Animal Rights and Ethics

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Animal Rights and Ethics

• G. Robert Weedon, DVM, MPH
• Originally Developed By
• Rachel Hurst Tomi Hill
• Former HON 120 Students

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Introduction

• Rights
• Meeting a standard (What is your standard?) of
  genuine conduct that is just, proper and
  honorable.
• A right is a particular way of protecting
  interests
• Ethics
• Discipline dealing with good and evil and with
  moral duty moral principles or practice.
• A set of principles of right conduct

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Speciesism

• The prejudice many humans have in favor of their
  own species
• The boundary of my own group is the boundary of
  my concern
• This is the philosophy that non-human animals
  live by, yet they are not rational beings
• Therefore is it wrong when humans live by this
  philosophy?

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The Burning House Scenario?
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The Burning House Scenario?

• Your dog or your child?
• Your dog or someone elses child?
• Your dog or an unknown human?
• Your dog or a terminally-ill human?
• Your dog or Adolph Hitler?

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Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare

• Utilitarianism states that an action is right if
  the harm brought about by an action is
  outweighed by the good brought about by the
  action
• Animal welfare theories accept that animals have
  interests but allow these interests to be traded
  away as long as there are some human benefits
  that are thought to justify that sacrifice.

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Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare

• Rights-based philosophy deals with individual
  rights. Individuals have inherent value.
• Animal rights means that animals, like humans,
  have interests that cannot be sacrificed or
  traded away just because it might benefit others.
  However, the rights position does not hold that
  rights are absolute an animals rights, just
  like those of humans, must be limited, and rights
  can certainly conflict.
• The principle of equal consideration

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Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare

• Animal rights means that animals are not ours to
  use for food, clothing, entertainment, or
  experimentation.
• Animal welfare allows these uses as long as
  "humane" guidelines are followed.

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The Heart of the Matter

• Dr. Jeff Goodwin
• Texas AM University

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Philosophy For Animal Rights

• Animals, especially those used by humans, have
  inherent value in and of themselves and have an
  equal and general right to be treated with
  respect
• Animals should not have equal rights but equal
  consideration of interests and respect
• As a fellow creature of the earth, we are all
  born with the same fundamental, unspoken rights
• Only humans try to define such things with words
  and delegate these ideas to the lives of other
  creatures

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The Animal Rights Movement

• Animal rights means that animals deserve certain
  kinds of considerationconsideration of what is
  in their own best interests regardless of whether
  they are cute, useful to humans, or an endangered
  species and regardless of whether any human cares
  about them at all (just as a mentally-challenged
  human has rights even if he or she is not cute or
  useful or even if everyone dislikes him or her).
  It means recognizing that animals are not ours to
  usefor food, clothing, entertainment, or
  experimentation.

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The Animal Rights Movement

• The fundamental principle of the AR movement is
  that nonhuman animals deserve to live according
  to their own natures, free from harm, abuse, and
  exploitation. This goes further than just saying
  that we should treat animals well while we
  exploit them, or before we kill and eat them. It
  says animals have the RIGHT to be free from human
  cruelty and exploitation, just as humans possess
  this right. The withholding of this right from
  the nonhuman animals based on their species
  membership is referred to as "speciesism".

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The Animal Rights Movement
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The Animal Rights Movement
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The Animal Rights Movement
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Philosophy Against Animal Rights

• If having rights means assuming responsibility
  then animals should not have rights because they
  cannot be held morally responsible for what they
  do
• They cannot perceive good and evil, right and
  wrong
• With rights comes duty and animals have no
  sense of duty or legal obligations
• Animals were created for man to use

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The Anti-Animal Rights Movement
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The Anti-Animal Rights Movement

• Mankind in general is a reasoning animal. This
  alone sets us head and shoulders above all other
  animals. We are charged with the care and
  maintenance of all other animals. We try our best
  to see that we do not intentionally harm or abuse
  animals. But we do not admit them to congress,
  nor let them sign up for library cards.

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Animal Research

• Scientists have every reason to treat animals
  humanely because good science depends on healthy
  animals, an ethos buttressed by laws ensuring
  humane care.
• Adrian Morrison

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Animal Research

• Do we really need animal research and
  experimentation?
• Yes Needed for human health care advancement
• No Quality of life and conditions for animals
  are not always ethical or humane.

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What have we learned?

• Why are animals important to us?
• How do animals impact our lives?
• How do we impact their lives?

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What have we learned?

• Our Relationship with Animals
• Our Responsibilities for Animals
• How We Use Exploit Animals

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Our Relationship with Animals
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Our Relationship with Animals
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Our Relationship with Animals
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Our Relationship with Animals
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Our Responsibility for Animals
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Our Responsibility for Animals
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Our Responsibility for Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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How We Use Exploit Animals
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What have we learned?
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He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in
his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of
a man by his treatment of animals.
Immanuel Kant
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In short, I hope you never lose sight of the
importance of animals in your life.
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Words of Wisdom

• Be brave. Even when youre not, pretend to be.
  No one can tell the difference.
• If you decide to run with the ball, just count
  on fumbling and getting the shit knocked out of
  you a lot. But never forget how much fun it is
  just to run with the ball.