Animal Person

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Today's New York Times gives us Adam Shriver's Op-Ed " Not Grass-Fed, But at Least Pain-Free ," which presents its dilemma at the end: If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. It would be far better than doing nothing at all.

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Animal Person

JANUARY 23, 2010

A couple of years ago I catalogued the dozens of excuses/rationalizations from well-meaning, compassionate people about why they eat animals, and all fell into one of six categories: It's what god wanted (and other versions, such as: That's why they were put on the earth. Cain=farmer=evil murderer; Abel=slaughtered animals=victim/good son.

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Critter News

DECEMBER 15, 2008

I'd rather not any meat at all, thank you, but for those meat addicts like my husband, this could help. Earlier this year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced that it will offer a $1 million X Prize for the creation of affordable, humane, and "commercially viable" test-tube meat by 2012.

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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 think not.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 2, 2012

Here is an interesting story about the evolutionary value of a meat-based diet.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 21, 2008

PETA is offering a $1,000,000 reward to anyone who creates commercially viable in vitro meat. I don't see any ethical problem with producing or consuming such meat. Addendum: Here is a New York Times story about the reward.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 11, 2008

In today's Dot Earth post " Can People Have Meat and a Planet, Too? ," Andrew Revkin explores the brave new world of growing meat cultures in vitro as a more humane and possibly more environmentally friendly way of producing meat. Every day, some people switch from meat-based diets to vegetarian diets.

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Animal Person

APRIL 19, 2009

Tags: Activism Current Affairs Ethics.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I foresee a day, perhaps not far in the future, in which it is illegal to raise cows, pigs, and other animals for food. The ground for this will not be animal welfare, as you might expect, but environmentalism. The natural environment, unlike individual animals, is inanimate, unconscious, and insentient.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 5, 2016

Addendum: The argument seems to be as follows: It is inconsistent both (a) to eat meat and (b) to condemn (or mourn) the killing of Harambe; I condemn (or mourn) the killing of Harambe; therefore, I may no longer eat meat. Good leftist that he is, Peter Singer doesn't let a crisis go to waste.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 1, 2010

If you have been a regular reader of my posts, you already know that switching to a vegan diet devoid of meat and animal products almost always results in significantly lower plasma cholesterol levels. Switching to a cruelty-free vegan diet is yet another powerful example of ethical synergy at work.

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Animal Person

MARCH 31, 2009

Felicia Horton inquires/protests: "If they're cutting up [animals], are you going to want to come up front an eat some meat?" I wonder if she actually said "If they're cutting up meat. ". Tags: Activism Current Affairs Ethics Language. Perhaps all sandwich shops should be housed in abattoirs.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 23, 2008

Then, click on "Comments" below to answer the question that Keith posed on his personal blog : Has anyone out there met someone who was persuaded to give up eating meat as a result of an argument? Let us hear from you.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2011

A great number of animals owe their lives to our intention to eat them. If we value animal life and animal comfort, therefore, we should endorse our carnivorous habits, provided it really is life , and not living death, on which those habits feed.

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Animal Person

JUNE 23, 2010

The commentator says that part of her winnings will go to abolish animal cruelty (yes, abolish). Interviewer: "Wait, so you want to abolish animal cruelty, except for chickens and fish, (pointing at the contestant) because she doesn't like them?". I think you actually support animal cruelty." Contestant: "Nope. Well, sort of.

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Animal Person

MARCH 30, 2009

Responsible Policies for Animals Members & Friends! Today, March 30th, at 3:00 East Coast time, Susan Soltero of Puerto Rico will interview me live on the air at WALO Radio about Responsible Policies for Animals' 10,000 Years Is Enough campaign to get our universities out of the meat industry!

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Animal Person

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

Next, to today's New York Times and Gary Steiner 's fantastic Op-ed called " Animal, Vegetable, Miserable ,"which begins with: "LATELY more people have begun to express an interest in where the meat they eat comes from and how it was raised." (Try Try not to think about the "meat" being "raised" and the "it."

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Animal Person

MAY 6, 2009

The book, which I have not read, that saved Derrick Jensen 's life is called The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability by Lierre Keith, who was a vegan for 20 years, suffered serious medical problems, and started feeling better when she recommenced eating animals. Tags: Activism Books Ethics. But that would be unfair.

