Blog Profile / Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach
| URL : | http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Issues & Causes / Animal Rights & Welfare | |
| Posts on Regator: | 167 | |
| Posts / Week: | 0.9 | |
| Archived Since: | December 7, 2009 | |
Blog Post Archive
No, They Don’t “Dig” Cage-Free Eggs
Putting aside the sexism here: The birds do not dig being in a cage-free facility, which is like being in one large cage. They don’t dig the fact that they are bought from hatcheries that kill all the male chicks. The male chicks do not dig that much either. They don’t dig being debeaked. They [...]Show More Summary
A Brief Note on “Ag Gag” Laws
I think that the “Ag Gag” laws are not a good idea for a number of reasons related generally to the suppression and chilling of speech. But to listen to the large animal groups, one would think that the “Ag Gag” laws are a death knell for the animal movement. That’s just wrong. We don’t [...]Show More Summary
Robert Jensen and Species Equality
According to Professor Robert Jensen, an otherwise progressive thinker: “[N]o one really believes the quip, “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy,” suggesting the equality of all life (or, at least, all mammalian life). To test that: If there were a rat, a pig, a dog, and a human child in [...]Show More Summary
It’s Really Very Simple
If you are not vegan, then you are participating directly in animal exploitation. It really is that simple. If animals matter morally, then there is one and only one rational response: go vegan. Gary L. Francione Professor, Rutgers University © 2013 Gary L. Show More Summary
My Participation in “The Conversation”
There is an interesting project called The Conversation: In Search of the New Normal. The project is described in part: The Conversation explores visions of our future and questions of the good. If you rolled an audio documentary, dinner party, and digital humanities project into a giant media-burrito, this is what you’d get: From April [...]Show More Summary
A Note on “I Can’t” vs. “I Choose”
Many vegans say, “It’s not that I can’t eat animal foods; I just choose not to.” They get concerned that it’s negative to say that there is something they “can’t” do. Although I understand this, it really does not make much sense. Yes, of course I could choose to eat, wear, or use animal products. [...]Show More Summary
The Abolitionist Approach and Farm Sanctuary Discuss “Happy Meat,” Abolition, and Welfare Reform
Introduction I agreed to discuss “happy meat,” abolition, and welfare reform with Bruce Friedrich, formerly of PETA and now with Farm Sanctuary. This was originally requested by a magazine that will not be named but that refused to publish the debate because I would not agree to certain changes in the text that altered what [...]Show More Summary
A Thought About The Meaning of Love
If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself. The World is Vegan! Gary L. Francione Professor, Rutgers University
The Abolitionist-Regulationist Debate From Another Era: Sound Familiar?
During race-based slavery in the United States, there were those who said that they believed that slavery should be abolished eventually (whatever that meant) but who refused to criticize the institution of slavery openly and call for its end, and, instead, campaigned for more “humane” slavery. And there were those who believed in abolition and [...]Show More Summary
My Interview On Philosophy Bites
Philosophy Bites is a site that provides podcast interviews of philosophers. Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy, which is an Institute of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. On a lovely sunny day in July, I had the great pleasure to sit down with David Edmonds and Nigel [...]Show More Summary
A Response To PETA’s Position On “Happy” Or “Humane” Exploitation
Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written a PETA Alert concerning PETA’s position on “happy” exploitation. This Alert reads in part: PETA has pushed hard and will continue to push hard to reduce the sum total of suffering in the meat, dairy, and egg industries—because that makes a huge [...] No related posts.
Means And Ends
Some say that there is no real difference between: A. someone who advocates that we ought to abolish animal use and that the means to achieve that goal is promoting veganism as a moral baseline and rejecting “happy” exploitation and B. someone who says they hope one day to to see the end of all [...]
Our Choice
To those who support animal welfare: It’s not, as many of you claim, a choice of helping animals “today” or “now,” or letting them suffer while we achieve a much greater number of vegans. It is a choice of whether we are going to: A. put resources into expensive campaigns that go on for years [...] Related posts: No Third Choice Multiple Choice Test
There Is Nothing “Invisible” About The Ideology Of Animal Exploitation
There are some who claim that the ideology that supports animal exploitation is “invisible.” The basic idea is that animal exploitation is something that we are conditioned or caused to engage in because of some hidden or “invisible” ideology or psychological process that needs to be exposed. Variations of this position have been around for [...] No related posts.
Animal Rights: Marginalized By The “Animal Movement”
A number of writers have claimed that we need to support other than an abolitionist approach because that approach has been marginalized politically and has been unsuccessful. For example, in their book, Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights, philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka observe: A central task for the movement is to figure [...]Show More Summary
Commentary #23: Lennox and Moral Reasoning in Animal Rights
It’s been a while since I did a Commentary and I have been meaning to start up again but, alas, it’s been a busy time. I was planning to do a podcast on the topic of my essay, Moral Concern, Moral Impulse, and Logical Argument in Animal Rights Advocacy, which I published in May and [...]Show More Summary
One For Your “Humans Are An Odd Bunch” File
(photo: Yahoo! News) This is Tracy Arnold. Her story is here. Ms. Arnold found what she claims is a man’s toenail in the sauce that she prepared. She did not know whether it came from a jar of pasta sauce or from the minced beef that she added to the sauce. She thought at first [...]
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Eat a Sausage. Do it For the Animals.
Oh, no, The Humane Society of the United States is not promoting “compassionate” consumption. The HSUS caption with the Facebook post: “More great news for pigs! “Like” this to give props to these companies for doing the right thing. ” So let’s support companies marketing meat and animal products that are doing “the right thing.” [...]
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My Debate with Libertarian Philosopher Tibor Machan
On January 12, 2012, I debated prominent libertarian philosopher Tibor Machan. Machan holds the R. C. Hoiles Chair of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University in Orange, California. He is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and an adjunct scholar at [...]Show More Summary
A Response to James McWilliams–And It’s Not Debatable
Columbia University Press posted an article on the call in Slate.com by Professor James McWilliams for all animal advocates to support the welfare-reform efforts of The Humane Society of the United States. On the following day, the Press printed my reply to Professor McWilliams. After I read Professor McWilliams’ Slate essay, I thought it would [...] No related posts.