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J. J. C. Smart on the Moral Elite

Animal Ethics

If we judge this moral elite by its adherence to something like the Golden Rule of the New Testament, there is not all that much room for its improvement, except, as I suggested earlier, for the extension of our moral sympathies to nonhuman animals. I eat eggs though they may come from battery hens. I am myself not so heroic.

Morals 40
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Are We Much Better than Michael Vick?

Critter News

Is what he did consciously to his pitbulls that much worse than what we do unconsciously to animals every day? Some of us forget that dogs are mere animals, and that animal mistreatment is as American as Apple iPods. Like Vick, most of us shamelessly abuse and kill animals. None of us is pure. I think we have it backward.