For Wednesday, blog some class-discussion notes on "Why Animals Deserve Equal Rights" by Steven Wise. You'll find the essay on pp. 194 - 96 in WFS.
Blog your notes by Tuesday, 2-28-17, at 5 PM.
On Wednesday, 3-1-17, bring a copy of your notes to class, and be prepared for a lively class discussion on a very controversial issue.
1. Whether law classifies one as a person or a thing
ReplyDelete2. Any person deserves rights like freedom etc which make life worth living.
3. All non humans ignored
4. A lot of animals killed last year too.
5. Autonomy entitles humans to rights.
6. Autonomy has a lot of definitions.
7. Kant believed that any person who can think rationally is a person.
8. Preferences and ability to act upon them
9. Desires and beliefs and can make sound inferences to them.
10. People always believed animals were for humans use.
11. Since animals are not as smart.
12. Studies show they are really smart.
13. Bonobo smarter than a 2 year old human.
14. Gorillas have abilities to have emotions and act upon them.
15. With changes in 21st century law for animals should also change.
ReplyDelete-Do all types of animals get rights now or just a select few
-Where do you draw the line and what type of animal and how many rights they get?
-Does the whole world just stop eating meat then?
-What type of rights are we talking about?
-Animals cannot be allowed to just roam around freely, they can pose a danger to people
-If you bar them from certain areas are you infringing upon their freedom.
-Will zoos be eliminated because you are taking away animals’ freedoms, same with wildlife preserves. Even though they are mostly meant to protect and educate people about animals it is still in a way a prison.
-If you ban people from eating cattle what happens to all the cattle in captivity?
-Are we talking no animals abuse in the food industry or eliminating the meat side of the food industry all together?
-Yes, animals may be smart, self-aware and have feelings but we are still at the top of the food chain. Who is to say you must suddenly respect them as equals when we have become so efficient as using them as food.
-More animals’ rights may require a whole reworking of our society.
One of the main arguments for having rights is that the species has autonomy
ReplyDeleteWise is against hunters, rodeos, circuses, and roadside zoos
I disagree that all hunting is wrong
For instance white tailed deer are overpopulating and the environment can not support them and are actually harmful
However hunting animals whose populations cannot support it should be spared
Many people argue that medical testings on animals is cruel and inhumane but would they rather people test on humans?
Unnecessary testing, hunting, and exploitation of animals should not be allowed
Wise opinion
ReplyDelete-All nonhuman animals don't have any rights
-Millions of animals are hunted, put in rodeos, circuses, and roadside zoos
-Many people believe animals were put on earth for humans
-Some animals are very smart
-Apes have a lot of the same emotions as humans do
My opinion
-Animals kill other animals to survive, humans are considered animals which allows us to harvest animals for our needs
-Hunting controls animal population
-Laws are put in place for hunting so hunters can not kill animals until they are extinct
-There are laws that allow humans to not abuse animals
-I am a hunter and I fish, it is never a sport to kill animals. If I do not eat all the meat myself then I donate it to the poor.
-Wild game animals eat better then Domestic or farm raised animals due to their meat having lower fat content, better source of protein, and better source for minerals.
-Zoos should not take animals out of their habitat, they should keep animals that cannot live on their own in the wildlife. It would be like a nursing home for animals.
Wise's Opinion:
ReplyDelete- nonhuman's have no rights
- many people have believed that animals were put on Earth for human use
- for many decades people have believed that animals had very little mental capacity an didn't understand past, present, or future
- animals are able to think on a higher level than people originally thought (they can count, they act intentionally, they can compare things)
- we now know that animals are more than just things and deserve to be treater as more than just things
My Opinion:
- animals are living things like humans and should have rights
- they feel pain and have emotions
- humans are also animals and we have rights
- the ecosystem is damaged when animals are killed, it can cause the butterfly effect
Thoughts from Author:
ReplyDeleteClassification as a person/thing - every person is classified as human by law
Steven claims that animals are things with no rights
Ignored until harmed - this point, no help
Department of Agriculture Statistics:
Tens of millions likely to be killed by biomedical research
10 billion more raised in crowded factories and killed for food
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
Hundreds of millions shot by hunters or exploited in rodeos, circuses, and roadside zoos (legal)
Judeo-Christian theologians - humans are made in the image of God
Few philosophers/judges argue that being human alone, is sufficient for legal rights
Philosophers sufficient criteria: sense of justice, possession of language/morality, rational plan for life
Autonomy-self determination = most important/not necessary
If you can’t act rationally, then you are a thing
Various definitions for autonomy
Some believe animals were put on earth for human use and lack autonomy
Animals can’t desire, know good, or learn from experience - changed over years - animals have extraordinary minds
21st century law based on 21st century knowledge
My thoughts:
ReplyDeleteAnimals being mistreated like what you would hear on the news about dogs ears being cut off is not acceptable.
Animals can be very intelligent
United States Department of Agriculture
Animal Welfare Act- regulates animal treatment
Has various sections describing the careful use and handling laws of all animals including pets, farm, and wildlife
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
There are various management plans for each animal
Each year a bag limit is put on the amount of deer that can be tagged per county
Avid hunters do their best to ensure that we manage the wildlife population so it does not become over populated
For centuries animals have been hunted for food to keep us alive - that is one reason they were put on this earth
Laws are in place that require permission and license to hunt and fish
My Thoughts Continued:
ReplyDeleteAs populations change, management laws are adjusted
There are also various conservation/preservation areas to protect wildlife
“Mission Statement: To ensure a balance between wise use and protection of our natural resources for the benefit of all.”
