Animal Ethics

APRIL 18, 2008

Augustine [354-430] had long ago decided that beasts were incapable of suffering pain, because otherwise God would be unjust. If (a) animals are sentient (i.e., capable of suffering), (b) animals are innocent (i.e., not afflicted by original sin), and (c) animals lack immortal souls, then there is undeserved suffering.

Animal 40

Animal Suffering Dolphins Laws 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Interests arise, Singer contends, from the capacity to feel pain, which he labels a 'prerequisite' for having interests at all; and animals can and do suffer, can and do feel pain.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Slaughtered 40

Animal Ethics

MAY 25, 2008

And by this they mean not only that it is wrong to enjoy torturing animals—which few moralists would ever have wished explicitly to deny, however little emphasis they might have placed on cruelty to animals in their moral teaching—but that it is wrong to cause them to suffer unnecessarily. Controversies no doubt remain.

Morals 40

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 8, 2012

The central case of cruelty appears to be the case where, in Locke's apt phrase, one takes "a seeming kind of Pleasure" in causing another to suffer. Some cruel people do not feel pleasure in making others suffer. Let us term this sadistic cruelty. Indeed, they seem not to feel anything.

Cruelty 40

Cruelty Los Angeles Suffering Inhumane 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2006

Consequently, no turkey has suffered or died on my account for the past quarter century. They can't solve the problem of animal suffering all by themselves, so they throw up their hands in defeat and go on eating meat. It makes me feel good to know that, for a quarter of a century, no turkey has suffered or died on my account.

Turkey 40

Turkey Suffering Morals Animal Suffering 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 19, 2016

"There is no longer dispute among serious scientists that humans aren’t the only animals who have the capacity to suffer physically and mentally. Elephants, great apes, orcas, dogs, cats, and many other animals can experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and compulsive disorders.

For Animals 40

For Animals Apes Animal Psychology 40

Animal Ethics

JUNE 8, 2008

A being has interests if it is capable of suffering and enjoyment. This capacity is a prerequisite for having interests at all, and the actual interests that a being has are determined by the particular kinds and degrees of suffering and enjoyment of which it is capable.

Speciesism 40

Speciesism Suffering Dogs Species 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 31, 2010

By carrying out a slaughter system that greatly reduces the suffering of chickens, Bell & Evans and Mary’s Chickens show that animal welfare and good business go hand in hand. While ever more consumers are going vegetarian or vegan, almost every consumer is demanding that companies take steps to reduce animal suffering.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Los Angeles Ethical Treatment 40

Animal Ethics

JUNE 12, 2010

If there has been progress in ethics recently it has been through the realization of some ethicists that animal happiness and suffering has to be considered equally with that of human beings. I should draw attention here to the remarkable book Animal Liberation by Professor Peter Singer of Monash University.

Ethics 40

Ethics Animal Liberation Suffering Science 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2009

This would not necessarily mean that animals have no rights. Presumably most animals—even infants—would have the right not to suffer. As Tooley puts it, although “something that is incapable of possessing the concept of a self cannot desire that a self not suffer, it can desire that a given sensation not exist.

Morals 40

Morals Vegetarian Suffering Killing 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

I can't be sure, since the editorial opinion is so jumbled, but the board seems to be arguing that people should continue to eat meat, provided the animals whose flesh they consume are not made to suffer. Is it permissible to eat human flesh, provided the humans whose flesh one consumes are not made to suffer?

Animal 40

Animal Meat New York Times Suffering 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Nonhuman animals can suffer. That fact alone suffices to grant them a legal right not to be made to suffer. Dentists make people suffer.) Second, it is not a necessary condition for the possession of rights (legal or otherwise) that one be a person. The right is defeasible, of course, as it is in the case of humans.

Animal Rights 40

Animal Rights Rights San Diego Animal 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

" but "Can they suffer?" " So whereas Plutarch and Porphyry thought it necessary to begin their case against treating animals merely as chattels by arguing that animals have a share in reason, for Bentham it is irrelevant whether or not they are rational and to what degree.

2004 40

2004 Animal Abandon Abandoning 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 8, 2009

But keep in mind that many lactovo vegetarians care about how animal products are produced, not just the fact that they are animal products. These people abstain from eggs and dairy products the production of which involves suffering for the animals. The same would be true of Martin’s hypothetical animal legs.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Suffering Vegan 40

Animal Ethics

MAY 8, 2008

It’s not just the injured horses that suffer. It’s the thousands of faceless colts and fillies we never see that suffer from this so-called sport. Even the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand ended up in a Japanese slaughterhouse because he wasn’t proving his monetary value as a stud. Jane Shakman Ossining, N.Y., May 6, 2008

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Stud Horses 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 7, 2008

What have humane people to say to the tremendous mass of animal suffering inflicted in the interests of the Table?

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Animal Suffering Suffering Humane 40

Animal Ethics

OCTOBER 29, 2008

Whereas it once used to be argued, as by Newman , that the least human good compensates for any possible amount of animal suffering, the current doctrine is that it requires a considerable good to compensate for such suffering.

Animal Cruelty 40

Animal Cruelty 2004 Cruelty Animal 40

Animal Ethics

APRIL 5, 2010

I'm a dog person, not a bird person, but I understand the loss suffered by my friend Peg today.

