Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from February 2007.

Statistics

This blog had 1,068 visits during December, which is an average of 34.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 43.1.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from January 2007.

Statistics

This blog had 1,600 visits during November, which is an average of 53.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 54.9.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from December 2006.

Anniversary

I started this blog 13 years ago today. There have been 310,008 visits, which is an average of 23,846.7 visits per year, 457.0 visits per week, and 65.2 visits per day (taking leap years into account). Here is the first post, on 28 November 2003.

Bernard E. Rollin on the Moral Status of Animals

Philosophers have shown that the standard reasons offered to exclude animals from the moral circle, and to justify not assessing our treatment of them by the same moral categories and machinery we use for assessing the treatment of humans, do not meet the test of moral relevance. Such historically sanctified reasons as “animals lack a soul,” “animals do not reason,” “humans are more powerful than animals,” “animals do not have language,” “God said we could do as we wish to animals” have been demonstrated to provide no rational basis for failing to reckon with animal interests in our moral deliberations. For one thing, while the above statements may mark differences between humans and animals, they do not mark morally relevant differences that justify harming animals when we would not similarly harm people. For example, if we justify harming animals on the grounds that we are more powerful than they are, we are essentially affirming “might makes right,” a principle that morality is in large measure created to overcome. By the same token, if we are permitted to harm animals for our benefit because they lack reason, there are no grounds for not extending the same logic to non-rational humans, as we shall shortly see. And while animals may not have the same interests as people, it is evident to commonsense [sic] that they certainly do have interests, the fulfillment and thwarting of which matter to them.

(Bernard E. Rollin, "The Moral Status of Animals and Their Use as Experimental Subjects," chap. 41 in A Companion to Bioethics, 2d ed., ed. Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer [Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009], 495-509, at 497 [italics in original])

Uppity Human

See here.

Leonard Nelson (1882-1927) on Duties to Animals

Moral philosophers, even those belonging to the Critical School [the followers of Kant and Fries], have often represented duties to animals as indirect duties to oneself or to other men. For instance, maltreatment of animals is forbidden on the ground that it encourages cruelty, that is, a disposition that obstructs fulfillment of duty. Now, maltreatment of animals may have just that effect; nevertheless the argument in question takes no account of the whole truth. For according to this argument, maltreatment of animals is reprehensible because of the incidental effects it has on the character of the agent or of other men. Where the effects are not harmful, maltreatment of animals would thus be permitted.

If we examine the arguments on the basis of which the existence of direct duties to animals has been denied, we are compelled to conclude regretfully that most of these arguments are sophistical—indeed, they are so threadbare that we find it surprising that they could be advanced by people who claim to be schooled in scientific method. The treatment this problem has received in ethics would be devastating testimony to the limitations of human understanding, if it were not clear that interest rather than error accounts for it.

(Leonard Nelson, System of Ethics, trans. Norbert Guterman [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956], 137 [footnote inserted into text in brackets])

Statistics

This blog had 1,219 visits during October, which is an average of 39.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 45.7.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from November 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 929 visits during September, which is an average of 30.9 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 34.1.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from October 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 636 visits during August, which is an average of 20.5 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 24.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from September 2006.

Mylan Engel Jr and Kathie Jenni on Prejudice Against Animals

While [Peter] Singer's and [Tom] Regan's theoretical approaches are fundamentally different, they converge on a number of important points. First, both argue that all conscious, sentient animals with desires and interests deserve equal moral consideration (regardless of whether these animals are human or nonhuman). The practical implications of their views also converge. Both approaches entail that most contemporary uses of animals—factory farming of animals for meat, eggs, and milk; animal experimentation; use of animals for entertainment in zoos and circuses; hunting and trapping animals in the wild; and so on—are morally unjustified and should be eliminated. Both authors consider the attitudes of most people toward animals to be nothing more than an arbitrary prejudice in favor of our own kind that many now refer to pejoratively as "speciesism" (a term coined by Richard Ryder). Singer, in particular, likens speciesism to racism and sexism, and uses the analogy to argue that a new liberation movement is needed to combat this deep-seated but unjustified prejudice and the many forms of animal exploitation that flow from it.

(Mylan Engel Jr and Kathie Jenni, The Philosophy of Animal Rights: A Brief Introduction for Students and Teachers [New York: Lantern Books, 2010], 27)

Statistics

This blog had 634 visits during July, which is an average of 20.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 27.4.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from August 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 794 visits during June, which is an average of 26.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 28.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from July 2006.

