Animal Studies Commons^™

Carl Cohen’S ‘Kind’ Arguments For Animal Rights And Against Human Rights, Nathan Nobis

Animal Welfare Collection

Carl Cohen’s arguments against animal rights are shown to be unsound. His strategy entails that animals have rights, that humans do not, the negations of those conclusions, and other false and inconsistent implications. His main premise seems to imply that one can fail all tests and assignments in a class and yet easily pass if one’s peers are passing and that one can become a convicted criminal merely by setting foot in a prison. However, since his moral principles imply that nearly all exploitive uses of animals are wrong anyway, foes of animal rights are advised to seek philosophical consolations …

The Evolution Of Animal Law Since 1950, Steven M. Wise

State of the Animals 2003

Over the last half century, the law has assumed an increasingly important place in animal protection even as it has begun to point in the direction of true legal rights for at least some nonhuman animals. In this chapter I briefly discuss five aspects of the law: anti-cruelty statutes; the necessity of obtaining standing to litigate on behalf of the interests of nonhuman animals; evolving protections for great apes; the movement toward legal rights for at least some nonhuman animals; and the state of legal education concerning animal protection.

Toxicology And New Social Ethics For Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Experimentation Collection

The issue of animal treatment has emerged as a major social concern over the past three decades. This ramified in a new ethic for animal treatment that goes beyond concern about cruelty and attempts to eliminate animal pain and suffering, whatever its source. This is evidenced by laws governing animal research in many countries. Insofar as toxicology can entail significant and prolonged animal suffering, it is at loggerheads with this new ethic. Ways are suggested for the toxicological community to put itself in harmony with the ethic and thereby preserve its autonomy.

The Relationship Of Animal Protection Interests To Animal Damage Management: Historic Paths, Contemporary Concerns And The Uncertain Future, John Hadidian

Conservation Biology and Animal Welfare Collection

More than a decade ago Schmidt (1989) called for consideration of animal welfare to become a "firstorder" decision rule in wildlife management concerns, including animal damage control. Although there has been movement in that direction, this clearly has not yet come to pass. This paper takes a brief look at the interests we call animal damage management, animal welfare and protection, animal rights, and environmentalism in order to speculate about their shared concerns and the uncertain future before them. Since animal damage and the management of that damage cannot be abstracted from the environmental context in which they occur, this …

Animal Ethics And Animal Welfare Science: Bridging The Two Cultures, David Fraser

Animal Welfare Collection

Since the 1970s, scientists studying animal welfare and philosophers writing about animal ethics have worked toward the common goal of understanding and articulating our proper relationship to animals of other species. However, the two groups approached this task using such different concepts, assumptions, and vocabulary that they functioned as two distinct ‘‘cultures’’ with little mutual understanding or communication. Some of the best known ethical writing created barriers for scientists because it tended (1) to focus only on the level of the individual rather than making some decisions at the level of the population, ecosystem or species, (2) to advocate single …

Ethical Ideology, Animal Rights Activism, And Attitudes Toward The Treatment Of Animals, Shelley L. Galvin, Harold A. Herzog

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

In two studies, we used the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) to investigate the relationship between individual differences in moral philosophy, involvement in the animal rights movement, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. In the first, 600 animal rights activists attending a national demonstration and 266 nonactivist college students were given the EPQ. Analysis of the returns from 157 activists and 198 students indicated that the activists were more likely than the students to hold an "absolutist" moral orientation (high idealism, low relativism). In the second study, 169 students were given the EPQ with a scale designed to measure attitudes …

Animal Welfare, Animal Rights And Agriculture, Bernard E. Rollin

Animal Welfare Collection

The past decade has witnessed a major revolution in social concern with animals. Philosophically, this revolution entails a significant revision in traditional ways of conceiving our mod obligations to other creatures. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the social and conceptual basis for what is widely termed “animal rights.” The agricultural community has mistakenly tended to dismiss this new thinking as tkinge and emotionally based. In actuality, it is a natural extension of earlier social thought. The case of new laws regulating biomedical research illustrates the rapidity of social change in this area, as do recent developments in European regulation …

A Case Against Animal Rights, Jan Narveson

Animal Welfare Collection

Down through the past decade and more, no philosophical writer has taken a greater interest in the issues of how we ought to act in relation to animals, nor pressed more strongly the case for according them rights, than has Tom Regan, in many articles, reviews, and exchanges at scholarly conferences and in print. It is a pleasure to join him on this symposium, to explore this interesting and important set of issues.

