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J. Baird Callicott on Factory Farms

Animal Ethics

Meat, however, purchased at the supermarket, externally packaged and internally laced with petrochemicals, fattened in feed lots, slaughtered impersonally, and, in general, mechanically processed from artificial insemination to microwave roaster, is an affront not only to physical metabolism and bodily health but to conscience as well.

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On "Knockout Animals"

Animal Person

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. Like when they're about to be, say, slaughtered?

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An Affront to the Idea of Family

Animal Person

And they certainly wouldn't hurt anybody; that's what those big factory farms do that aren't owned by families. Their goal is to make a profit from the breeding and slaughter of animals. Yes, factory farms are the stuff of nightmares for nonhuman animals. The cows' tails swing in the breeze.

Family 100
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On "EATING ANIMALS" by Jonathan Safran Foer

Animal Person

The good news is that if you know someone who needs to be schooled on all of the sordid details of factory farming, and appreciates good writing, this is a great book. Factory farming considers nature an obstacle to overcome" (34). Ever, in fact. The plate might have to be five feet across" (50). This is very silly.

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On Going Vegan

Animal Person

The discussion about the environment usually originates in the massive problems created by the factory farming of sentient nonhumans. The arguments against factory farming, which most recently were articulated by Jonathan Safran Foer (who has caused quite a stir in the mainstream), are legion. You are choosing violence.

Vegan 100
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Prima Facie vs. Ultima Facie Wrongness

Animal Ethics

He thinks that the treatment of animals in factory farms is morally unjustifiable, and yet, he continues to support those practices financially by purchasing and eating meat and animal products. It goes something like this: Yes, I agree that factory farming is morally unjustifiable and ought to be abolished.

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Meat, Cancer, and the Cumulative Case for Ethical Vegetarianism

Animal Ethics

Even the most ardent defenders of the morality of using animals for food and as “tools” in scientific experiments admit that premises (1) and (2) are true and acknowledge that (1) and (2) capture something central to our moral relationship to animals. Premise (4) is widely acknowledged. Running time: 12 Minutes.