Animal Person

AUGUST 16, 2011

Hal Herzog’s “ Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat ” (Harper 2011), though fascinating, is ultimately depressing for vegans and animal rights activists. Over at Animal Rights and AntiOppression , we’ve been discussing tactics and sharing our thoughts and experiences about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to advocacy.

Vegan 100

Vegan Morals Animal Rights Advocacy 100

Critter News

OCTOBER 26, 2008

I came across this 2005 book from the Society & Animals Journal titled Confronting Cruelty Moral Orthodoxy and the Challenge of the Animal Rights Movement. Readership: This book will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the animal rights movement in England, the United States and Australia.

Cruelty 100

Cruelty Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming 100

Animal Person

AUGUST 5, 2009

The animals on farms are created for the sole purpose of human consumption. And their lives of exploitation, torment, torture and slaughter cannot be compared to an animal's life in the wild. Finally, people who object to our moral stance jump species and say we should object to the lion killing the gazelle.

Gazelles 100

Gazelles Slaughter Slaughtered Deer 100

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

In respect to having rights, animals are more like pebbles and sunbeams than they are like full-fledged human beings. Joel Feinberg , "Human Duties and Animal Rights," chap. Joel Feinberg , "Human Duties and Animal Rights," chap.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights 2004 Rights Animal 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 23, 2009

When it is asked whether animals have rights, and whether human beings have duties to them, the question, I think, is partly moral and partly verbal. Let us consider the moral question first. It is this latter view, I believe, that is in the minds of some of those who deny that animals have rights.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Cruelty 40

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.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Cattle 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 19, 2009

I assumed that Hume was right in thinking that ultimately morality depends on how we feel about things. Many prominent animal-rights advocates (such as Tom Regan ) are deontologists rather than consequentialists. I described the feelings to which I wished to appeal as "generalized benevolence."

Morals 40

Morals Animal Liberation Animal Dolphins 40

Critter News

APRIL 26, 2009

I not only learned about Harvey Milk, but about the early stages of the gay rights movement (which is ongoing today when one looks at all the right-wing flutterings over gay marriage.) It made me think though about the animal rights movement. Are we really a social movement like gay rights and civil rights?

Animal Rights Movement 100

Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming Animal Rights 100

Animal Person

APRIL 1, 2010

Here are some of the my favorite quotes: In reality, species don't evolve toward greater humanness but toward greater adaptiveness in their ecological niche (105). No living group of nonhuman animals--no existing species of invertebrate, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird or nonhuman mammal--is ancestral to humans.

Speciesism 100

Speciesism Apes Advocacy Salamander 100

Animal Person

JUNE 1, 2009

But " Minding the Animals: Ethology and the Obsolescence of Left Humanism " is a great look back at how we humans have managed to always find a way to consider ourselves unique, despite what the reality of the nonhuman world tells us. Here are some of my favorite passages. [S]ince

Speciesism 100

Speciesism Morals Vegan Humane 100

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.,

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

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?

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Vegetarian Cooking Slaughter 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 10, 2008

I have little to say about rights because rights are not important to my argument. My basic moral position (as my emphasis on pleasure and pain and my quoting Bentham might have led Fox to suspect) is utilitarian. Peter Singer, " The Fable of the Fox and the Unliberated Animals ," Ethics 88 [January 1978]: 119-25, at 122)

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Liberation Animal 40

Animal Ethics

JUNE 11, 2008

So far McCloskey is on solid ground, but one can quarrel with his denial that any animals but humans have interests. I should think that the trustee of funds willed to a dog or cat is more than a mere custodian of the animal he protects. The animal itself is the beneficiary of his dutiful services.

2004 40

2004 Animal Rights Rights Animal 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

There are also some things we cannot learn by using humans, if we respect their rights. The rights view merely requires moral consistency in this regard. ( If that means that there are some things we cannot learn, then so be it.

Science 40

Science Los Angeles 2004 Morals 40

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 18, 2009

Because I've been thinking about the evolution of my own thinking--and languaging--regarding animal rights. Both animal rights groups and animal welfare groups use "compassion" frequently. Then again, so do people who kill animals for a living. No matter how they are treated, is it right to use them?

Compassion 100

Compassion Psychology Tnr Vegan 100

Animal Person

JUNE 20, 2009

Bea sent me a link to an article in Gourmet called " Humane Slaughterhouses ," by Rebecca Marx, that is absurd. They believe you can take a life that doesn't want to be taken in a humane way, and I don't agree. It’s how we treat humans, too. To treat animals fairly, he needs to treat his workers fairly."

Slaughter 100

Slaughter Slaughtered Cows Meat 100

Animal Ethics

MAY 4, 2008

There is no inconsistency in rejecting plant rights while accepting animal rights. 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.

Rights 40

Rights Animal Rights Movement Morals Ethical Treatment 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 30, 2007

This arises from the fact that we have duties to animals and to infants. We had better therefore take the less complicated case of animals, which we commonly suppose not to be even potential moral agents. It may of course be denied that we have duties to animals. It is not at all clear which is the true view.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Morals 40

Animal Person

APRIL 26, 2009

Juluri's focus on animals used to entertain humans is intentional and speaks to the legal battle he refers to. But the ease with which we can tell our stories and post our videos must not render us incapable of moral judgment and decency. They certainly depict cruelty to animals, right? What do you think?