From Today's Los Angeles Times

To the editor:

The gorilla Harambe’s killing at the Cincinnati Zoo surely calls our society to ask if it is moral or just to keep animals in a prison to be used, at worst, as objects of entertainment or, at best, under the guise of “education.” (“Harambe the gorilla dies, meat-eaters grieve,” Opinion, June 5)

Is there no accountability on the part of the parents of the child who found himself in the gorilla exhibit? The zoo, surely, carries responsibility for deficiencies in its enclosure. In light of this horrible incident, is it right for the zoo to carry on a breeding program that subjects more animals to such unnatural lives?

Finally, what of the audience? The hysteria of the crowd surely played a part in escalating an already frightening situation. Further, did those who reacted so strongly to Harambe’s killing go home and serve meat to their children?

This horrible incident has raised some tough questions indeed. In my opinion, neither Harambe nor the child should ever have been at the zoo.

M. Michelle Nadon, Aurora, Canada

To the editor:

Bars? What? Have op-ed article writers Peter Singer and Karen Dawn not seen the beautiful natural habitat at the L.A. Zoo?

It is estimated that due to conflicts with humans, the bushmeat and body parts trade, disease and habitat destruction, large mammals in Africa may be extinct by the end of this century. Many sanctuaries do not permit breeding.

As an intelligent primate, I’d much rather be an ambassador for my species in a secure environment—served the best food and tended to by top-notch veterinarians—than take my chances in a national park where poverty and corruption result in little or no protection for the non-human residents.

Lisa Edmondson, Los Angeles

Statistics

This blog had 1,338 visits during May, which is an average of 43.1 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 42.3.

Animal Rights

Good leftist that he is, Peter Singer doesn't let a crisis go to waste.

Addendum: The argument seems to be as follows:

1. It is inconsistent both (a) to eat meat and (b) to condemn (or mourn) the killing of Harambe;
2. I condemn (or mourn) the killing of Harambe; therefore,
3. I may no longer eat meat.

Here are some objections:

• The first premise is false.
• The first premise is true, but I don't care about inconsistency.
• The first premise is true and I care about inconsistency, but, since I am going to continue to eat meat, I no longer condemn (or mourn) the killing of Harambe.

Singer and his coauthor do nothing to reply to these (obvious) objections. They should have addressed at least the third objection, for I suspect that most readers of their op-ed column, if forced to choose, would stop condemning (or mourning) the killing of Harambe rather than stop eating meat.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from June 2006.

Humor

Literature

Peter Singer reviews Wayne Pacelle's new book.

Statistics

This blog had 1,725 visits during April, which is an average of 57.5 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 52.4.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from May 2006.

Why Justice for Animals Is the Social Movement of Our Time

"There is no longer dispute among serious scientists that humans aren’t the only animals who have the capacity to suffer physically and mentally. Elephants, great apes, orcas, dogs, cats, and many other animals can experience depression, anxiety, and compulsive disorders. In a study first published in 2011, my colleagues and I showed how chimpanzees used in the biomedical and entertainment industries suffered from PTSD and other mental disorders—much like the psychiatric conditions I’ve documented in human torture survivors." Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, Human Rights Physician.

In "Why Justice for Animals Is the Social Movement of Our Time," recently published in Psychology Today, Dr. Ferdowsian argues that human and animal rights are not mutually exclusive. Quite the contrary, they can be mutually reinforcing because "there is common ground occupied by those working on behalf of people and animals—both because of the shared potential for suffering and because many solutions to successfully combat domination, violence, and abuse are universal."

Statistics

This blog had 1,366 visits during March, which is an average of 44.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 38.1.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from April 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 1,157 visits during February, which is an average of 39.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 32.5.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from March 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 969 visits during January, which is an average of 31.2 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 30.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from February 2006.

Mylan Engel Jr and Kathie Jenni on Philosophy

Philosophy differs from many intellectual disciplines in that it is fundamentally a normative discipline. Unlike those disciplines whose primary aim is to describe various phenomena, philosophy aims to evaluate our views, attitudes, and behavior. At the societal level, philosophy seeks to identify and critically evaluate the cultural assumptions and dogmas of the day, exposing indefensible assumptions as mere prejudice. At the personal level, philosophy challenges us as individuals to assess whether our own beliefs, attitudes, and practices are justifiable, with an eye toward abandoning or revising those beliefs and practices found to be unjustifiable.

As a result, philosophical inquiry often proves profoundly valuable both for society and for the individual. Principal among philosophy's contributions to society is its power to reform: Most of the great social reform movements of the modern era have grown out of philosophical challenges to the status quo. At the personal level, philosophical self-examination helps us to live authentic, meaningful lives. By subjecting our beliefs, attitudes, and practices to critical scrutiny, we learn what our most deeply held values are—an essential first step toward acting in accordance with those values. When philosophy helps us to live our lives in conformity with our most deeply held values, it becomes a transformative experience.

