Is Eating Plants as Morally Objectionable as Eating Animals?
On my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, I often receive comments to the effect that we cannot morally distinguish animal foods from plant foods. Some comments are made by those who maintain that plants are sentient and, therefore, are not morally different from sentient nonhumans. This argument, which ranks up there with “But Hitler was a vegetarian,” is tiresome, pathetic, and […]
Why I Did Not Sign the Montreal Declaration on Animal Exploitation
I was invited on several occasions to sign the Montreal Declaration on Animal Exploitation. I appreciate that the drafters asked me to sign but, for the following reasons, I am unable to do so. First, the Declaration Does Not Reject All Animal Use What is the end — the ultimate goal — envisaged by the Declaration? The Declaration purports to seek […]
The Zouma Brothers Have Been Sentenced. Now What About the Rest of Us?
West Ham footballer Kurt Zouma pled guilty to violating the Animal Welfare Act by kicking and slapping his cat and causing the cat “unnecessary suffering.” His brother, Yoan Zouma, who plays for Dagenham and Redbridge, filmed the incident and was accused of abetting, counselling or procuring Kurt to violate the law. Kurt was sentenced to do 180 hours of […]
Abortion and Animal Rights
I advocate for the rights of animals. I argue that, if animals have moral value and are not just things, we are obligated to stop using animals as resources. It’s not just a matter of not causing animals to suffer. Although sentient (subjectively aware) animals certainly do have a morally significant interest in not suffering, […]
THE RSPCA SHOULD PROSECUTE ITSELF
The RSPCA is starting the process of prosecuting West Ham United’s Kurt Zouma for slapping and kicking his cat, and his brother, Yoan, who plays for Dagenham and Redbridge, for filming the incident. What the Zoumas did was clearly wrong. They inflicted harm on the cat without any justification; the cat was not threatening them in any […]
Do We Have an Obligation to Eat Animals? No.
The history of human thinking about animal ethics is littered with a great many examples of smart people engaging in reasoning that is anything but smart in order to justify continuing to exploit animals. Indeed, animal ethics provides what might be the greatest example of how self-interest — in particular gustatory self-interest — can deaden […]
Kurt Zouma and All Nonvegans and Benedict Cumberbatch: Perfect Together
English Premier League football player Kurt Zouma is in big trouble. He kicked and slapped one of his cats. He has been fined £250k by West Ham, the team for which he plays. The cat he kicked and slapped, and another cat he has, were taken from him by the RSPCA, which is investigating him […]