“A department of incredible diversity, ODNR owns and manages more than 590,000 acres of land including 74 state parks, 21 state forests, 136 state nature preserves, and 117 wildlife areas. The department also has jurisdiction over more than 120,000 acres of inland waters; 7,000 miles of streams; 481 miles of Ohio River; and 2-1/4 million acres of Lake Erie.
In addition, ODNR licenses all hunting, fishing, and watercraft in the state and is responsible for overseeing and permitting all mineral extraction, monitoring dam safety, managing water resources, coordinating the activity of Ohio's 88 county soil and water conservation districts, mapping the state's major geologic structures and mineral resources, and promoting recycling and litter prevention through grant programs in local communities.”
For more facts and information we can look into numerous wildlife websites
NKJV Bible
Genesis 1:20-21 -- Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28 -- Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
There are numerous verses in the bible -- show that God made the entire earth out of nothing
Genesis 27:3 -- 3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4 And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
Leviticus 11:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth.”
Matthew 14:13-21 18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. -- Jesus fed 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish
There are so many more but these are just a few, which I will explain more in the discussion.
wise opinion
ReplyDelete-Whether law classifies one as a person or a thing
- Any person deserves rights like freedom and safety
-Autonomy entitles humans to rights.
-With changes in 21st century law for animals should also change.
My opinion
-there are laws that do give animals some protection
-Maybe more regulations on animal testing but testing has to be done
-if its not a human being it doesn't have any rights
• One of the main arguments- needs autonomy
ReplyDelete• all kinds of hunting aren’t wrong- white tailed deer are overpopulating
• Bad- people hunting animals whose populations are low
• Unnecessary testing, hunting, and exploitation of animals should not be allowed
• Don’t get the most accurate testing from animal testing
• What types of animals get rights now?
• How do you decide on what type of animal?
• What kind of rights would they get?
• What will happen to zoos?
• Yes, animals may be smart, self-aware and have feelings but we are still a focus. Who is to say you must suddenly respect them as equals?
• But who’s to say we should just hunt innocent animals for fun?
Author opinion
ReplyDelete-some animals are very smart
-animals put on earth for human use
-animals have no rights
-millions of animals hunted, put in circuses, rodeos, and zoos
my thoughts
-hunting controls overpopulation like white tailed deer
-animals hunt other animals for food just like humans
-laws are in place so animals don't go extinct from hunters
-but animals are still intelligent and deserve rights
-we should not test on or abuse animals
-hunting should not be for anything besides food purposes
- the essay argues for legal rights without stating a single statistic (its all morals)
ReplyDelete- different animals would need different rights because of how many different ways we use them (farm, pets, game, "exotic")
- "Speciesism" giving preference to our own species over another, in the absence of morally relevant differences (Peter Singer)
- we don't measure humans rights based on their intelligence. if its clearly wrong to treat members of our species differently based on intelligence, why would it be okay to treat members of other species differently on that same basis?
- probably because the intellectual gap from human to human is much smaller than from human to another animal
Wises’s Opinion:
ReplyDelete-Non-human animals don’t have rights
-People believe they are superior to all other forms of life, and animals were put on earth for their use
-People use to believe animals were unintelligent, had no emotions, didn’t understand past, present , or future, didn’t know desire, didn’t know good
-against rodeos, circuses, and roadside zoos
-animals are actually very smart
-animals have emotions
-many animals are of a higher intelligence than first thought
My Opinion:
-animals should have legal rights because they are living things just like us
-animals are very intelligent
-Ex: Chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants, bonobos, orangutans, finches, crows, dolphins, otters, monkeys, octopi, etc… have been shown to make and use a variety of tools.
-animals have feelings: happiness, sadness, fear, pain, depression, joy, empathy
-Ex: elephants mourn the death of group members, when they pass the bones of a loved one the group will gather around and pay their respects by touching the bones and in some cases they have been known to “bury” the remains with nearby foliage
-many animals are self aware: gorillas, chimps, orangutans, dolphins, elephants, bonobos, rhesus monkeys, magpies, manta rays, some species of ants, etc…
-animal testing and abuse should be illegal
-while some hunting may be in the best interest of a species (deer), or the only way of food for some, hunting for “fun” is unnecessary and should be illegal
Wise Opinion:
ReplyDelete-Animals were put on here for human use.
-Animals aren't able to know past present and future.
-Hunting helps control the animal population.
-Animals kill each other to survive, and humans are considered animals so we hunt animals to survive as well.
My opinions:
If we don't hunt or eat animals meat, then there would been an overpopulation of animals.
People shouldn't be allowed to hunt just for fun, it should be to eat what they kill.
There are laws to stop people from making animals going extinct, but if there are laws that prohibit people from hunting, then it goes back to the overpopulation of animals.
In “Why Animals Deserve Legal rights” Steven Wise argues that animals that are non-human deserve human rights. Wise makes arguments that the characteristics of what defines human rights are a sense of justice,and having the possession of a language. People believe that other animals, besides humans, were put on this earth for use to help benefit us humans. Evidence that has been built on for years shows that animals also have extraordinary minds. For example, provided was a test of intelligence between a two year old girl and a seven year old bonobo. The bonobo out performed the two year old girl. Wise go on to state that non-human animals act intelligently and experience emotions similarly to humans.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there should be more awareness of the emotions of animals, but they don't have human rights.
Animal testing should be used in appropriate times only
.
Certain species of animals get more protection under a law than others such as domestic animals
Humans control the animal population from deforestation, to polluting, and hunting
Hunting should only be for gathering food and not just for fun to take an animal life away
-animals aren't able to control our actions
ReplyDelete-god made men and women the same not animal and human
-a animal really cant provide for itself
-Why would a animal get the same rights if as human we work harder?