10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 17, 2014

But the tenets of the North American Model were developed in the 19th century, when wildlife ethics and science were a mere glimmer of what we understand today. Now, in 21st century America, we’re entertaining new considerations, in keeping with our modern understanding of wild animals and conservation.

Wildlife 255

Wildlife Coyotes Hunters Wolves 255

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 19, 2009

In the past I have been concerned to advocate a normative utilitarian theory from the point of view of a non-cognitivist meta-ethics. I assumed that Hume was right in thinking that ultimately morality depends on how we feel about things. Perhaps Smart was still thinking (in 1980) of Kant versus Bentham, rationality versus sentience.

Morals 40

Morals Animal Liberation Animal Dolphins 40

Animal Person

JANUARY 6, 2010

I did tweet about " Scientists Say Dolphins Should Be Treated As 'Non-human Persons' " yesterday, as I think this is a Gray Matter for a lot of people and might be interesting to explore. You could be for or against animal rights and believe the gateway theory. You could be for or against animal rights and believe the gateway theory.

Dolphins 100

Dolphins Animal Rights Rights Animal 100

Animal Person

JULY 3, 2009

" Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals ," By Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, is the most recent (for me) book that debunks myths about the differences between human and nonhuman animals. Also, Bekoff and Pierce present a descriptive view, not a normative view of morality. There are no judgments.

Morals 100

Morals Mammals Humane Emotional 100

Animal Person

FEBRUARY 6, 2010

He writes: There is a rational, and for some people a spiritual, case for being a vegetarian: Killing animals is wrong. If you eat meat you cannot logically find it morally or ethically repugnant to eat a particular meat (I’m setting cannibalism aside here.). Tags: Current Affairs Ethics Language. I'll set it aside here.

Pigs 100

Pigs Ethics Suffering Meat 100

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

Animal Person

MARCH 9, 2010

A handful Animal Person readers since May of 2006, when I started this then-daily blog, have asked me if I've read Joan Dunayer. And now that I've read Animal Equality and begun Speciesism , I think I know why. Dunayer devotes a chapter each to the language used in hunting, zoos, "marine parks," vivisection and "animal agriculture."

Animal 100

Animal Vivisection Suffering Emotional 100

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2015

Forty years ago, the suggestion that nonhuman animals have moral rights—indeed, many of the same rights as human beings—would have been met with incredulous stares, if not outright ridicule. Fast forward to the present. Other results from this Gallup poll can be found here. Note from KBJ: This post is by Mylan Engel.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Morals 40

Animal Person

AUGUST 5, 2009

Twice in the past 24 hours (once here and once on Stephanie's blog, in the comments )I have come across the following statement: "[insert animal here] are safe from predators, get fed regularly, and are better off on farms than if they were in 'the wild.'" The animals on farms are created for the sole purpose of human consumption.

Gazelles 100

Gazelles Slaughter Slaughtered Deer 100

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 21, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Suppose that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth, beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals. Most animals are probably not persons.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Killing Humane 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 16, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Glass-Walled Slaughter Houses Mel Morse, former president of the Humane Society of the United States, once remarked: “If every one of our slaughter houses were constructed of glass this would be a nation of vegetarians.”

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Humane Society Of The United States Slaughter 40

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

It might reflect the values of the majority in some ways (and in other ways not), but its function is not as a moral statement, said that professor. And as if there are humans who don't judge. Using animals in all manner of ways is legal, and many people enjoy using them. Ethics and the law don't necessarily move together.

Laws 100

Laws Ethics Morals illegal 100

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Brutalization The previous argument was based on an alleged indirect effect on human beings of not eating meat. Conversely, vegetarianism, it is argued, tends to humanize people.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Inhumane Meat 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. What Is an Animal Part? The last example suggests the difficulty of making a clear distinction between an animal part and an animal product. The same would be true of Martin’s hypothetical animal legs. KBJ: Agreed.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Animal Rights A stronger argument is made by people who maintain that animals have rights. In particular, it has been argued that animals have a right to life. The subject is a large and controversial one.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Suffering Killing 40

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 30, 2011

But when a moral being is feeling a pleasure or pain that is deserved or undeserved, or a pleasure or pain that implies a good or a bad disposition, the total fact is quite inadequately described if we say 'a sentient being is feeling pleasure, or pain'. Pleasure is good when, and only when, it is deserved.

Morals 40

Morals Indianapolis Humane Suffering 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 21, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. SOME PROBLEMS OF MORAL VEGETARIANISM With respect to traditional moral vegetarianism some problems immediately come to the fore. Who exactly is not supposed to eat animals or products of animals?

