Ethics -Animal Rights

Caleb Peters (GB1) · 04.04.2013

Greetings

I have used the search function and concluded - not suprisingly - that no one has created a thread on this topic previously. I am quite glad there is a section on this forum that allows us to talk about issues separate of the game, since many of you know I am a keen philosopher, and I wanted to discover the views and opinions that many of you may have on a specific topic; Animal Rights.

As many of you know, the on-going debate concerning the rights of animals is a popular one in modern day. This has been widely influenced by the works of Peter Singer in his book 'Animal Liberation', and has spurred animal activists with their work since. The issue of Animal Rights is therefore an important one, and I was curious to discover your views (if any) that people may have on the topic.

I am sure most are familiar with the fact that all kinds of animals are globally exploited for the benefit and gain of the human population. Animals are caged and kept in some of the harshest and unnatural of conditions so that humans can benefit off of their products. We farm and feed off the meat of animals that have as much feeling and self awareness as the household pets we all love. We cut down and destroy the habitats and homes of countless animals, causing the extinction of thousands of species to continue the trading of Amazonian Wood.

The question at hand is whether this is right? Should we continue with the way we are treating other species and blatantly disregard their concious welfare? Or give Animals the Rights against these moral cruelties that we would never dream of exposing ourselves to. My view is probably quite noticeable, it is clear that I support the argument for animal rights - due to the visible bias in my writing

My issue is that we give our own species special consideration in terms of Rights and Protection. Killing people outside of war is the most seriously regarded crime ordinarily committed, the only thing more strongly forbidden is eating people. We enjoy eating members of other species however.

It is also widely debated whether execution is a viable method of punishment for even our most dangerous criminals, whilst we cheerfully countenance the shooting - without trial - of fairly mild animal pest, we even kill members of harmless species as a means of recreation and amusement.

And a human foetus, with no more human feeling than an amoeba, enjoys a reverence and legal protection far in excess to that granted to an adult chimpanzee. Yet the chimp feels and thinks - and according to recent experimental evidence - may even be capable of learning a form of human language. The foetus belongs to our own species, and is instantly accorded special privileges and rights because of it.

I would be grateful to see other people's views on this matter, and thank you for reading

Cal

ResinRubber · 04.04.2013

I like to eat animals.

Caleb Peters (GB1) · 04.04.2013

ResinRubber wrote: »

I like to eat animals.

I can respect that

I'm sure the animals don't enjoy it however, moreso the trauma they go through in their lives being prepared for consumption :P

Lord Smithe · 04.04.2013

i do as well....im sure the animals dont enjoy being eaten but they do taste good

iBert · 04.04.2013

I like to kick cats, and break their ribs.

ResinRubber · 04.04.2013

I kill animals on a regular basis then eat them. Chicken is simply extremely mobile broccoli.

Caleb Peters (GB1) · 04.04.2013

iBert wrote: »

I like to kick cats, and break their ribs.

You enjoy the pain and suffering of others?? Quite disturbing but ok :P

ResinRubber · 04.04.2013

BTW...Singer as an ethicist is akin to Carl Marx as an economist.

Caleb Peters (GB1) · 04.04.2013

I am not familiar with the work of Karl Marx, I'm guessing he is highly regarded with his contribution to economy? And I am quite the fan of Singer's work - although I disagree with his view of Preference Utilitarianism - I found his books to be quite inspiring

Stu909 · 04.04.2013

well i like eating animals, but dont want them to have to go through them bleeding to death thorugh there throats like cattle do, thats digusting.

Unknown · 04.04.2013

I like eating animals, although I don't want to see them suffer, in fact I have nearly gotten into multiple fist fights to protect different animals, other then that Caleb I don't share your views at all, I am not an animal rights activist and I don't believe they should have the same rights as humans, I simply don't think they should be tortured or abused. And I agree with Resin Rubber's statement: Singer as an ethicist is akin to Carl Marx as an economist. For those of you who don't know Carl Marx is the father of Marxism and if you don't know exactly what that is look it up but I can tell you Caleb that we burned your boy Singer. I also find it amazing that you don't know who Karl Marx is seeing as how you're 2 months older than I am and I learned about him years ago

Caleb Peters (GB1) · 04.04.2013

REGLbazooka wrote: »

I also find it amazing that you don't know who Karl Marx is seeing as how you're 2 months older than I am and I learned about him years ago

Well I imagine the teaching curriculum for England and America would be quite different? That might explain the lack of knowledge I have in economics, that and the fact I have not taken the subject of economics past the national basic level - never been my strong point

REGLbazooka wrote: »

For those of you who don't know Carl Marx is the father of Marxism and if you don't know exactly what that is look it up but I can tell you Caleb that we burned your boy Singer.

