Final Review

The review outline for the final is now under "Class Documents".  If you have questions, ask here or make an appointment with me for sometime next week.

Ethical Activism

PETA ad

(see issues in previous post)

Announcements

Change of Plans

The reading assignment on the syllabus for Thursday Dec. 3 is canceled.  Instead of discussing hunting and zoos, we will be shifting to the topic of ethical activism.  You will be watching the movie I Am An Animal the whole period (I have to miss this class).  You will turn in comments about the movie, which will serve both as our last quiz and as attendance.  Next Tuesday we will discuss the movie.  I need a volunteer (and two deputies) to run the movie, etc.

Issues about Ethical Activism

1. Is it ethical for animal activists to to violate company policies by taking undercover videos?
2. Is it ethical for activists to engage in the very activities they abhor, when they become undercover investigators in animal labs and slaughter houses?
3. Is it ethical for animal activists to damage property to protest fur, animal experimentation, etc?
4. Is it ethically right to use "celebrity skin" to publicize animal abuse?
5. Do you agree with the critics in the movie (for example, Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society) or with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk?
6. Is it wrong for PETA to run an animal shelter that euthanises animals?
7. Putting aside ethics, do you think outrageousness "works," or alienates the public from animal causes?

Paper Advice

1. Make changes to part I, as recommended in my comments.
2. Part II must  be about the ideas and arguments in part I.  Don't set sail in some new direction.
3. You should critique those ideas and arguments, making your own points, objections, etc.
4. If you presented a debate between A and B in part I, you should comment on both A and B.  If you think A is right, support A but also make objections to B.
5. Carefully edit and proof.  Paragraph breaks improve clarity.  Use them liberally.
6. Every quote must be followed by a reference that looks like this: (Singer p. 29). 
   

Species vs. Culture

International Whaling Commission

Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling

P. S. Cosmetic Testing

Revlon packaging does not say "not tested on animals," but they stopped the practice in 1990.

PETA's list of cosmetic companies (and others) that don't test on animals is here.

Animals as Property

EXISTING LAW
Animal Welfare Act
State Animal Cruelty Laws 
Humane Slaughter Act
Endangered Species Act

REFORM
Reforming the AWA--The UK approach

• local vs. state panels
• which species are covered?
• ban on using great apes
• no cosmetic testing
• panels do make cost/benefit balance assessment

Reforming state animal cruelty laws
State referenda--California Proposition 2

REVOLUTION

Francione: All sentient animals should be reclassified as persons, not property

• what would that mean?
• Gary Francione's website
• We will listen to the Jonathan Groubert interview on pets (3 min)
• Francione on "happy meat"
• factory farm turkey and happy turkey
  

Wise:  Animals with high autonomy reclassified as persons, not property

• "liberty rights" for the great apes and dolphins
• from Wise's book Drawing the Line--
  

NEXT TIME:  Why animals should remain property (Epstein)
NEXT WEEK:  A moderate suggestion for fundamental legal change from Cass Sunstein

Environmental Ethics

NEW COURSE!!!

Philosophy 3379
Environmental Ethics
Jean Kazez
MWF 1:00

Course description: Why does it matter what kind of world we pass on to future generations?  Should we aim to keep nature pure and pristine, or just conserve resources for our descendants?  Is overpopulation our biggest “environmental” problem? What really matters— just human beings, or also animals, and even plants, or species, or possibly whole ecosystems, or nature as a whole?  What must be done about climate change?  Why is it important to recycle?   Is “the good life” a simple, green life?  We will tackle all of these issues and  more, drawing on the writing of philosophers, scientists, and environmentalists.

Do animals feel pain? (for CMP students)

Note to Animal Rights students:  please ignore this post!

Sentience vs. Sapience

Questions about animal pain

A.  Do non-human animals feel pain?
B.  Is animal pain just like human pain?
C.  Is there pain in birds, fish, reptiles....where does it end?

Our guide--Temple Grandin -- Who is she?

A.  Do non-human animals feel pain?

1. Brain--nociceptors
2. Behavior--pain-guarding, etc.
   
3. Brain--endogenous opioids
4. Brain/Behavior--ingesting analgesics
5. Brain--sensory, affective, cognitive pathways (Diagram: Donald Price)

B.  Is animal pain just like human pain?

1. Animals may care less about pain (what does "caring less" mean?  laughing gas, morphine)
2. Grandin's lobotomy evidence
3. Less pain but more fear?
   

