10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2013

The incipient ferociousness of the hawk set against the skyscrapers, the Red-tail’s stillness against the human rush. The magical happening opened up for her an inquiry into the natural, geological history of the city, and her essay becomes a meditation on natural change and human change, and finding one’s place between the two.

New York 111

New York New York City 2013 Collecting 111

Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

Failure to understand this leads to the above-mentioned false restriction of the scope of duties—a dangerous error far more prevalent in ethics than the opposite error of fallaciously extending the scope of duties. Leonard Nelson , System of Ethics , trans. Normally functioning adult human beings are in category 2.

Rights 40

Rights Morals Apes Ethics 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. If this be so, then to say that the wrongness of cruelty to animals depends solely upon the human aspects of it, is to assume that the pain of animals is not bad.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights Animal Cruelty 40

Animal Person

JUNE 8, 2009

There's a vague sense that perhaps he cares about the dogs or thinks that what he does to them might present an ethical dilemma, but the overwhelming feeling is that it's all worth it. By the end of my time as researcher, I was performing behavioral experiments on humans. It "guarantees humane treatment?" Maybe on paper.

Animal Welfare 100

Animal Welfare Monkeys Animal Welfare Act Vivisection 100

Animal Ethics

JULY 17, 2008

Peter Singer , "Killing Humans and Killing Animals," Inquiry 22 [summer 1979]: 145-56, at 152 [endnote omitted]) Note from KBJ: Singer is making a distinction within the class of sentient beings. Suppose humans are self-conscious. Then painlessly killing a pig while replacing it with another, equally happy pig is not wrong.

Morals 40

Morals Pigs Killing Humane 40

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2008

But this question of Butchery is not merely one of kindness or unkindness to animals, for by the very facts of the case it is a human question of no slight importance, affecting as it does the social and moral welfare of those more immediately concerned in it.

Butcher 40

Butcher Vegetarian Morals Welfare 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 23, 2006

Jonathan Hubbell, a philosophy major at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the newest member of the Animal Ethics blog, and once again, I would like to welcome him aboard. In his fresh and candid first post (available here ), Jonathan admitted that he is struggling with the issue of ethical vegetarianism.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Morals Meat 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 9, 2009

In recent years another type of justification has been given: vegetarianism has been justified in terms of human suffering, rights, etc. Philosophers make distinctions in order to focus attention on particular classes of things. What seems to be absent in some recent vegetarian arguments, however, is any consideration of animals.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Meat Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 15, 2006

The study also found that: "IQ remained a statistically significant predictor of being vegetarian as an adult after adjustment for social class (both in childhood and currently), academic or vocational qualifications, and sex." It serves no significant human interest whatsoever.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Factory Farm Factory Farming Morals 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 24, 2006

As reported in the AP story, two styles of Sean John jackets—one a hooded snorkel style, the other a classic version—were originally advertised as faux fur, but an investigation by the Humane Society of the United States [ HSUS ] found that the jackets were made from dog fur. But is it really? Not according to my students.

Fur 40

Fur Fur Industry HSUS Raccoons 40