Animal rights in applied ethics: why we use animals

animal rights (applied ethics)

• Firstly I want to show you the reason that animal rights are such an important topic and and how we use animals extensively for our own purposes.
• I chose not to put any extreme images on the slides today as I don’t think it is necessary and i am sure you are all aware of the horrors that occur.
• I do not want to come across as condemning all uses of a animals as I am not in any position to do so as directly or indirectly I use products that subject animals to this.
• However doing this project it became apparent to me that i have no justifiable reason to use animals in these ways and it became harder and harder not to be disturbed and infuriated with the ways we use animals.

2)

• so why is it okay for us to use animals….
• -firstly there is tradition…. we always have and everyone still does, it is just the way it is
• -secondly some believe that domination of the world is a competition and we as humans are winning their for have the right to subject animals to what ever we feel is just.
• this is what Carl Cohen believes calling himself a proud speciesist
• - argument of need

3)

• so these are our justifications but really none of them stand up to much…
• - when has tradition ever been a symbol of morality- slave trade!
• -when have we ever believed that the strongest has the right to batter the weak
• - we know that we no longer need meat to survive as we have an infinite supply of substitutes and more this it is better fort the environment to not eat meat and in many places meat is seen as a luxury!
• -so meat as a necessity is questionable.

4)

• peter singer:
• he believes that in the future humans will look back on the way we create animals in disgust and totally condemn our actions just as we now do to the slave owners and merchants. ( I personally do not feel this is a fair comparison as the people tortured in the slave trade have a much stronger awareness of pain mentally and physically as their families were torn apart and subjected to awful conditions )
• he believes that the way we treat animals can be categorised as speciesism: the giving of preference to an other species in the absence of morally relevant differences.
• and as we have no untaintable reason that non human animals are so morally different to humans we have no reason to treat them as if there is.
• even the idea that superior cognitive responses differentiate us doesn’t stand up as we do not treat people less intelligent than us in this way.
• he believes that animals share the same interests such as to avoid pain and to survive and as we have this right then so should the… calling this idea equal consideration

5)

• religious views on animals:
• christianity in the past has viewed animals as inferior and that god put them on earth for our use but even in the past saints such as saint Antony have expressed their respect for animals for example St Antony used to to preach to the fishes.
• In modern times not many christians believe animals are merely here for our us but they do not believe they command moral consideration. This stems from the belief that god loves all his creations.
• Hinduism has a much more positive out look through air beliefs of ahimsa and that every thing has an atman and this must be respected.
• - also their belief that their is divine spirit in all creatures means the majority of them are vegetarian

6)

• Kant: low view of animals
• as animals lack autonomy and reason they can not have rights and we have no obligation to treat them as ends in themselves as we do to humans. So they are not deserving of our respect and we can use them for our purposes.
• However Kant doesn’t give us free reign as he states that we have indirect duty to them if they have an attachment to another person…
• - if they are a belonging or a companion we have no right to harm them as this will effect the person they are attached to. We must have consideration for their people.
• Natural Law:
• non- human animals lack autonomy and reason and therefor we are able to use them as we wish for our own purposes.

Diapositiva 7

7)

• Utilitarianism:
• utilitarians believe that as animals can suffer they must need to be factored into the hedonic calculus. However they do not condemn the use of animals in all situations as human suffering is more important than animals so if a choice must be made then the human comes first.

8)

• I still find it very hard to justify our treatment of animals as all these arguments seem to lack a definite moral justification, and their cant be any real reason why we can treat animals in such away aside from meat.
• -over 1000 mill are killed in labs killed in labs for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity experiments, chemical, drug, cosmetic and food testing. but this is probably a relief due to the conditions they are in…
• -deprived of their natural habitats, holes drilled into their skulls, held in immobilisation restraints for hours, they spines broken and much more. A fun fact.. the reason rabies are used for testing products in their eyes is that they have no tear ducts to flush it out with so scientists can simply observe the affects with out interference from the animal.

9)

• To a point I believe medical testing is necessary but these conditions cant be. And our treatment of animals is further reaching than just morality it is destroying the environment we live in … deforestation and destruction of the landscape.
• This is an area of ethics where i feel we lack a strong argument for our actions and is a rare occasion when their is a easy solution.
• thank you for listening