(Mylan Engel Jr and Kathie Jenni, The Philosophy of Animal Rights: A Brief Introduction for Students and Teachers [New York: Lantern Books, 2010], 7 [italics in original])

Note from KBJ: I reject this conception of philosophy. To quote Peter Winch, "philosophy can no more show a man what he should attach importance to than geometry can show a man where he should stand." The purpose of philosophy is to clarify concepts. This includes showing people the implications of what they already believe.

Statistics

This blog had 1,339 visits during December, which is an average of 43.1 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 40.1.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from January 2006.

Statistics

This blog had 1,647 visits during November, which is an average of 54.9 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 51.0.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from December 2005.

Anniversary

This blog is 12 years old today. Here is the first post. There have been 296,367 visits, which is an average of 24,697.2 visits per year, 67.6 visits per day, and 473.3 visits per week.

Statistics

This blog had 1,417 visits during October, which is an average of 45.7 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 38.7.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from November 2005.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from October 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 1,024 visits during September, which is an average of 34.1 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 27.0.

Statistics

This blog had 770 visits during August, which is an average of 24.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 21.2.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from September 2005.

Abolitionism Versus Meliorism

Here is a New York Times op-ed column, coathored by a philosopher and an historian, about animal rights.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from August 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 850 visits during July, which is an average of 27.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 24.6.

Beliefs About Animal Rights

Forty years ago, the suggestion that nonhuman animals have moral rights—indeed, many of the same rights as human beings—would have been met with incredulous stares, if not outright ridicule. Fast forward to the present. A recent Gallup poll (conducted May 6-10, 2015) found that 32% of Americans believe that "animals deserve the exact same rights as people to be free from harm and exploitation," while only 3% of Americans feel that animals don't need much protection from harm and exploitation "since they are just animals." Other results from this Gallup poll can be found here. If you are among the growing number of Americans who think that animals deserve the same moral rights as people, you can help promote their rights by refusing to purchase products from industries that harm and exploit animals.

Note from KBJ: This post is by Mylan Engel.

Statistics

This blog had 865 visits during June, which is an average of 28.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 28.0.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from July 2005.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from June 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 1,313 visits during May, which is an average of 42.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 48.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from May 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 1,572 visits during April, which is an average of 52.4 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 57.3.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from April 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 1,182 visits during March, which is an average of 38.1 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 49.0.

Statistics

This blog had 910 visits during February, which is an average of 32.5 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 43.0.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from March 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 955 visits during January, which is an average of 30.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 36.5.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from February 2005.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

As Mark Bittman rightly notes, California’s new farm animal welfare law presages what is coming for all farm animal industries nationally (“Hens, Unbound,” column, Jan. 1).

The tiny cages and crates that confine about 90 percent of laying hens and more than 80 percent of gestating sows are both physically and mentally tormenting for the animals involved.

Physically, the muscles and the bones of the animals atrophy from lack of use. Mentally, they go insane from boredom and stress, just as our dogs or cats would if they were kept in tiny crates or carriers for their entire lives.

There is no difference between cruelty to a pig or a dog or a hen or a cat, and so the sooner we relegate these awful devices to the dustbin of history, the better.

BRUCE G. FRIEDRICH
Washington, Jan. 1, 2015

The writer is director of advocacy and policy for Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal protection group.

Statistics

This blog had 1,246 visits during December, which is an average of 40.1 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 56.5.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from January 2005.

Statistics

This blog had 1,530 visits during November, which is an average of 51.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 73.6.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from December 2004.

Anniversary

I started this blog 11 years ago today. It's not quite dead, because I still post statistics every month, but I no longer post anything substantive. Evidently, some people still find its posts useful.

Statistics

This blog had 1,201 visits during October, which is an average of 38.7 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 57.5.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from November 2004.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from October 2004.

Statistics

This blog had 812 visits during September, which is an average of 27.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 44.9.

Statistics

This blog had 660 visits during August, which is an average of 21.2 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 27.9.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from September 2004.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from August 2004.

Statistics

This blog had 763 visits during July, which is an average of 24.6 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 34.5.

Statistics

This blog had 842 visits during June, which is an average of 28.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 46.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from July 2004.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Once again people associated with the animal rights group PETA (letter, June 19) have tried to disparage the commitment circuses have for animal care and conservation. Despite the claims made in the letter, circuses like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey are dedicated to providing the very best of care for all our animals, especially the Asian elephant. Rather than adopt stringent United States animal care standards, which Ringling Bros. fully supports, officials in Mexico City unnecessarily banned circuses with animals.

