Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 18, 2006

Currently, I am very interested in social and political philosophy and ethical issues. I felt a strong sense of connection to the ideas of Peter Singer while taking Ethics from Keith. Currently, I do not believe that killing an animal is prima facie morally wrong.

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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. Or he could object to the killing itself.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Interests arise, Singer contends, from the capacity to feel pain, which he labels a 'prerequisite' for having interests at all; and animals can and do suffer, can and do feel pain.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 4, 2008

It does not settle such questions as to whether it is right to kill them if they are a burden or if they are enduring pointless suffering, but it does bear in an important way on such questions. Similarly, important conclusions follow from the question as to whether animals have rights.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

20, 2012 To the Editor: Blake Hurst asserts that “production methods should not cause needless suffering,” but the position he takes does just that. Farm Animal Welfare, ASPCA New York, Feb. FEDELE BAUCCIO Chief Executive, Bon Appétit Management Company Palo Alto, Calif., That sounds like a win-win to us. SUZANNE McMILLAN Dir.,

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

From the perspective of the land ethic, the immoral aspect of the factory farm has to do far less with the suffering and killing of nonhuman animals than with the monstrous transformation of living things from an organic to a mechanical mode of being.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

To the Editor: Soon after I read Gary Steiner’s article, my wife asked me to kill a spider, which I did. We kill so many living creatures when we build a house, construct a road, drive down that road or just walk on a path. If we all decide to consider animals as precious as humans, the only logical place for us is back in the jungle.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

But keep in mind that many lactovo vegetarians care about how animal products are produced, not just the fact that they are animal products. These people abstain from eggs and dairy products the production of which involves suffering for the animals. The same would be true of Martin’s hypothetical animal legs.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

Animals raised for food suffer miserably. April 9, 2009 To the Editor: In making the personal decision of where to place ourselves in our ethical relationship with animals, it is important to evaluate the reality of our words. To the Editor: Re “ Humanity Even for Nonhumans ,” by Nicholas D. Laura Frisk Encinitas, Calif.,

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 21, 2009

This becomes especially true when one realizes that vegetarians often argue that a reason that it is prima facie wrong to eat animals is that animals must be killed to provide the food. So in order to save the dog’s life or health, another animal must die. Should he oppose this eating? If so, how? KBJ: Three points.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 14, 2007

Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. She simply wants to minimize their suffering before they are killed (painlessly?) Here is a New York Times op-ed column about pork production. and their bodies dismembered and processed.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 22, 2007

Though it may be too late for too many, we can only hope that diseased animals are not left in pain but are humanely euthanized to end their suffering. In 2005, a survey commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare showed that the Chinese are similar to Americans in their concern for animals.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2011

It is asking the burger-stuffer to come clean ; to show just why it is that his greed should be indulged in this way, and just where he fits into the scheme of things, that he can presume to kill again and again for the sake of a solitary pleasure that creates and sustains no moral ties.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 17, 2008

The plea that animals might be killed painlessly is a very common one with flesh-eaters, but it must be pointed out that what-might-be can afford no exemption from moral responsibility for what-is.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

On the traditional position, justification of vegetarianism was in terms of animal welfare, happiness, rights, and so on. In recent years another type of justification has been given: vegetarianism has been justified in terms of human suffering, rights, etc. Would it be morally permissible for you to kill some people and eat them?

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

Since our food is delivered to us on a bun or in big bags of frozen parts, it’s easy to eat it and not think about what it was or how it was killed. 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

MAY 23, 2007

As the lead prosecutor in this case told the jury, this poor infant was not killed by a vegan diet. I’ll leave the question of infant care to the physicians, but I know firsthand that an adult vegan can enjoy robust physical health without contributing to the cruel suffering of animals on today’s factory farms.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

The reason that the industry is losing the argument is quite simple: There is no ethical justification for causing an animal to suffer unnecessarily. There is no ethical justification for treating an animal inhumanely for no good reason. There is no ethical justification for killing an animal for no good reason.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 6, 2009

Similarly, although there are differences between human beings and other animals, there are no moral differences that justify human beings’ killing and eating animals but not killing and eating one another. Moreover, since it is morally wrong to kill and eat human beings, it is morally wrong to kill and eat animals.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 4, 2009

In fact, animals used for food do suffer a great deal. Not only are they killed in cruel ways, but it is well documented that they are raised in ways that cause them great discomfort and agony. Now there is no doubt that the actual treatment of animals used for food is immoral, that animals are made to suffer needlessly.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 15, 2009

Second, it might be argued that although it is wrong to kill microorganisms, it is not obvious that eating them kills them. Neither is it obvious, however, that eating microorganisms does not kill them. Let us suppose that some microorganisms that are eaten are killed, e.g., by the digestive workings of the body.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 21, 2008

By comparing the common mind-set that has produced both the past injustices against humans and the current abuses of animals, we can and do inspire debate and convince many people that it is a human obligation to speak out against injustice to all beings. Animal suffering and human suffering are undeniably interconnected.

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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. Since it would not be wrong to eat the flesh of animals raised in that manner, eating meat is not morally wrong! [As

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 24, 2006

One of the questions on the survey is: "Is it morally permissible to kill animals for fur coats?" Just how do Chinese workers kill raccoon dogs?" Documentary video reveals that this does not kill the dogs. Again, documentary video reveals that this typically does not kill the dogs. Not according to my students.

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