Animal Ethics

APRIL 20, 2010

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects depictions of animal cruelty. This does not mean that it protects animal cruelty, which is (and ought to be) illegal in every state.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 9, 2009

To the Editor: Re “ Animal Cruelty and Free Speech ” (editorial, Oct. 6): I do not agree that “anyone with an appreciation for the First Amendment” must conclude that “crush videos” or videos of vicious dogfights are protected speech and that the federal law in question should therefore be struck down. Fred Engelhardt Alna, Me.,

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 11, 2010

To the Editor: Re “ Disgusting but Not Illegal ” (editorial, Aug. 2): We disagree with your contention that the First Amendment protects animal “crush” videos. Stevens , the Supreme Court last year overturned a 1999 law banning depictions of animal cruelty on the grounds of overbreadth. In United States v.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 6, 2009

The statute defines a depiction of animal cruelty as “any visual or auditory depiction, including any photograph, motion-picture film, video recording, electronic image, or sound recording of conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed, if such conduct is illegal.”

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I foresee a day, perhaps not far in the future, in which it is illegal to raise cows, pigs, and other animals for food. The ground for this will not be animal welfare, as you might expect, but environmentalism. The best thing that one can do for animals, in the long run, is to persuade people to stop eating them.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 29, 2008

Earlier this month, NASA released new satellite photographs showing continued illegal cutting of the Mexican fir forests where virtually all of eastern North America’s monarch butterflies spend the winter. Migratory birds protect forests and crops from insect pests; butterflies, bats and other migratory species are important pollinators.

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