Animals in the Blogs: "Expendable" Animals, Global Warming, and More

by Stephanie Ernst · 2008-12-04 07:44:00 UTC
Topics:

Animal Person covers Problem Solving 101 this morning, tackling the issue of most scientists' and environmentalists' preference for trying to ignore or work around the enormous contribution of animal agriculture to climate change:

When you have a problem and you know what causes it, what do you do? Do you attack the symptoms of the problem? No, because you know what the cause is. When wouldn't you go to the problem's cause? Simple: When you don't want to.

(This comes a day after some other smart Animal Person commentary, on interesting responses to Bush's pardon of a poacher.)

----

A couple days ago, the Reformed Fast Food Mascot described the "final two hours of a life" of an animal humans like to pretend doesn't feel, think, and suffer and contemplated people's reactions to such a death.

You do one thing and one thing only to a rat.  You kill it.  That's what you do.  Life is filled with so many gray areas, enough moral ambiguities to drive a person nuts.  So those few certainties there to grab hold of, we grab hold.  One of those certainties is this:  the life of a rat has no value.  The pain a rat suffers is of no consequence.

It's a great post. Please read it.

----

The Animal Law Blog has remarked briefly on an unimpressive policy revision from the American Veterinary Medical Association:

Another hundred years or so and they may actually come out with a position that actually takes the interests of the animal into consideration.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Blog author Amy also directs us to a Wall Street Journal article that I otherwise would have missed: "Seeking a Presidential Pardon? Try Praising the Right to Bear Arms"

----

And finally, check out The Vegan Ideal's latest post: "Moving From Abstraction to Veganism: Advocating Alternatives to Exploitation, Not Alternative Exploitation"

Advocacy for new methods for exploiting other animals, based on the abstraction that it will reduce existing suffering, is in fact advocacy that supports the exploitation of actual other animals who will specifically be bred into existence to meet the demands of the new methods of exploitation being advocated. . . . What we end up with is an actual increase in suffering for the individuals and for the collective group.

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Hunting Mishaps and Odd Omnivorous Objections
NEXT STORY:
Petitions Delivered Around the World for Release of Indonesian Circus Dolphins

COMMENTS (5)

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.