Dear Colleagues: Animal rights is a binary matter: you exploit animals or you go vegan. There’s no third choice. You cannot exploit “compassionately.” You just exploit. Your “compassion” is about making you feel better about continuing to exploit animals. “Compassionate” exploitation has nothing to do with the obligation of justice that we owe nonhuman animals. […]
Dear Colleagues: Once again, we are told that there really is no significant or qualitative difference between plants and animals. In No Face but Plants Like Life Too, Carol Kaesuk Yoon writes that although she gave up eating meat: My entry into what seemed the moral high ground, though, was surprisingly unpleasant. I felt embattled […]
Imagine that you are talking with a group of people who are classic car enthusiasts and who drive just for the pleasure of driving and not for any particular purpose. In fact, these people believe that driving classic cars for pleasure is an important tradition; a crucial part of their culture and every day, they […]
Dear Colleagues: I am honored to have been chosen as the 2011 Foster P. Boswell Distinguished Lecturer in Philosophy at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. As Boswell Distinguished Lecturer, I will present, “Animals: Our Moral Schizophrenia,” on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. The event will be held in Albright […]
Dear Colleagues: Those who support welfare reform are all excited. They are pointing to an article in the Journal of Agricultural Economics entitled “Impacts of Animal Well-Being and Welfare Media on Meat Demand,” and welfarists claim “Science Weighs in At Last: Campaigns for Welfarist Reforms Cause People to Buy Significantly Less Meat.” (Note: The paper […]
Dear Colleagues: On Friday, February 25, an Oklahoma animal control officer gave lethal injections to five stray dogs. On Saturday, the officer discovered that one of the dogs, a puppy to whom he had given two lethal injections, was still alive. The puppy was taken to a veterinary technician who noted the dog’s survival on […]
Dear Colleagues: On Tuesday, March 1, I will be interviewed by on Richmond Independent Radio, WRIR, 97.3 FM, by Rebecca Faris. The show is aired from 12:30-1:00 p.m. (eastern). The show will be archived for those who cannot listen to the broadcast. The interview will focus on my new book, The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition […]
Dear Colleagues: On Tuesday, March 8, I will debate Dario Ringach, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology, Jules Stein Eye Institute, Biomedical Engineering Program, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. The topic: The Use of Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Research: A Moral Justification? Professor Ringach will argue that we are justified in […]
Dear Colleagues: The Vegan Society deleted the entire discussion on whether there should be advertisements for non-vegan restaurants/establishments in its magazine, The Vegan, from the Vegan Society Facebook discussion forum, and has banned me from participating on the site. I wonder why? On February 21, I received an email from the Head of Information of […]
Dear Colleagues: The Vegan Society has informed me that in the The Vegan, issue 2, Autumn 1946, and in other issues of The Vegan from that period, which were edited by Donald Watson, there were advertisements from vegetarian establishments that catered for vegans. I suggest that advertising establishments in 1946 that served dairy but not […]