Suffering 40

Suffering Dogs Birds 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 24, 2012

Because animals are sentient (i.e., can experience pleasure and pain) and because they not only have but can act on their preferences, any view that holds that pleasures or pains, or preference-satisfactions or frustrations matter morally is bound to seem attractive to those in search of the moral basis for the animal rights movement.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Animal Rights Movement Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 5, 2007

To the Editor: The euthanasia of more than 1,000 dogs and cats at the main animal shelter in Las Vegas is surely a major tragedy in the sheltering field (news article , Feb. 16), and the rapid spread of diseases at a facility packed with 1,800 animals required swift action to prevent even more suffering and loss of life.

New York Times 40

New York Times Las Vegas Wayne Pacelle Humane Society Of The United States 40

Animal Ethics

MAY 18, 2007

If fruit flies have free will, then it's possible for them to suffer from weakness of the will. Do fruit flies have free will? See here for what appears to be an affirmative answer.

Suffering 40

Suffering 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 24, 2008

Not all meat eaters are cold, cruel, selfish individuals insensitive to animal suffering. Many, if not most, of the meat eaters I know are deeply concerned about the fact that the animals they eat are raised in factory farm conditions. They realize that factory farming is inhumane.

Lacto-Ovo 40

Lacto-Ovo Vegan Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

If our liking for meat is in fact more intense than our revulsion at the suffering endured on factory farms, then we are going to remain meat-eaters, with the result that, if the vegetarian has grounded his case in an appeal to our feelings, then that case is in jeopardy.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Vegetarian Meat 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 6, 2009

It might be suggested that although becoming a vegetarian as a protest against animal suffering or a way of committing oneself to helping the hungry people of the world is not a moral duty, it is still a moral act; it is a supererogatory act. One final point. This view is not implausible, but it needs to be qualified in certain ways.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Morals Protesting Protesters 40

Animal Ethics

JULY 22, 2008

Our findings follow many other studies demonstrating mental anguish in traumatized animals. Suffering is far from a uniquely human experience. I was astonished by how many displayed behaviors that overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other trauma-related disorders.

New York Times 40

New York Times Humane Society Of The United States New York Apes 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

To the Editor: It’s mind-boggling that in spite of overwhelming evidence that the consumption of animal products is directly responsible for a host of human diseases , greenhouse gas production and indescribable animal suffering, the general public continues to satiate its taste buds and support factory farming.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

From the perspective of the land ethic, the immoral aspect of the factory farm has to do far less with the suffering and killing of nonhuman animals than with the monstrous transformation of living things from an organic to a mechanical mode of being.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Farming 40

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 Animal Suffering 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Of course even though they may not have the capacity for happiness and suffering that whales have, nevertheless I would suppose that chickens can suffer quite a lot, even though their consciousness should be very much a sort of daze, and this should be taken into account in our dealings with them.

Morals 40

Morals Whaling Whales Chickens 40

Animal Ethics

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

This passage puzzles me: Unsurprisingly, I believe it is wrong to inflict pain and death unnecessarily on a creature capable of suffering. Peter Singer more broadly examines the moral standing of animals here.) Here is a New York Times blog post about wolf hunting.

Vegetarian 40

Vegetarian Pigs New York Times Cows 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 24, 2007

14): To the animals being slaughtered, it does not matter whether their killers are local or whether they will be eaten or displayed on a wall. Their suffering is the same. To the Editor: Re “ Locavore, Get Your Gun ,” by Steven Rinella (Op-Ed, Dec.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Slaughtered Slaughter 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 11, 2007

Animals as well as humans can suffer pain, deprivation, and unwanted death. Vegetables cannot. Hence there is a very fundamental and relevant sense in which we cannot harm a vegetable. The head of lettuce and the flower, however, feel nothing and regret nothing so far as we know.

Unwanted 40

Unwanted Animal 2005 Morals 40

Animal Ethics

MARCH 14, 2007

Notice that the author is not opposed to the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human consumption. She simply wants to minimize their suffering before they are killed (painlessly?) Here is a New York Times op-ed column about pork production. and their bodies dismembered and processed.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 31, 2007

Each one of these animals suffered extreme cruel and inhumane conditions in the transportation and slaughter process. In an incredible juxtaposition to the fanfare of Barbaro, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered last year in the United States and shipped to Europe and Japan for human consumption.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Horse Slaughter Slaughtered 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 28, 2008

in those countries which supply the raw materials that North American industry and consumerism devour at a staggering rate).

Fox 40

Fox Animal Liberation For Animals Animal 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

20, 2012 To the Editor: Blake Hurst asserts that “production methods should not cause needless suffering,” but the position he takes does just that. Farm Animal Welfare, ASPCA New York, Feb. FEDELE BAUCCIO Chief Executive, Bon Appétit Management Company Palo Alto, Calif., That sounds like a win-win to us. SUZANNE McMILLAN Dir.,

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Gestation Crates Gestation 40

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 31, 2011

He has volunteered to kill a deer cruelly, ineptly and with an outdated weapon that causes additional suffering to the deer. Animals suffer when killed. To the Editor: In “ Hunting Deer With My Flintlock ” (Op-Ed, Dec. 26), Seamus McGraw says he has a responsibility to kill deer because there are too many.

New York Times 40

New York Times New York Mountain Lions Deer 40