaughter. There is no happy ending for even the most humanely raised animal.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 15, 2008

If Mr. Nocera actually had such clairvoyant powers over the meat-packing industry, why didn’t he put them to use last autumn and blow the whistle on the Westland/Hallmark slaughter plant? He would have saved us the necessity of sending an undercover investigator to film the shocking mistreatment of animals.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 3, 2008

Instead the argument for vegetarianism is based on the suffering that is, and as far as I can see always will be, associated with the rearing and slaughtering of animals on a large scale to feed urban populations.

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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. There is no ethical justification for killing an animal for no good reason. News flash: Slaughtering horses does not promote their welfare.

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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. 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.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 2, 2007

Puck’s Good Idea ” (editorial, March 26): Thank you for writing about the restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and his desire to buy meat raised humanely. March 27, 2007 To the Editor: Livestock producers raise their animals under humane standards and under the care of a veterinarian. That is never humane.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2007

18): As a microbiologist, I know that study after study has highlighted the human health threat from using antibiotics as feed additives for hogs, chickens and cattle, creating super-bugs—bacteria that no longer can be treated with antibiotics. Slaughter Member of Congress, 28th District, New York Washington, Sept.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 16, 2008

It is certainly true that the world’s marine stocks—large fish even more than small ones—are being depleted by human demand at a catastrophic rate. As with many other environmental issues, the real problem is excess population, and the only solution is human population control. Laura Frisk Encinitas, Calif., Lawrence S.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2008

I imagine that we agree in our rejection of slavery, eternal damnation, genocide, and uncritical patriotic self-abnegation; so we shall agree that Huck Finn , Jonathan Edwards , Heinrich Himmler , and the poet Horace would all have done well to bring certain of their principles under severe pressure from ordinary human sympathies.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 15, 2008

He also said that "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) defended utilitarianism from the charge that, because it exalts pleasure, it is "a doctrine worthy only of swine." Can you think of other such examples in the history of philosophy?

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Farm animals also benefit from the humane farming movement, even if the animal welfare changes it effects are not all that we should hope and work for. If the goal is not moral perfection for ourselves, but the maximum benefit for animals, half-measures ought to be encouraged and appreciated. Chris Taylor Lawrence, Kan.,

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

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. New moral vegetarianism, however, rests on moral arguments couched in terms of human welfare. Nobody wants existing animals to be slaughtered.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 21, 2008

Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion consider'd, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. Never underestimate the human capacity for rationalization !

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2008

Even the most ardent defenders of the morality of using animals for food and as “tools” in scientific experiments admit that premises (1) and (2) are true and acknowledge that (1) and (2) capture something central to our moral relationship to animals. Cohen, The Animal Rights Debate , p. Nor ought we kill them without reason.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 3, 2008

But enlightened public opinion in human society approves of man's carnivorous behavior. And I believe that in most cases man is morally justified in thus reducing the satisfactions of the food animals. The interests in nourishment and in gustatory pleasure lead man to kill and eat cattle, fish, and fowl.

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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. I suspect that underlying his thinking here is a common rationalization that many of my students initially embrace. Running time: 12 Minutes.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Niman’s suggestion that the findings do not apply to smaller farms, the United Nations and the University of Chicago reports demonstrate the inefficiency of beef “production” because a cow must be fed to convert grass or grain calories into protein before a human can consume even “humane” or grass-fed beef. Kellman San Antonio, Oct.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 25, 2008

So why would they not insist that the cow that became their steak was treated humanely? And as the slaughtering of animals is not high tech, certainly no trade secrets would be at risk with the imposition of cameras. The vast number of meat eaters brake for geese, call the A.S.P.C.A. I think most would, enthusiastically.

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