Haha, so there's no doubt that Marx rejected Animal Rights. I will look the theory of Marxism up, thanks

REGLbazooka wrote: »

I like eating animals, although I don't want to see them suffer

I hope you can acknowledge the contradiction in that viewpoint - the very act of consuming animals is subjecting them to many forms of suffering, or more accurately, supporting the trade which does so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4MRI-gojVQ

REGLbazooka wrote: »

I am not an animal rights activist and I don't believe they should have the same rights as humans, I simply don't think they should be tortured or abused.

The argument for Animal Rights does not seek for Animals to share Human Rights, but to - at least - establish a form of Rights for themselves that indeed do avoid the issues of torture and abuse that you have mentioned, whilst avoiding the complications of sharing the Rights of Humans, which - in all honesty - would not totally benefit the issues of exploitation that Animals are currently going through anyway.

[Deleted User] · 04.04.2013

Marxism is a slight variant of communism. Marx wrote the book Das Kapital.
I am strongly against hunting with guns, if you are going to kill an animal then use a weapon which gives it a chance to fight back, and fight it on your own. Not from half a mile away with 10 other people.
Likewise battery farming, where animals, often chickens are put in a cage where they are barely able to move, until either they stop producing eggs or milk in which case they are often killed and sold, or until they are fat enough to kill at which point they are slaughtered and sold. Either way they go through a life of suffering only to be killed.

A question for you.

Are human rights overly protective (rights like you cannot kill someone who has murdered many people in cold blood, you can only lock them in a prison that has gyms, tennis courts, televisons etc. etc.)

or

Are animal rights not protective enough such as the fact that although you cannot kill a human who is a mass murderer you can kill a dog who has injured your finger.

My opinion is both are true, but what do you think.

Ante55 · 04.04.2013

ResinRubber wrote: »

BTW...Singer as an ethicist is akin to Carl Marx as an economist.

Well Karl Marx has with politics and economy to do with while this is mostly animal politics

As for myself, I eat animals but I would happily switch to vegetarian if we were forced to in order to save the animal species

ResinRubber · 04.04.2013

You've never heard of Karl Marx? Seriously?

Singer, Newkirk and the ilk are nothing but hypocritical ethos poseurs.

Here's the rub for you veggie animals should never die or have rights crowd.

To farm anything kills something. Whether that be ground nesting birds to make way for the plow and loss of habitat to crop fields or it's an abattoirs blade. Something must die (unless you're a Jainist monk...but how many Jainists are there really?) in order for the current food needs of the human population to be met. Period. It's inescapable. That people like Singer or Newkirk refuse to acknowledge this simple fact of survival and create a an unrealistic utopian ideal is as ludicrous as Marx's Manifesto. That was my point.

Ante55 · 04.04.2013

ResinRubber wrote: »

Here's the rub for you veggie animals should never die or have rights crowd.

To farm anything kills something. Whether that be ground nesting birds to make way for the plow and loss of habitat to crop fields or it's an abattoirs blade. Something must die (unless you're a Jainist monk...but how many Jainists are there really?) in order for the current food needs of the human population to be met. Period. It's inescapable. That people like Singer or Newkirk refuse to acknowledge this simple fact of survival and create a an unrealistic utopian ideal is as ludicrous as Marx's Manifesto. That was my point.

Wow that was actually a good speech, did you come up with it yourself?

jamdog · 04.04.2013

lovin how this comes under entertainment and fun rather than deep deep s### like how some of you are treating it.

by the way,i think that animals make really nice furniture and tasty halal meat. ( i dont believe in the religeos crap but halal is deliceous from the slow draining of the animals blood until it perishes. )

don't let him see that

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ResinRubber · 04.04.2013

Ante55 wrote: »

Wow that was actually a good speech, did you come up with it yourself?

Some of us are actually capable of linear thought rather than beholden to emotional rhetoric.

Ante55 · 04.04.2013

Oh I see

Wait a limit you have been here longer then that join date says right?

smithy92 · 04.04.2013

so heres a few thoughts for you. :P

all psychopaths have a history of abusing animals when they are young. they are just obsessed with pain, etc and cant help themselves... but if animals had better rights and such mutilations were investigated... less chance of psychopaths stepping up to humans? just a thought

a quote from pythagorus....

'As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other'

ResinRubber · 05.04.2013

You need to do better than 9th grade philosophy to press the bounds of what Singer and the Animal rights groups purport.

BTW...did you know Peter Singer supports the mercy killing of infants born with debilitating deformities or disabilities?

Ethics -Animal Rights

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