C.  Is there pain in birds, fish, reptiles...where does it end?

Fish

1. Brain: nociceptors
2. Brain: endogenous opioids
   
3. Behavior: pain-guarding, etc.
   
4. Brain: Can you care without a cortex? (smart birds have no cortex, flying squirrels have no wings)

Other

• reptiles don't pain-guard
• lobsters and more links
• David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster"  

The Animal Welfare Act

1966 -Sports Illustrated and  Life Magazine articles leads to AWA  

• main point is to prevent lost pets being used in animal labs
• requires adequate food and housing
  

1970 - Amendments address animal pain.  

• Anesthetics have to be used during surgery and analgesics had to be offered for pain relief.
• More venues covered (circuses and zoos, but not pet stores, pet shows, and rodeos)
  

1985 - Amendments spurred by exposes of animal labs 

• Provisions for institutional animal care commitees
• dogs must have exercise, primates must have psychological enrichment
  

Silver Spring Maryland - Dr Edward Taub severs nerves to arms to study nervous system healing - PETA co-founder Alex Pacheco takes undercover position and films - testifies in 1981 hearings

University of Pennsylania - Head injury lab - baboons had their heads crushed in crash simulator - 64 hours of film obtained during raid by Animal Liberation Front - PETA produces film

2002 - more amendments

• "animal" explicitly defined so that rats, mice, birds, and reptiles are not covered 
• prohibition on animal fighting 

******

Today's Animal Welfare Act - Highlights

IACUCs (institutional animal care and use committees)

• Are they really ethics committees? (see Vets for Progress clip, 11/3, 1:25)
• How do they compare to human subject review committees? How are animals protected, compared to children?
• Do they ensure that experiments are in the animal's best interests?
  
• Do they judge the balance between costs and benefits? (testimony, examples)
  
• Galllistel's "serendipity" point - Magendie's live animal studies - what he discovered
  

Argument by Analogy and Animal Research

Today we will talk about arguments by analogy--how they are used by animal researchers, and how they may be used in ethics to make moral judgments about animal research.  A handout is in "class documents."

The debate about animal research (see/hear two of our authors--Ray Greek and Michael Conn)

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Against animal research (11/3)
We will watch Mother Love, a movie about Harry Harlow's research. If you miss class, you can check it out at Fondren Library.

Animal Lab (PETA undercover video)



For animal research (11/5)
Medical milestones (by animal)
Medical milestones (by disease) 
Do the animals suffer?
Vets for Research




Research Saves

Environment Impact Article plus misc.

Environmental Impact
There was an article in the New York Times on Saturday about the environmental impact of animal farming. If you're writing your paper on that topic, you'll want to read it. Click here.

Animal careers
Also--here's a question about animal careers. What can a graduating student do to advocate for animals? If you have any ideas, please comment on this post.

FYI: In the past, students in this class have gone to law schools with concentrations in animal law; vet school; and jobs with animal organizations like the SPCA.

Pain Free Meat Links
Genetically engineering "pain free meat"; more here; and I blogged about the idea here

Lab Meat Links
Nova Science Now

And the winner is....

20 of you visited vegetarian or vegan restaurants. You were asked to rate the restaurant, compared to restaurants in the same class--

5 - Much better
4 - Better
3 - Same
2 - Worse
1 - Much worse

The results are:

Spiral Diner (6 students): average rating 3.6 (range from 1 to 5)
Cosmic Cafe (11 students): average rating 3.1 (range from 2 to 5)
Bliss Raw Cafe (3 students): average rating 3 (range from 2 to 4)

Vegetarianism (Singer)

Just for fun--

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Peter Singer
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Exam II Review

This is the place to ask questions about the exam on October 29.

Vegetarian Restaurants in Dallas

In preparation for discussing Peter Singer's chapter on vegetarianism Tuesday 10/27, it would be great if you had a vegetarian meal (or a whole day of vegetarian meals). Some restaurant possibilities are--

Spiral Diner.  1101 N. Beckley, Oak Cliff.  All vegan.  Gets great reviews.  Fun, tasty.

Bliss Raw Cafe.  6685 Greenville.  All vegan and also all raw. This is a really weird place, in my opinion, but the food is actually delicious (warning:  you may disagree).

Cosmic Cafe.  2912 Oak Lawn.  Vegetarian. Very hippie-ish, pretty good.

