Animal Ethics

MAY 6, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. The Argument from Speciesism If there is some doubt whether the arguments from monkeys and from glass walls should be considered moral arguments, there can be no doubt about the moral import of the argument from speciesism.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 15, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Most moral vegetarians list fish and fowl as animals one should not eat. The ability to feel pain is not an obviously plausible way of morally distinguishing microorganisms from other organisms. What Meat Should Not Be Eaten?

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Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. So, even if animals are killed painlessly and raised for food in humane ways, it is wrong to kill them. Consequently, the killing of some animals for food, if done painlessly, is not morally objectionable.

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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. Another reason is moral. One is health.

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2013

” Nevertheless, Burgess’s overt determination to combine, in his own words, the “teaching of the facts of natural history and the teaching of moral lessons” had long fallen out of fashion by the time I came on the scene.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 4, 2009

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. Not only are they killed in cruel ways, but it is well documented that they are raised in ways that cause them great discomfort and agony. The question that must be raised, however, is how the conclusion not to eat meat follows from this.

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Animal Person

MAY 10, 2009

It has absolutely nothing to do with any genuine environmentalist ethic. And not all organizations that advocate for animals claim to have a "genuine environmentalist ethic," and the ones that do must subscribe to his ethic or they're not genuine? Like I said, the entire animal rights "ethic" is both cynical and dishonest.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

where 10 billion animals are raised and slaughtered needlessly for food each year, Regan's books remain as relevant today as when they were first published. While the animal rights community has lost its biggest advocate, we can be grateful that his words will live on to inspire countless others to give animals the moral respect they are due.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2008

It would remain true, of course, that the vegetarian diet is more limited, since every pleasure available to the vegetarian is also available to the carnivore (not counting the moral satisfactions involved, of course—which would be question-begging), plus more which are not available to the vegetarian so long as he remains one.

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Animal Person

MAY 30, 2009

Often confused with American Humane Association, they raise tens of millions, not to ‘save the animals’ as most people assume but to further the causes of vegetarianism and ending animal agriculture." Perhaps it is the industry's inability to evolve morally that is behind the times. I wish their mission was to end animal agriculture.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 15, 2012

If people are encouraged to believe that the harm done to animals matters morally only when these animals belong to endangered species, then these same people will be encouraged to regard the harm done to other animals as morally acceptable. This is not what the rights view implies.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 7, 2016

This horrible incident has raised some tough questions indeed. The hysteria of the crowd surely played a part in escalating an already frightening situation. Further, did those who reacted so strongly to Harambe’s killing go home and serve meat to their children? In my opinion, neither Harambe nor the child should ever have been at the zoo.

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Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

The proposition outlaws raising pregnant sows in gestation crates and raising calves in veal crates , making Arizona the first state in the Union to ban veal crates. Since morally decent individuals oppose treating animals inhumanely for no good reason, factory farming is becoming an increasingly hard sell.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 6, 2009

Beyond the environmental impacts of meat production there is a basic ethical issue involved. Dogs were bred to be companion animals; pigs and cows are raised as food. To suggest that eating one and not the other represents a conflict of ethics is preposterous. 31), while humorous enough, masks more serious issues.

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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." And when that happens, you know what direction you're headed: the justification of taking the lives of sentient nonhumans to please the palates of humans.

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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.

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Animal Ethics

MARCH 21, 2007

To the Editor: I appreciate Nicolette Hahn Niman’s efforts in raising awareness about the conditions in which pigs are raised (“ Pig Out ,” Op-Ed, March 14), but I was struck by her comment that it is incumbent on us to ensure that animals have decent lives because we ask them to make the ultimate sacrifice for us.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

22): Mr. Steiner might feel less lonely as an ethical vegan—he says he has just five vegan friends—if he recognized that he has allies in mere vegetarians (like me), ethical omnivores and even carnivores. 22, 2009 To the Editor: I am an ethical vegan. Mr. Steiner rightly rejects this view as morally flawed.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 4, 2006

Note that this debate is independent of the debate about the moral permissibility of eating fish. If organically raised fish suffer less than nonorganically raised fish, it is an accident, morally speaking.

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Peter Singer more broadly examines the moral standing of animals here.) While this belief might not compel us to be vegetarians, it does demand significant changes in the way we raise animals for food, and it forbids wolf hunting as a form of entertainment. Why does this belief not "compel us to be vegetarians"?

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Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

There are two approaches a vegetarian might take in arguing that rearing and killing animals for food is morally offensive. He might argue that eating animals is morally bad because of the pain inflicted on animals in rearing and killing them to be eaten. Or he could object to the killing itself.

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Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

That is, if what the vegetarian wants is that we should stop eating meat even if we like eating it and even if our liking for it greatly exceeds our revulsion at the suffering of animals in being raised and slaughtered for food, then a decision to stop eating meat would seem to amount to a decision of principle.

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Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 7, 2008

This is a moral principle, and states that 'the interests of every being affected by an action are to be taken into account and given the same weight as the like interests of any other being'. According to Singer , the principle of the equal consideration of interests 'requires us to be vegetarians'.

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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

DECEMBER 15, 2006

As such, they are likely to be better moral reasoners , as well, both in their ability to identify moral reasons and in their ability to appreciate these reasons. I suspect that many of the vegetarians in Gale's study base their vegetarianism on just such moral reasons.

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Animal Ethics

JUNE 17, 2011

It is asking the burger-stuffer to come clean ; to show just why it is that his greed should be indulged in this way, and just where he fits into the scheme of things, that he can presume to kill again and again for the sake of a solitary pleasure that creates and sustains no moral ties.

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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. Of all the ways of influencing behavior, rational persuasion is the most effective, the most secure (in the sense of long-lasting), and the most defensible from a moral point of view.

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Animal Ethics

AUGUST 2, 2008

Doesn’t he realize that he does not have to engage in this voluntary activity, which causes moral conflict for himself and suffering for the animals? Kristof’s thoughtful exploration of animal rights, I was astonished to read that he continues to eat animals, like geese and pigs, for which he obviously has such affection and respect.

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Animal Ethics

MAY 23, 2007

It’s appalling that anyone would think that a diet based on a dubious morality would build a human infant. I’ve raised a vegan child since conception. Children need protein. George Mazzei St. Petersburg, Fla., May 21, 2007 To the Editor: “Death by Veganism,” by Nina Planck, strays far from the truth about vegan diets.

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