San Francisco 100

San Francisco Cruelty Vivisection Open Rescue 100

Animal Person

MAY 30, 2009

Let's deconstruct: The interview reminds me of how the industry views us and how little they know about the community of people who care about the lives of the animals brought into this world for one reason only: to kill and eat them. The Humane Society of the United States is the big bully on this strange playground.

Veal Crate 100

Veal Crate HSUS Vegan Gestation Crates 100

Animal Person

APRIL 30, 2009

The idea is to cultivate discussion in the forum in order to better suit visitors needing help from people like you on going vegan or understanding animal rights. The good ones have chosen not to "feed" on humans, but the bad ones haven't. The good ones eat only animals, which apparently isn't a big deal.

Vegan 100

Vegan Swine Flu Vegetarian Morals 100

Animal Ethics

MARCH 16, 2007

To inflict death or pain on animals for scientific or medical research is wrong morally, and ought to be prohibited. This follows from everything said in the text about the rights of animals. This does not mean that animals may never be deliberately harmed or become subjects of research.

Research 40

Research Medical Research Morals Animal 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 30, 2012

In 2002 the German Parliament amended Article 26 of the Basic Law to give nonhuman animals the right to be “respected as fellow creatures” and to be protected from “avoidable pain.” Half of the sixteen German states already have some sort of animal rights provisions in their constitutions. Salem and Andrew N.

Rights 40

Rights For Animals Legislation Laws 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 11, 2007

Animals as well as humans can suffer pain, deprivation, and unwanted death. An exception for vegetables is thus consistent with the categorical imperative; an exception for humans with respect to eating animals is not. Vegetables cannot.

Unwanted 40

Unwanted Animal 2005 Morals 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2007

Here are three paragraphs from a recent essay by Roger Scruton : As I suggested, science provides authority for this weird morality only when clothed in moral doctrine. The sleight of hand that gave us the “selfish” gene gives us the rights of baboons. And that explains, in part, the appeal of the animal-rights movement.

Animal 40

Animal Morals Apes Emotional 40

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. Virtually everyone agrees that: (1) It is wrong to cause a conscious sentient animal to suffer for no good reason. Animal abuse is a crime in all fifty states, and rightly so.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Meat Lacto-Ovo Ethics 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

A column entitled "Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights" appeared in today's High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal [ HPMAJ ]. The column, which you can read here , is a call to arms to factory farmers to fight back against those individuals and organizations working to protect farm animals from the abuses inherent in factory farms.

Factory 40

Factory Factory Farm Factory Farming Gestation Crates 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

We pay lip service to more humane treatment of the animals that we eat, but how many of us look beyond the label on the package of chicken cutlets? Kristof’s thoughtful exploration of animal rights, I was astonished to read that he continues to eat animals, like geese and pigs, for which he obviously has such affection and respect.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Person

JUNE 8, 2009

(You can buy some extra time by presoaking the animal in a basin of ice water.)" For Engber, who dispassionately describes procedures most of the time, the "advances" in the medical care of humans are all well worth what he and other vivisectionists do to dogs and other sentient nonhumans. It "guarantees humane treatment?"

Animal Welfare 100

Animal Welfare Monkeys Animal Welfare Act Vivisection 100

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 18, 2006

Currently, I do not believe that killing an animal is prima facie morally wrong. I simply believe that when animals are killed it ought to be for a good purpose, and in a manner that is respectful to their capacity to suffer. I do not believe that the current factory farm system in place lives up to both of those standards.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Morals Factory 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 15, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Most moral vegetarians list fish and fowl as animals one should not eat. The ability to feel pain is not an obviously plausible way of morally distinguishing microorganisms from other organisms. What Meat Should Not Be Eaten?

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Meat Killing 40

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. KBJ: Singer’s claim is that one should not contribute, even incrementally, to animal suffering. Becoming a vegetarian is not merely a symbolic gesture.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Protest Protesting 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 14, 2012

The legal rights individuals have arise as the result of the creative activity of human beings. Those rights set forth in the Bill of Rights, for example, were not rights that citizens of the United States could claim as legal rights before these rights were drawn up and the legal machinery necessary for their enforcement was in place.

Rights 40

Rights Morals Los Angeles Libya 40

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2013

I will address two of them in the new year, namely, “Is hunting moral at all?” In the past I have attributed some of this conflict to differences between the conservation mindset and that of animal rights/animal welfare. The way things should be is a very powerful motivating factor in human lives.

Tigers 177

Tigers Hunting Game Protection 177

Animal Ethics

MARCH 23, 2009

There are intractable practical differences between environmental ethics and the animal liberation movement. Very different moral obligations follow in respect, most importantly, to domestic animals, the principal beneficiaries of the humane ethic.

Ethics 40

Ethics Animal Liberation Animal Rights Movement Morals 40