Kalachandji's 5430 Gurley Ave.  Lovely vegetarian (milk but no eggs) restaurant in a Hindu temple.  Delicious Indian food, all around interesting experience.

Veggie Garden 516 W. Arapaho.  Vegan Chinese food, lots of faux meat. Some people swear by it.

***Bring me a receipt for a meal at any of the above restaurants (dated before Oct 27) and I'll give you a bonus "100" quiz grade.***

Or just go to a restaurant with good vegetarian possibilities, like most Indian, Italian, and Thai restaurants.

Or just go to any restaurant (or cafeteria) and attempt to order a vegetarian meal. Is it easy? Is it hard?

Finally, if your Saturday night date must have a steak (or in truth, you must), it's kind of interesting to observe the goings on at Fogo de Chao. This is basically meat theater.  It just so happens they have a fantastic salad bar.

Bon appetit!

Humane Farming

If you missed class on October 15, make sure you look at the post for that day and follow all the links.  You should especially be sure to watch the videos and look at the images.

Today we will talk about the question "how far must we go?"  How far in the direction of humane farming?  Should we go even further--and stop using animals as food? 

The Michael Pollan article we are talking about today became a part of his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is great reading.  Here's a clip about Polyface farm, the humane farm he discusses in the article--

Animal Rights Poetry

Here's a "6 minute" poem about the rats that Temple Grandin talks about in "Animals in Distress" (by Hadley Walker, who was talked into letting me publish it here--thank you!). If you have relevant poetry, photographs, videos, art, or anything else you'd like to see here, let me know.

Trapped

The rat is injected with lithium chloride
And looks up to see strange figures dressed
In all white
White everywhere
Watching just watching his every move

Why do they keep me in this jail?
Cell
I did not deserve to go to jail
I did nothing wrong
My father too, did nothing to go to
Jail
My mother has already been sent to the
“unknown” cave that is bright as the orange
That by chance peeks through the
Window
I am tired of getting shots that
Make me feel as if I had just been spun
Around the wheel thirty times
it makes my legs tremble and all
Of the watchers
Watching my every move
Do not seem to care
Why do the not care?
I miss my time spent with
My mother and father
As the needle pierces my skin
I think of the time spent on
Mr. Baileybrons palace
Of apples, warm bread, turkey
And ah… when the dinner parties
Would come around Christmas time
And the “others” were gone...
My brother and I would sneak
Into the palace and gather
Everything we could
For our family’s Christmas
Presents
The needle pieces my
Back
Do they not understand?
How much the palace means to me?
I take a sip of the water they provide
For me

Factory Farming (etc)

Numbers*
9.5 billion animals die annually in food production in the US
218 million are killed by hunters, in animal shelters, research, product testing, dissection, and fur farms (2% of total killed)
23 million chickens are killed every 24 hours in the US
99% of food animals are raised in factory farms
30% of the earth's land surface is covered with livestock and feedcrops

The Big Picture
The Meatrix
Meet Your Meat
Cheap Meat

Laying hens
Male chicks, space, surgeries, slaughter
"humane" options: cage-free vs free-range vs. traditional

Broiler Chickens
space, surgeries, slaughter
"humane" options

Veal Calves
veal facts
The Veal Question (industry response--watch "Veal Farm Tour")
"humane" options

Beef Cattle
feedlots, diet, antibiotics, hormones
Power Steer
"humane" options

Dairy Cows
space, separation from calves, over-milking, mastitis, BST
organic milk
what happens to the males?

Pigs
sow crates, surgeries, slaughter
"humane" options

"Seafood"
seine fishing, bycatch, how fish die
Consider the Lobster
clams, oysters, mussels, scallops--do they have feelings?
dwindling stocks, endangered species

"Delicacies"
foie gras

More on slaughterhouses
Temple Grandin

Health
Vegetarian Diet
Football on a Vegan Diet?
Luxury or necessity? - Heifer International

Environment
Rethinking the Meat Guzzler
Livestock's Long Shadow

Availability of humane products

Whole Foods' standards

* First three statistics are on p. 206 of Animal Rights (article by Wolfson and Sullivan). Fourth is from a recent UN report (see under "Environment").  Last is from a New York Times article.

____

UPDATE:  Discussed in class

What's in that hamburger?
Sorting bull semen to create a female (or male) herd
Genetically engineering "pain free meat"; more here; and I blogged about the idea here

Rights (2)

Regan vs. Cohen handout is under "documents."