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Full-Text Articles in Other Anthropology
Cognitive Relatives Yet Moral Strangers?, Judith Benz-Scharzberg, Andrew Knight
Cognitive Relatives Yet Moral Strangers?, Judith Benz-Scharzberg, Andrew Knight
Animal Welfare Collection
This article provides an empirically based, interdisciplinary approach to the following two questions: Do animals possess behavioral and cognitive characteristics such as culture, language, and a theory of mind? And if so, what are the implications, when long-standing criteria used to justify differences in moral consideration between humans and animals are no longer considered indisputable? One basic implication is that the psychological needs of captive animals should be adequately catered for. However, for species such as great apes and dolphins with whom we share major characteristics of personhood, welfare considerations alone may not suffice, and consideration of basic rights may …
The Question Of Atheism And Communism In The Animal Welfare/Rights Movement, Michael W. Fox
The Question Of Atheism And Communism In The Animal Welfare/Rights Movement, Michael W. Fox
Animal Welfare Collection
Just as economics has increasingly been employed as a political weapon, so religion is now being used to further self-serving goals. Agribusiness spokespersons not only use fallacious economic arguments to justify the "factory" farming of animals; they have also stated that any questioning about man's Godgiven right to exploit animals is atheistic, and perhaps an actual affront to God's will. Furthermore, taking an egalitarian attitude toward animals, and proposing that they have rights or should be given equal and fair consideration, is regarded as the inspiration of some covert communist conspiracy that is constantly working to restructure and thereby destroy …