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Meat Lions 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

A third of a century ago, when the modern animal-liberation movement was in its infancy, Martin published an essay entitled “A Critique of Moral Vegetarianism,” Reason Papers (fall 1976): 13-43. You will, therefore, agree with Martin about moral vegetarianism but not about Christianity. One is health.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 27, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. ARGUMENTS FOR MORAL VEGETARIANISM A variety of arguments have been given for vegetarianism. Sometimes they take such a sketchy form that it is not completely clear they are moral arguments. Tags: Moral Vegetarianism.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Monkeys Meat 40

Animal Person

APRIL 1, 2010

Meanwhile, "new speciesism" is the notion that within a paradigm where rights are included for nonhuman animals, some are more deserving of rights than others for any of a variety of reasons (e.g., No nonhuman alive today belongs to the same species as some ancestor of humans. We want them to be free and independent of humans (119).

Speciesism 100

Speciesism Apes Advocacy Salamander 100

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 11, 2013

How, then, shall we sum up in a sentence the principle of our duties to the lower animals? I do not know that it can be better done than in the words of George Nicholson, one of those early pioneers to the influence of whose writings, though now almost forgotten, the cause of humaneness owes so much. "In

Non Human 40

Non Human Morals Ethics Humane 40

Animal Person

JULY 26, 2009

There has to be something I can do to reduce all of the suffering of the animals we use as food, I thought. I mean, where do they get their morals from? Luckily, I think I've found a way to assuage my conscience about all of the suffering, environmental devastation and negative health impacts of eating animal products all day.

Vegan 100

Vegan Animal Suffering Rabbits 100

Animal Person

MAY 30, 2009

Bea directed me to an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Parker , the "chair man " (my emphasis) of the Animal Agriculture Alliance at CattleNetwork, which apparently is "The Source for Cattle News." If any "drastic measures" are employed, they are to remove animals from suffering, not to impose our dietary choices on others.

Veal Crate 100

Veal Crate HSUS Vegan Gestation Crates 100

Animal Ethics

MAY 25, 2008

One restriction on the absolutism of man's rule over Nature is now generally accepted: moral philosophers and public opinion agree that it is morally impermissible to be cruel to animals. That, on the whole, is the Christian tradition. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals 40

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection 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. Nobody wants existing animals to be slaughtered.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Cattle 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. The case for ethical vegetarianism starts with several uncontroversial premises. It is not just a few outspoken animal rights fanatics who hold this view.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Meat Ethics Lacto-Ovo 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 10, 2009

He seems to think that the demand for free-range pork is a demand for wild pork, when in fact it's a demand for morally acceptable conditions for the pigs. In other words, people want to eat not wild pigs but domestic pigs raised in humane conditions.

Morals 40

Morals Free Range Pigs New York Times 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. After all, they "love" the animals they kill. I don't think so.

Compassion 100

Compassion Psychology Tnr Vegan 100

Animal Ethics

MARCH 12, 2009

It was, I suggest, to a large extent because he felt that the noblest feature of humanity is the capacity to be self-governing, to adopt principles without being influenced by sensuous motives and then to live by them whatever the contingencies. Kant's ethics is as much an ethics of self-esteem as it is an ethics of duty.

Humane 40

Humane Morals Adoptable Ethics 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Yesterday, the world lost its most powerful voice for animal rights, Tom Regan. No one has done more to explain what "animal rights" means and why animals have rights than Tom Regan. As Regan expressed so simply and straightforwardly, what animal rights advocates want is for "people to stop doing terrible things to animals."

2017 75

2017 Raleigh Animal Advocacy Animal Rights 75

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. The animal is an "it," but I wouldn't expect anything more in this type of article. It’s how we treat humans, too.

Slaughter 100

Slaughter Slaughtered Cows Meat 100

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2015

Forty years ago, the suggestion that nonhuman animals have moral rights—indeed, many of the same rights as human beings—would have been met with incredulous stares, if not outright ridicule. Fast forward to the present. Other results from this Gallup poll can be found here.

Morals 40

Morals 2015 Industry Protection 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

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. ( Tom Regan , The Case for Animal Rights , updated with a new preface [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004], 388 [first edition published in 1983])

Science 40

Science Los Angeles 2004 Morals 40

Animal Person

APRIL 26, 2009

Vamsee Juluri, Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, takes me back to graduate school when he writes of the importance of the stories we tell ourselves in " Use Free Speech to Celebrate Animal Life, Not to Enjoy Their Suffering." They certainly depict cruelty to animals, right? What do you think?

San Francisco 100

San Francisco Cruelty Vivisection Open Rescue 100

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 2, 2011

I propose that the moral significance of the suffering, mutilation, and death of non-human animals rests on the following, which may be called the overflow principle: Act towards that which, while not itself a person, is closely associated with personhood in a way coherent with an attitude of respect for persons.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Suffering Non Human 40

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