Animal Ethics

MARCH 14, 2007

Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. Perhaps she would argue that there is no double standard, i.e., that there is a morally relevant difference between human animals and nonhuman animals that justifies the difference in treatment. I can't imagine what it is.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 23, 2007

This is one of the best essays I have read on the subject of animal ethics. Thanks in advance for the essay.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 31, 2008

My view, then, is not that which it has often been taken to be in discussion and which Singer, Regan, Clark, and others blast in their work; I am not suggesting that, because they lack language, animals can be factory farmed without suffering. Animals can suffer, which they could not unless they were conscious; so they are conscious.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 15, 2007

I must advocate on behalf of the animals in other ways. Animal Ethics helps me formalize my position so I can be a more effective advocate. However, I am saying that the transition to veganism was completely natural and took little or no pondering on my part once I knew the truth about animal exploitation.

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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., To secure the philosophical foundation for animal rights requires abandoning utilitarianism. (

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Animal Ethics

JULY 15, 2009

We can thank factory farming for yet another antibiotic-resistant supergerm: Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). All evidence points to factory farms. Factory farms are concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) where animals are raised intensively and permanently confined in warehouses and sheds.

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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. This, however, is precisely what factory farming does.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 29, 2009

While its exact origin is still unclear, this pathogen, and many others (like avian influenza), originated from animals being raised or eaten for food. As the world moves toward raising the majority of animals in the unnatural setting of factory farms, it is likely that more, and worse, such pathogens will arise.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 21, 2010

July 13, 2010 To the Editor: Today tens of thousands of American farmers don’t even own the livestock they raise, and the conditions they raise animals in are dictated to them by a handful of extremely powerful companies that are concerned only with the bottom line. Gene Gregory President, United Egg Producers Alpharetta, Ga.,

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

To the Editor: It’s mind-boggling that in spite of overwhelming evidence that the consumption of animal products is directly responsible for a host of human diseases , greenhouse gas production and indescribable animal suffering, the general public continues to satiate its taste buds and support factory farming.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

His call for the end of factory farms (concentrated animal feeding operations) is courageous. When we understand that these prices require “torturing animals,” we will begin to change this system and also improve our diets. His new column offers hope for animals and help for people. Ken Swensen Pound Ridge, N.Y.,

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

This rich parody, God Made a Factory Farmer , dispels the myth of the family farm in a humorous, but accurate way. Many viewers were moved by Dodge's Superbowl commercial "So God Made a Farmer." Very funny and so true!

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 25, 2010

15): We are glad to see an article describing the intensive confinement of egg-laying chickens, but we disagree when it says that animal advocates and consumers are “driving big changes” in the treatment of chickens. At our farm sanctuary, we see how much chickens rescued from factory farms delight in these experiences.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 5, 2007

To the Editor: “ A Factory Farm Near You ” (editorial, July 31) does not mention any issue of the morality of factory farming—treating living beings as factory products. Cruelty to animals on such a scale should be the centerpiece of any discussion on raising animals for food.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 28, 2009

Though factory-style production worsens it, the root problem is animal use. Since using animals is cultural, not part of our biological nature or in any way necessary, animal use is by definition inhumane—unkind where we could as a society choose kind. It is inhumane to humans as well, E. So the solution is simple.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

The film Partitions (running time: 14 min) by Audrey Kali gives an intimate glimpse of the ethical struggles that five small-scale meat farmers face when their animals are slaughtered. In this film, we see farmers interacting with the animals they will eventually transform into food (chickens, pigs and cattle).

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 18, 2006

My personal perspective regarding Animal Ethics is not fully formed, which is one of the reasons why Keith and I felt it would be a good idea for me to post on here. I have always felt a sense of connection to animals since as far back as I can remember, and the current manner in which they are treated in factory farms disturbs me.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 18, 2007

The wrongness of factory farming is overdetermined. Why does it not call for the abolition of factory farming? Animal rights is neither progressive nor conservative. Many conservatives care about animals as well as human beings. Why animal rights is considered a progressive cause is mind-boggling.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

An enormous volume of material has already appeared on the conditions under which animals live and die on factory farms, and more is almost certainly on the way. In other words, we become vegetarians, not through any decision of principle, but through being unable to bring ourselves to continue to dine upon the flesh of animals.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 24, 2008