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 13, 2012

Here is a New York Times op-ed column about "sustainable meat."

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Animal Person

JUNE 20, 2009

While plenty of people pay attention to the question of what it means to raise an animal humanely, far fewer stop to consider the notion—and the ostensible paradox—of humane slaughter." The animal is an "it," but I wouldn't expect anything more in this type of article. To treat animals fairly, he needs to treat his workers fairly."

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 30, 2009

Here’s another self-interested reason to not eat meat: Drug-resistant bacteria are routinely found in beef, chicken, and pork sold in supermarkets. To find out more of what the meat industry and pharmaceutical companies don't want you to know, read this Associated Press column by Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza. The problem is not new.

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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.

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Animal Person

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Then there are the myriad entry points to thinking about how we use animals and the impact that has on the animals, the planet, our bodies and our consciences. We all know junk-food vegans and vegans who eat "faux meat" products every day. If you want to reduce suffering, there are indeed ways to do that.

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Animal Person

JANUARY 20, 2010

I've never discussed that Emily the kitty eats one meal of Ami vegan kibble on most days (and one of canned, animal-based food). He fares best (as evidenced by poop, energy, licking, scratching, and severity of limping) on food with no grains whatsoever and very high animal protein--almost carnivore level. She is doing fine with that.

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Animal Person

APRIL 3, 2009

The article is called " How I Learned to Love Goat Meat " (thanks, Bea), and its author Henry Alford, as you might imagine, discovers the wonders of goat flesh consumption and tells us all about his journey. That's how Henry Alford learned to love goat meat, and that's how Mary Martin learned to dislike Henry Alford.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

As examples, I would give the following: (1) abstaining from meat for the sake of the animals; (2) abstaining from meat for health reasons; (3) eating meat because one believes (with, say, Roger Scruton) that doing so redounds to the benefit of the animals themselves; (4) eating meat because one likes the taste.

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Animal Ethics

JANUARY 16, 2008

Here is a New York Times story about the cloning of animals for meat.

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Animal Person

JANUARY 27, 2010

I've been blogging here less partly because I've been blogging at Animal Rights & AntiOppression (check out my latest post " On Corporate Personhood and Animal Rights " and the better-than-the-post comments) but also because I've been feeling like a broken record and I don't want to bore anyone. Where do people get that idea?

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Animal Ethics

APRIL 17, 2008

Should we legalize dog meat for human consumption? Saletan discusses some reader reactions to his first post on legalizing dog meat here. Should we be eating dog meat? For a discussion of the issue, see William Saletan’s recent post at the Human Nature Blog. What's next? Soylent green? What do you think?

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Animal Person

JUNE 6, 2009

You may know Jose Valle of the International Organization for the Abolition of Animal Slavery, AnimalEquality. We don't advocate "happy meat" but veganism. Tags: Activism Current Affairs Ethics Abolition Animal Rights Pig slaughter Spain Veganism. I wholeheartedly support the mission of AnimalEquality/ IgualdadAnimal.

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Animal Person

MARCH 18, 2009

The Botai did not just herd horses for meat. Scientists found bit-wear marks on Botai horses’ teeth — a clear sign the animals were being ridden. Among all the animal species on this planet, humans have domesticated only a handful. Tags: Activism Current Affairs Ethics Language. So far I'm not seeing the mutual benefit.

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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

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

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

31) is simply wrong in suggesting that grass-fed beef produces less methane than feed-lot meat. 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. Geoff Russell is the author of “CSIRO Perfidy.”

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

The problem of the unjust use of farm animals is large, growing, historical, institutionalized, governmentally encouraged, and fundamentally unregulated at either the state or federal level. Farm animals are treated essentially as raw materials. Instead it aids industry boards that exist solely to sell animal products.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 4, 2008

For the record, I am opposed to violence in behalf of animals. I can't think of anything that does more harm to the cause of animal liberation. In the long run, the best thing we can do for animals is engage in rational persuasion. If you're unwilling to abandon the principle, then you must abstain from meat.

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Animal Person

JUNE 13, 2009

On the animal front, there is definitely a message that factory farming is unsustainable, and that subsistence farming is and was preferable; there is a vague if-we-did-it-differently-it-might-be-sustainable message. Tags: Current Affairs Ethics Film Environmentalism Factory Farm Glenn Close Home Veganism Winged Migration.

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