I shall begin by outlining, as fairly as I can, Regan's view of the matter, and then sketch my alternative. Regan has in fact criticized certain aspects …

Wildlife And Nature Liberation, Michael W. Fox

Conservation Collection

Humane ethics--animal welfare--and animal rights are not incompatible with ecologically sound wildlife stewardship. They are an integral part of it, from treating wildlife for necessary research purposes humanely, to finding humane ways to control the populations of species that are out of balance and thus threatening the viability of other species and the diversity and integrity of the ecosystem. That mistakes may be made in stewardshipmanagement policies is inevitable. It is, for instance, difficult to know if the sudden abundance of one or more species and the dwindling of others is part of the natural process of succession and should …

Wildlife Conservation And Animal Rights: Are They Compatible?, Michael Hutchins, Christen Wemmer

Conservation Collection

The purpose of this paper is to explore the philosophical tenets of the animal rights/humane ethic as they relate to the environmental ethic and, more specifically, as they relate to wildlife management and conservation. The two ethics will be compared in an effort to identify potential sources of conflict. Recent criticisms of the animal rights ethic, most notably by Fox (1978, 1979), Rodman (1977), Callicott (1980), Gunn (1980), and Hutchins et al. (1982) have identified several major discrepancies. The implications of these differences will be discussed.

Bringing Us Together, John W. Grandy

Animal Welfare Collection

In recent years, much has been made of the differences between animal protection/welfare/rights and conservation. In simplistic terms, the difference is said to be between a view of wild animals as individuals and as populations. Some conservationists claim to see it as a waste to devote time and energy to ensuring the survival and health of individual animals. Conversely, others seem to take the view that the health and welfare of the individual animal is of highest importance.

But like many other discussions based on philosophical differences between largely compatible philosophies, the differences are far more apparent than real-and differences …

The Case For Animal Rights, Tom Regan

Animal Welfare Collection

In the space I have at my disposal here I can only sketch, in the barest outline, some of the main features of the book Its main themes-and we should not be surprised by this-involve asking and answering deep, foundational moral questions about what morality is, how it should be understood, and what is the best moral theory, all considered. I hope I can convey something of the shape I think this theory takes. The attempt to do this will be (to use a word a friendly critic once used to describe my work) cerebral, perhaps too cerebral. But this …

Logic And Limits Of Animal Liberation, Edward R. Bennett

Animal Welfare Collection

The current interest in treatment towards animals goes beyond the focus of isolated instances of brutality and encompasses the advocacy of significant changes in our traditional attitudes toward animals. In one year (1980) an estimated 2,054,281,000 hogs, beef, lamb, and poultry were raised on farms and slaughtered in the U.S.* (Agricultural Statistics 1981), and 1,653,385 laboratory animals were used by facilities registered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA 197 4). Adding to this the number of related animal industries such as textiles, farm equipment manufacturing, cosmetics and drug industries, restaurants, and groceries, it is easy to appreciate the …

Humane Ethics And Animal Rights, M. W. Fox

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Animal suffering, therefore, is only one aspect of animal exploitation and abuse. Recognizing this, and the fact that the elimination of animal suffering is a limited horizon, the humane movement has dramatically expanded its vision and goals by incorporating animal rights philosophy and ecological principles into its educational, legislative, and political activities.

Book Reviews

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Fox reviews two books. The first is a collection of papers from the First Conference on Scientific Perspectives in Animal Welfare organized by the Scientists Center for Animal Welfare. The second book is All that Dwell Therein. Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics by Tom Regan.

