Arguments about Animal Ethics

Arguments about Animal Ethics

Arguments about Animal Ethics is clearly a text book but nevertheless I really thought this is an important subject to read up on. I am constantly having this discussion with people and their thought process on how meat gets on their plates or how that leather jacket came to be even why wearing fur in general is just plain gross. Most people don’t think passed the chicken they see walking around and the leg they nosh on at a back yard BBQ. I think many people can’t distinguish because they are so far removed from the processes it takes to make their food and clothing they don’t even think about it. My favorite example is of my friends who are Hindu and they take their religion very seriously. So as a part of their religion they cannot eat beef. Beef of any kind is not allowed in their home or business. Yet, they wear tons of leather all of the time. This makes no sense to me. They may choose not to eat beef not because of the ethical reasons but for religious but why is wearing it any different than eating it? The animal is still harmed in the process, is it not?
I think people who wear fur are just as removed. Now I am not trying to say I am a strict vegetarian or vegan in any way but I do understand how and where my food comes from. I have less of an issue with people eating meat (even if it does make me sad, even fish) than I do with them wearing animals, very specifically fur. People have no clue what happens to animals beyond house hold pets and even then people treat trash better than them sometimes. I feel like the masses only consider humans important and every living thing beyond that is less important and therefore can be treated any way we see fit. What a sad misconception, right? That quite possibly is the reason for the state our environment is in. Why there are perhaps so many indangered species. Arguments about Animal Ethics can help us all learn a bit about animal ethics in the process. Any little bit one person can change will make a difference. The more you know the more likely you are to pass on this information to someone else and so on.
Description: Bringing together the expertise of rhetoricians in English and communication as well as media studies scholars, Arguments about Animal Ethics delves into the rhetorical and discursive practices of participants in controversies over the use of nonhuman animals for meat, entertainment, fur, and vivisection. Both sides of the debate are carefully analyzed, as the contributors examine how stakeholders persuade or fail to persuade audiences about the ethics of animal rights or the value of using animals. The essays in this volume cover a wide range of topics, such as the campaigns waged by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (including the sexy vegetarian and nude campaigns), greyhound activists, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, food manufacturers, and the biomedical research industry, as well as communication across the human-nonhuman animal boundary and the failure of the animal rights movement to protest research into genetically modifying living beings. Arguments about Animal Ethics’ insightful analysis of the animal rights movement will appeal to communication scholars, as well as those interested in social change.