AGENDA
- New module on Animal Entertainments
- Dallas World Aquarium presentation
ANIMAL ENTERTAINMENTS
- Zoos
- Animal Shows
- Circuses
- Sea World shows
- Rodeos
- Bullfights
- Horse Races
What are our main questions?
- Captivity and Liberty. Is captivity bad for wild animals? Is liberty good for them?
- Captivity and Dignity. Does captivity deprive animals of dignity? What is dignity?
- Captivity and Conservation. Do zoos advance conservation goals?
- Forms of Captivity. Are "sanctuaries" much better than zoos?
- Cruelty and Culture. Some animal shows are specific to a particular culture. Bullfights and Spanish culture....Rodeos and the American West. Is preserving the culture a legitimate defense of these kinds of shows?
LIBERTY
Liberty can be seen as an intrinsic good for animals--constitutive of their wellbeing
Liberty can be seen as instrumental good for animals--conducive to their wellbeing
DIGNITY
Kantian dignity: humans have dignity because they are self-aware, adopt their own goals, and understand right and wrong. No dignity for animals.
Political dignity: humans have dignity to the extent they are recognized as citizens in a society--can speak, assemble, vote, etc. No dignity for animals.
Animal dignity: any being has dignity to the extent it can exercise its species-specific capacities. Wild and domesticated animals can have dignity, potentially. Many species can't have dignity in captivity.
Wild dignity: wild animals have a certain kind of dignity to the extent that they have their own lives, live in their own world, and possess a kind of sovereignty. Captivity deprives wild animals of this sort of wild dignity. Captivity doesn't deprive domesticated animals of this sort of dignity because they don't have it to begin with.
ORCAS AT SEAWORLD
Circuses