Introduced Species And The Issue Of Animal Welfare, Michael Hutchins, Victoria Stevens, Natasha Atkins

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Recently, considerable debate has been heard about the control or elimination of introduced or "exotic" animals on publicly held U.S. lands. Species introductions, whether intentional or unintentional, seem to be an inevitable result of human activities. Still, they may result in economic and ecological problems: It has been estimated that over 90 percent of all such introductions have been harmful in some respect. Control of exotics can be accomplished through containment, shooting, poisoning, reintroduction of native predators, the introduction of disease organisms, live capture and removal, and reproductive inhibition.

Letter To Editor: Clever Hans And The Humane Movement, Susan Burns

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The author suggests that attempts to encourage animal communication with humans overlook the sophisticated communication methods employed by animals. A greater appreciation of animal abilities to identify cues communicating human intentions would promote a more expansive recognition of animal rights.

Animal Welfare, Rights And 'Liberation', Michael W. Fox

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

A distinction that is more than mere semantics needs to be made between specific philosophical and political trends in the humane movement. The movement's historical basis is founded upon the morality of promoting kindness toward all creatures: reverence for all life. This approach has been strengthened by integrating ecological or eco-ethical principles and the emerging interdisciplinary animal welfare science. Furthermore, the movement has been enriched by the scholarship of moral philosophy, including the limited but valuable concept of animal 'rights.'

A Reply To ''Animal Welfare, Rights And 'Liberation"' By M.W. Fox, Jim Mason

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

A distinction that is more than mere semantics needs to be made between specific philosophical and political trends in the humane movement. The movement's historical basis is founded upon the morality of promoting kindness toward all creatures: reverence for all life. This approach has been strengthened by integrating ecological or eco-ethical principles and the emerging interdisciplinary animal welfare science. Furthermore, the movement has been enriched by the scholarship of moral philosophy, including the limited but valuable concept of animal 'rights.'

The Politics Of Animal Rights: Making The Human Connection, Jim Mason

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Animal Rights is in the air, so much so that the term borders on becoming a buzzword and the cause itself the latest form of radical chic. Although Lewis Gompertz, Henry S. Salt, and others put forth radically different views on attitudes and

relations toward other animals more than a century ago, the publication in 1972 of essays by Brigid Brophy, Richard Ryder, and others in the book, Animals, Men and Morals (London: Gollancz, 1971; New York: Taplinger, 1972) and the more popular book, Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer (New York Review, 1975) have sparked another wave of these views …

The Politics Of Animal Rights: Making The Human Connection, Jim Mason

Animal Welfare Collection

Animal Rights is in the air, so much so that the term borders on becoming a buzzword and the cause itself the latest form of radical chic. Although Lewis Gompertz, HenryS. Salt and others put forth radically different views on attitudes and relations toward other animals more than a century ago, the publication in 1972 of essays by Brigid Brophy, Richard Ryder and others in the book, Animals, Men and Morals and the more popular book, Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer have sparked another wave of these views and have inspired a spate of college courses, articles in both academic …

Benign Uses Of Wildlife, Victor B. Scheffer

Conservation Collection

During the Age of Environmental Awareness, which dawned in the late 1960's, Americans turned to using wild animals more benignly (or in ways harmless both to individuals and populations) and less exploitatively. The evidence includes: new federal legislation reflecting a public shift toward benign uses, growth of interest in 'nongame' wildlife, growth of interest in wildlife watching (rate of increase in number of camera safaris estimated at 32% per annum in 7 recent years), growth in membership of animal-interest organizations (rate of increase estimated at 7.7% per annum in 15 recent years), and growth of interest in animal rights. Per …

Definition Of The Concept Of "Humane Treatment" In Relation To Food And Laboratory Animals, Bernard E. Rollin

Animal Welfare Collection

The very title of this talk makes a suggestion which must be forestalled, namely the idea that laboratory and food animals enjoy some exceptional moral status by virtue of the fact that we use them. In fact, it is extremely difficult to find any morally relevant grounds for distinguishing between food and laboratory animals and other animals and, far more dramatically, between animals and humans. The same conditions which require that we apply moral categories to humans rationally require that we apply them to animals as well. While it is obviously pragmatically impossible in our current sociocultural setting to expect …