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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Ethics and Political Philosophy

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Selected Works

Selected Works

2017

Welfare

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones Jul 2017

Science, Sentience, And Animal Welfare, Robert C. Jones

Robert C. Jones, PhD

I sketch briefly some of the more influential theories concerned with the moral status of nonhuman animals, highlighting their biological/physiological aspects. I then survey the most prominent empirical research on the physiological and cognitive capacities of nonhuman animals, focusing primarily on sentience, but looking also at a few other morally relevant capacities such as self-awareness, memory, and mindreading. Lastly, I discuss two examples of current animal welfare policy, namely, animals used in industrialized food production and in scientific research. I argue that even the most progressive current welfare policies lag behind, are ignorant of, or arbitrarily disregard the science on …


Why Animal Welfarism Continues To Fail, Lori Marino Apr 2017

Why Animal Welfarism Continues To Fail, Lori Marino

Lori Marino, PhD

Welfarism prioritizes human interests over the needs of nonhuman animals. Despite decades of welfare efforts other animals are mostly worse off than ever before, being subjected to increasingly invasive and harmful treatments, especially in the factory farming and biomedical research areas. A legal rights-based approach is essential in order for other animals to be protected from the varying ethical whims of our species.