Not all meat eaters are cold, cruel, selfish individuals insensitive to animal suffering. Many, if not most, of the meat eaters I know are deeply concerned about the fact that the animals they eat are raised in factory farm conditions. They realize that factory farming is inhumane.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 4, 2008

Here is a New York Times story about traditional farming, which is a darn sight better for animals than factory farming.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

Isn’t it obvious that Morse is trying to explain something, namely, why decent, sensitive people participate in an institution that inflicts a great deal of suffering on animals? It should be noted that people might have strong negative gut reactions to large-scale food preparation having nothing to do with meat or animal products.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 24, 2007

Most people are shocked and appalled when they first read descriptions of factory farming and learn about the horribly inhumane conditions in which the billions of animals destined for dinner tables are raised, and they are even more appalled when they first see documentary footage of the institutional cruelties inherent in factory farming.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

It is the other way around, with grass-fed animals producing up to three times more methane. To replace factory-farmed meat without further tropical forest destruction is impossible. To the Editor: Nicolette Hahn Niman (“ The Carnivore’s Dilemma ,” Op-Ed, Oct.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

Kristof, who takes note of the trend represented by the animal welfare proposition on the ballot in California this fall. And thanks to federal corn and soybean subsidies, factory farms saved an estimated $3.9 We know that animals suffer as well. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen any time soon.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

Beyond the environmental impacts of meat production there is a basic ethical issue involved. So here is an even more modest proposal than roasting Fido: Try eating only what animals you are willing to kill with your own hands. Dogs were bred to be companion animals; pigs and cows are raised as food.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

To the Editor: In his past comments about protecting animals and nature, Pope Benedict XVI is building upon the Roman Catholic Church’s tradition of promoting faithful stewardship of all creatures (“ A Cat Lover in the Vatican Strikes a Chord With Cat Lovers Around the World ,” news article, April 20).

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 26, 2007

See here for an editorial opinion by The New York Times.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 26, 2007

It might be argued that any decrease in suffering for farmed animals is good, morally speaking. Someone might argue that there is no incompatibility between (1) working to decrease animal suffering and (2) working toward the abolition of factory farming. But doesn't decreasing animal suffering make abolition less likely?

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 10, 2007

To the Editor: “ A Factory Farm Near You ” (editorial, July 31) is in a time warp. Yes, concentrated animal feeding operations, or “factory farms” as you call them, are a key feature of modern agriculture. But today these livestock operations don’t have to be unwelcome neighbors in their communities.

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Animal Ethics

JULY 19, 2011

A factory-farmed egg-producing hen’s lifespan is less than two years. The use of wire cages isn’t being addressed, but should be in the future. We are headed in the right direction, but need to fight to push the changes through. It could take up to 18 years for them to be phased in, if the law should pass.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2008

Modern livestock farming on a grand scale also wastes a colossal amount of feed grains on animals which, in times past, would simply have fed off the land. Michael Fox , "'Animal Liberation': A Critique," Ethics 88 [January 1978]: 106-18, at 116-7) One can only agree.

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Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 13, 2008

One of the more distressing aspects of the animal liberation movement is the failure of almost all its exponents to draw a sharp distinction between the very different plights (and rights) of wild and domestic animals. But this distinction lies at the very center of the land ethic. Domestic animals are creations of man.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

Animals raised for food suffer miserably. The overwhelming passage in November of Proposition 2 in California, which banned tight confinement of many of the animals raised for food, is a fine example of the power of publicity to educate people about the atrocities we commit to those animals who have no voice of their own.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 22, 2007

It not only brings light to a serious issue, but also begins to make the connection between factory farm practices and consumer choices. Eliminating factory farms and the like will happen only when a majority of consumers recognize their shared responsibility for the food system and start paying farmers a fair price. 18, 2007

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

What Is an Animal Part? The last example suggests the difficulty of making a clear distinction between an animal part and an animal product. If a genetically engineered animal’s legs periodically fell off, would not its legs be more like a product of an animal (analogous to eggs) than a part of the animal?

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 30, 2008

But much more attention and discussion needs to be directed to the meat industry, particularly its barbaric treatment of the helpless animals that are in our servitude. Animals turn grass, a k a sunlight, into high-quality proteins, minerals and fats that are an ideal food for humans. What is wrong is factory farms.

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