THE RSPCA SHOULD PROSECUTE ITSELF
The RSPCA is starting the process of prosecuting West Ham United’s Kurt Zouma for slapping and kicking his cat, and his brother, Yoan, who plays for Dagenham and Redbridge, for filming the incident. What the Zoumas did was clearly wrong. They inflicted harm on the cat without any justification; the cat was not threatening them in any […]
Do We Have an Obligation to Eat Animals? No.
The history of human thinking about animal ethics is littered with a great many examples of smart people engaging in reasoning that is anything but smart in order to justify continuing to exploit animals. Indeed, animal ethics provides what might be the greatest example of how self-interest — in particular gustatory self-interest — can deaden […]
Kurt Zouma and All Nonvegans and Benedict Cumberbatch: Perfect Together
English Premier League football player Kurt Zouma is in big trouble. He kicked and slapped one of his cats. He has been fined £250k by West Ham, the team for which he plays. The cat he kicked and slapped, and another cat he has, were taken from him by the RSPCA, which is investigating him […]
The Real Reason For Interest in Plant Sentience Has Nothing to Do With Plants
I. Plants: They React; They Don’t Respond Every now and then, the internet lights up with the most recent claim that new evidence indicates that plants are sentient; that is, that they are conscious and have some sort of mind and are relevantly similar to animals. The evidence on which these claims are based establishes at most […]
Teaching Children Not to Harm Others: Who Counts as “Another”?
“I take my veganism very seriously. I certainly hope that my kids will be vegans. I intended to educate them about the immorality of animal exploitation, and I hope that they will make the right choice. But I cannot impose my beliefs on them, and force them to vegan. I will support whatever choice they […]
Woke Animal Rights Means No Animal Rights, Part 2: Wokeabulary
Part 1 of this essay is here. Our social discourse is peppered with a great many words that reflect various aspects of woke culture. Let’s consider three that appear frequently in discussions about animal ethics and consider examples from that context. “Mansplaining”: There is no doubt we live in a patriarchal world that is replete with sexism and […]
Woke Animal Rights Means No Animal Rights, Part 1
Is being sensitive about injustice a good thing? You bet it is. Racism, sexism, homophobia — and speciesism — are all around us. We need to be aware of these various forms of discrimination and we ought to reject them. Principle 5 of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights is clear: Abolitionists reject all forms of human discrimination, […]
Surprise: U.K. Law Recognizes That Sentient Animals Are Sentient
The U.K. is proposing to do something that is absolutely revolutionary: it is going to enshrine in law that sentient animals are sentient. Never mind that, in 1789, Jeremy Bentham argued that the moral significance of animals did not hinge on whether animals had humanlike cognitive attributes but only on whether they are sentient: “the question […]
Is the Domestication of Animals Morally Justifiable?
For the past thirty or so years, I have developed what has come to known as the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. One aspect of that theory rejects the status of animals as chattel property and maintains that we are morally obligated to abolish, and not merely regulate, the use of animals exclusively as resources. My Abolitionist […]
Do Vegans Who Get a COVID-19 Vaccine Abandon Their Moral Principles? Yes — and No.
Although the vaccines for COVID-19 that are presently available are being represented as having no animal ingredients, the blood of many thousands of horseshoe crabs is being used to make sure that the vaccines are free of contamination. Although the crab blood is technically not an ingredient of the vaccine, it might as well be. Horseshoe crabs […]
Treating Humans and Nonhumans “Like Animals”
It is often the case that, when a human is mistreated by other humans, the claim is made that the victim was treated “like an animal.” What is meant by this expression is that the victim has not been treated with any recognition of their moral value. They have been treated exclusively as a means […]
A Brief Comment on the “Euthanasia” of Farm Animals as a Result of Covid-19
For the past several weeks, news outlets have been telling us repeatedly that, as a result of meat processing plants closing because large numbers of employees have contracted Covid-19, and as a result of supply-chain disruptions for meat, milk, and eggs caused by the virus, many millions of farm animals are having to be “euthanized.” […]
How I Learned to Hate Autumn
I used to love the autumn. For a good part of my adult life, I lived in New York City. Although New York has experienced hotter summers in recent years, the reality is that New York summers have always been unpleasant. Garbage strikes and subways cars without air conditioning made them worse, but they were never great. So […]
Who Is an “Animal Abuser”?
An interesting feature of the animal welfare approach is that it depends on arbitrarily labeling some conduct affecting animals as “abuse” so that the vast majority of people who participate directly in other animal exploitation can feel good about themselves as they eat, wear, and otherwise use animals while condemning the “abuser.” A recent example […]
Animal Activists Get it Wrong: Farmers Are Not the Problem
The Australian state of New South Wales has introduced on-the-spot trespassing charges of $1,000 for each animal activist caught illegally entering private farmland. The penalties follow a series of recent demonstrations and instances of direct action staged by activists at private farms and slaughterhouses. There is apparently consideration of adding jail time and additional fines to the […]
You Can Kill Your Pet
Emma, a healthy dog, was brought into a shelter in the U.S. State of Virginia on March 8. Her human companion had passed away and there was apparently no one else to care for Emma. Although the shelter could have easily found a new home for Emma, who was a Shih Tzu (of the sort […]
Extinction Rebellion: Shame
Over the past few weeks, I have written several essays about how the Green Party and various environmental groups, including Extinction Rebellion, are continuing to ignore that we about twelve years left and we need to be promoting a widespread transition to a vegan diet in order to avert climate catastrophe. I have discussed how the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated […]
An Open Letter to Caroline Lucas, M.P., Jonathan Bartley, and Siân Berry
23 April 2019 Caroline P. LucasMember of ParliamentJonathan BartleySiân BerryCo-Leaders of the Green Party of England and Wales Dear Caroline P. Lucas, Jonathan Bartley, and Siân Berry: We are facing a climate catastrophe. The United Nations estimates that we have about twelve years to act to avert this catastrophe. I know that you appreciate the urgency of the situation. […]
Vegan or Die: The Importance of Confronting Climate Change
We are facing an imminent climate catastrophe. A recent study from researchers at the University of Oxford concluded that avoiding meat and dairy is the most effective way to reduce our inflicting harm on the earth. According to an article in The Guardian about this research: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact […]
Green Party, Extinction Rebellion, and Others: Stop Ignoring the Vegan Solution
It is becoming clear that we are facing an imminent climate catastrophe. The United Nations says that we’ve got about 12 years left to avert that catastrophe which, in case you haven’t noticed, is already rearing its ugly and deadly head. It is time for the Green Party, Extinction Rebellion, and anyone else concerned about averting that […]