Product Description

Foot-and-mouth and mad-cow disease are but two of the results of treating animals as commodities, subject only to commercial constraints and ignoring all natural and moral considerations. Chickens hanging by their necks on conveyor belts, caged pigs with sores, bloated dead sheep with their legs in the air, mutilated dogs waiting to die after undergoing horrendous experiments in the name of science or just product-testing - these are some of the images that illustrate the indifference of a consumerist society to the suffering of animals. Few are willing to recognize that the packaged, sanitized supermarket meat that materializes on their dinner tables every day is the result of an industrial process involving unimaginable pain and suffering. We would be horrified if our pets were harmed, yet every day we eat animals that have been tortured and executed. Mark Rowlands claims that it is simply unjust to harm animals. As conscious, sentient beings, biologically continuous with humans, they have interests that cannot simply be disregarded. Using simple principles of justice, he argues that animals have moral rights, and examines the consequences of this claim in the contexts of vegetarianism, animal experimentation, zoos and hunting, and animal rights activism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #331913 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 194 pages

Review
"...an impressive new work." Andrew Linzey, on Animal Rights "... Rowlands has written an important and provocative book." Lynne Rudder Baker, on The Body and the Mind

From the Back Cover
Foot and Mouth and Mad Cow Disease are but two of the results of treating animals as commodities, subject only to commercial constraints and ignoring all natural and moral considerations. Chickens hanging by their necks on conveyor belts, caged pigs covered in sores, bloated dead sheep with their legs in the air, mutilated dogs waiting to die after undergoing horrendous experiments in the name of science or even just product testing - are some of the more disturbing images that illustrate the indifference of a consumerist society to the suffering of animals. Few are willing to recognize that the packaged sanitized supermarket meat that materializes on their dinner tables every day is the result of an industrial process involving unimaginable pain and suffering. We would be horrified if our pets were harmed, yet every day we eat animals that have been tortured and executed.

In this clearly argued book, Mark Rowlands argues that it is simply unjust to harm animals. As conscious, sentient beings, biologically continuous with humans, they have interests that cannot simply be disregarded. Using simple principles of justice, he argues that animals have moral rights, and examines the consequences of this claim in the contexts of vegetarianism, animal experimentation, zoos and hunting, as well as the animal rights activism that has resulted from the recognition by a relatively small but vociferous group of political activists that animals cannot simply be considered in their relation to humans.

About the Author
Mark Rowlands is Lecturer in Philosophy at University College, Cork. He is author of Supervenience and Materialism, Animal Rights, The Body in Mind, Environmental Crisis and The Nature of Consciousness.

Customer Reviews

excellent animal rights primer
Mark Rowlands writes about moral philosophy, pertaining to animal rights in particular, and actually makes it interesting (unlike Tom Regan or Peter Singer).
The first three chapters are a good introduction to basic ethics, explaining the principles of equality, desert, and the impartial position. I know, it sounds obscure, but Rowlands makes it very clear, almost tediously so sometimes, as he repeats the point again, and again, until you feel rather like a pupil obliged to repeat after him. But it is very educational, and useful if you want to debate with carnivores, scientists and the like.
Chapter four, Killing Animals, I found tedious, a prolonged debate about the lifeboat or burning house scenario, who would you save and why, how do you calculate the worth of a life. I don't know if you can, really.
The last half of the book is superb, however, Rowlands gets down to the nitty gritty of factory farming, animal experiments, zoos, hunting, and animal rights activism. I defy anyone to read the chapters on using animals for food and experiments and then rationally defend buying meat and/or products tested on animals. In fact I want everyone to read those chapters so much I might type them up, print them out and distribute them in the street. Perhaps I'd be breaking the law though.
This book, plus Straw Dogs by John Gray, are so far the best I've read which explain animal rights and which put humans in perspective, i.e. we're just an animal like any other, albeit a peculiarly selfish, myopic, devious and adaptable one.

Animals like us, by Mark Rowlands
Mark Rowlands is a first rate philosopher who has a great gift: the ability to deliver complex philosophical material in a language that is free from technical jargon, yet communicates the depth of the problems he is dealing with. This book achieves its objectives, covering the major ethical issues regarding our treatment of non human animals. This book is therefore of immense value for ethics Ethics, Humans and Other Animals: An Introduction with Readingsstudents and, indeed, anyone who has reflected upon our relationship with animals.