In the United States, 10 million fans a year see a Ringling Bros. performance, and their No. 1 reason for coming is our animals. Rather than rely on PETA’s rhetoric, circus fans should come and see for themselves how all our animals are thriving at the Greatest Show on Earth.

STEPHEN PAYNE
Vienna, Va., June 19, 2014

The writer is vice president, corporate communications, for Feld Entertainment, parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Worry Under the Big Top as Mexico City Moves to Ban Circus Animals” (news article, June 15):

Mexico City joins the growing list of cities that have banned the exploitation of animals in circuses. Several countries, including Austria, Bolivia, Colombia, Greece, Peru, Britain and Paraguay, have already imposed or approved bans. Why is the United States lagging so far behind?

Our elected officials must recognize that beating elephants with bullhooks—heavy batons with a sharp metal hook on the end that can tear elephants’ skin—and whipping tigers until they cringe and cower, are ethically indefensible.

When not performing, animals spend most of their lives caged or chained in tractor-trailers and railroad boxcars while traveling from city to city. They have none of what makes their lives worth living: roaming freely, controlling territory, socializing and simple autonomy.

The trend is undeniable: The days of hauling and hurting animals in the name of entertainment are quickly coming to an end.

JENNIFER O’CONNOR
Staff Writer, PETA Foundation
Norfolk, Va., June 16, 2014

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from June 2004.

Statistics

This blog had 1,513 visits during May, which is an average of 48.8 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 66.4.

Statistics

This blog had 1,721 visits during April, which is an average of 57.3 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 78.8.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from May 2004.

Statistics

This blog had 1,520 visits during March, which is an average of 49.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 66.0.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from April 2004.

"They Die Piece by Piece"

Here.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “They’re Going to Wish They All Could Be California Hens” (front page, March 4):

While the conditions in California’s colony cages are certainly better than those of the barren battery cages used for 90 percent of egg-laying hens in this country, they still involve cramming 60 animals into a wire cage, each bird with just 116 square inches in which to live her entire life

At Farm Sanctuary, we spend our lives with hens, and we can attest that chickens are individuals with needs and personalities, just like the dogs and cats most readers will know a bit better. It is no more acceptable to confine 60 hens for their entire lives in a cage that you report is “about the size of a Ford F-150 pickup truck’s flatbed” than it would be to treat 60 cats similarly.

Compassionate consumers can take a stand against this cruelty by choosing vegan options.

BRUCE FRIEDRICH
Senior Policy Director
Farm Sanctuary
Washington, March 4, 2014

To the Editor:

The humane laws for hens in California that provide them more space in which to live should be countrywide. Chickens deserve to live humanely. That’s the least farmers can do.

People seem to lose sight of the fact that these are sentient animals, not food machines! The same goes for pigs and cattle that are exploited and forced to live in substandard conditions.

Congratulations to California for being so compassionate and leading the way.

ELAINE SLOAN
New York, March 4, 2014

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from March 2004.

Statistics

This blog had 1,204 visits during February, which is an average of 43.0 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 78.4.

Statistics

This blog had 1,134 visits during January, which is an average of 36.5 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 82.3.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from February 2004.

According Animals Dignity

In this New York Times op-ed column, Frank Bruni predicts that our understanding of and concern for animals is only going to grow as scientific advances help us to understand the rich psychological and emotional lives of animals. Tom Regan was right: Many of the animals we routinely exploit are experiencing subjects of a life just like us.

Lions

Statistics

This blog had 1,754 visits during December, which is an average of 56.5 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 81.7.

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from January 2004.

Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) on the Golden Rule

How, then, shall we sum up in a sentence the principle of our duties to the lower animals? I do not know that it can be better done than in the words of George Nicholson, one of those early pioneers to the influence of whose writings, though now almost forgotten, the cause of humaneness owes so much. "In our conduct to animals," he wrote, "one plain rule may determine what form it ought to take, and prove an effectual guard against an improper treatment of them—a rule universally admitted as a foundation of moral rectitude: Treat the animal in such a manner as you would willingly be treated, were you such an animal." In our dealings with the non-human as with the human race, it is not "charity," or "self-sacrifice," or "mercy" that is required, but simple justice—an insistence on our own duties as on those of our neighbors, a recognition of our neighbors' rights as of our own.

(Henry S. Salt, "The Rights of Animals," International Journal of Ethics 10 [January 1900]: 206-22, at 222 [italics in original; footnote omitted])

Ten Years Gone

Here are the posts from December 2003.

Statistics

This blog had 2,210 visits during November, which is an average of 73.6 visits per day. A year ago, the average was 93.2.