ANIMAL ETHICS How do we use animals? Is it morally indifferent,
right, bad?
Slide 2
Why to care for relationship to animals? 1) We cant wait till
the problems in human ethics will be resolved 2) Matters are
connected 3) It is a matter of interest
Slide 3
Three basic disagreements about ethics: 1) Who shall we take
into moral consideration? 2) How to apply the principles? 3) Why
shall we behave morally?
Slide 4
Who shall we take into moral consideration? In distant history:
Our family, friends, tribe, fellow citizens x strangers,
aliens
Slide 5
Stoics The idea of logos reason, speech, The uniqueness of
humankind - we all share access to reason (logos). Reason: make us
rational, is common to us we are all citizenships of Cosmos we are
all brothers we should take into moral consideration all
people
Slide 6
Christian ethics Stoics prepared the way for Christian
thinking. We are all part in one big family. Galatians 3.28: There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Slide 7
Immanuel Kant Man is: a legislating member in the universal
kingdom of ends. a rationally self-conscious being Moral autonomy:
a person is able to prescribe a law unto him/herself Cruelty to
animals: a violation of a duty in relation to oneself Man has the
imperfect duty to strengthen the feeling of compassion, since this
feeling promotes morality in relation to other human beings. But,
cruelty to animals deadens the feeling of compassion in man.
Therefore, man is obliged not to treat animals brutally.
Slide 8
Utilitarianism A view that moral agents have one fundamental
obligation: to maximize nonmoral value. Value or utility is
identified with happiness or preference satisfaction.
Slide 9
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): is widely regarded as one of the
earliest proponents of animal rights, and has even been called as
"the first patron saint of animal rights". societys goal ought to
be the greatest happiness for the greatest number of individuals
Happiness x pain animals can feel pain The question is not, Can
they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
Slide 10
Albert Schweitzer Reverence for life Ethics in our Western
world has hitherto been largely limited to the relations of man to
man. But that is a limited ethics. We need a boundless ethics,
which will include the animals also. The time is coming when people
will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it
recognized thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real
ethics.
Slide 11
A contemporary situation We know that animals can suffer but we
dont take it seriously and use animals as means in still more cruel
ways We traditionally believe that we are superior to animals and
thanks to this fact we believe it is morally permissible to use
animals as we need
Slide 12
Using animals Animal experimentation for medicine,
psychological, military experiments testing of cosmetics and
household products In 2011 almost 1,5 mil. of laboratory animals
were used
Slide 13
One example of the most absurd and most useless experiments In
Sweden, in a bid to study the long-term effects of nicotine
exposure on the brain, 30 rats were injected with nicotine 15 times
over a three-week period. After a seven- month period of not
receiving any nicotine, the rats were injected with nicotine again
every day for one week. The animals were subjected to weekly
behavior tests in which their movements were monitored while they
were put inside a box for 30 minutes. At the end of the experiment
all of the animals were killed and their brains dissected.
(Conducted at the University of Gothenburg, supported by the
Swedish Medical Research Council).
Slide 14
Using animals as meal eggs
Slide 15
meat milk
Slide 16
Using animals for entertainment fur hunting circuses zoos
Slide 17
Ethical position Do any nonhuman animals have a prima facie
right to life or a prima facie right not to be made to suffer at
human hands? Can we give any reason except for our feelings and
compassion? How shall we behave to animals?
Slide 18
Ethical reasons for taking animal seriously (1) They can feel
happiness and pain. Generally it is wrong to cause pain (exceptions
can exist). (2) We are not superior. The whole system of using
animals is in principle wrong despite the fact we cause or not
pain. (3) Capacities of animals
Slide 19
(1) Animals can feel happiness and pain. Peter Singer: A Book
Animal Liberation preference utilitarianism
Slide 20
Peter Singer We should base our ethics on the interest of
sentient creatures. Pain is bad, it is wrong to cause intense pain
unnecessarily. Human are not superior to animals. We are different.
Factual equality does not exist even among humans. Equality is a
moral ideal and a moral norm. Speciesmus= assignment of moral
consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species
membership.
Slide 21
(2) The whole system of using animals is in principle wrong Tom
Regan Book The case for Animal Rights Animals are
subjects-of-a-life
Slide 22
Tom Regan individuals are subjects-of-a-life if they have
beliefs and desires; perception, memory, and a sense of the future,
including their own future; an emotional life together with
feelings of pleasure and pain; preference- and welfare-interests;
the ability to initiate action in pursuit of their desires and
goals; a psychophysical identity over time; and an individual
welfare in the sense that their experiential life fares well or ill
for them, logically independently of their utility for others and
logically independently of their being the object of anyone else's
interests.
Slide 23
(3) Capacities of animals discovered by ethologists
Slide 24
Animals are able of: Reciprocity Fidelity Love
Slide 25
They have developed social relationships, friendships They can
suffer from loneliness, boredom, fear, frustration, lost of
partners They miss their families
Slide 26
Animals are in many ways more like us Ethologist Marc Bekoff A
close relationship is critical to our own well-being and spiritual
growth.
Slide 27
Animals are subjective beings who have feelings and thoughts,
and they deserve respect and consideration. We dont have the right
to subdue or dominate them for our selfish gain to make our lives
better by making animals lives worse. Further, as self-conscious,
sentient beings ourselves, we are able to recognize suffering, and
we are obliged to reduce it whenever we can. Mark Bekoff
Slide 28
Consequences? Mark Bekoff: Clearly, we know a lot about animal
emotions we need to turn our knowledge into action. Two positions:
one stronger, one weaker: (1) animal rights - animal liberation
(movement) (2) animal welfare
Slide 29
Animal Rights and Animal Liberation Animal Rights is the idea
that non-human animals have similar interests as humans and that
they have at least a right not to suffer. We should take animals as
persons not as property Animal Liberation is a movement developed
by Australian philosopher Peter Singer.
Slide 30
Accepting the doctrine of animal rights means: No experiments
on animals No breeding and killing animals for food or clothes or
medicine No use of animals for hard labour No selective breeding
for any reason other than the benefit of the animal No hunting No
zoos or use of animals in entertainment
Slide 31
Animal welfare Well-being of animals: We can use animals but we
should care for them with passion. We should reduce the number of
used animals.
Slide 32
Standards of animal welfare Longevity Disease Immunosuppressant
Behaviour Physiology Reproduction Absence of boredom
Slide 33
Five freedoms 1.Freedom from hunger or thirst by ready access
to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour
2.Freedom from discomfort by providing an appropriate environment
including shelter and a comfortable resting area 3.Freedom from
pain, injury or disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and
treatment
Slide 34
4.Freedom to express (most) normal behaviour by providing
sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own
kind 5.Freedom from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and
treatment which avoid mental suffering
Slide 35
Guiding principles for using animals for experiments Three Rs
Replacement: alternative methods Reduction Refinement: Animal
distress (i.e. pain/discomfort)