ethics questions module 5
Bayhawks22
PigsRatsandRabbits.docxCase Studies: Pigs, Rats and Rabbits
“Exotic” Wild Pigs “Sus scrofa”
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pNGuzuirQR4
Small Group Discussion
a) Central Points? b) Your thoughts on the situation? c) What’s the right thing to do? d) What is the basis (the operative theory) for your argument?
Some Facts:
First arrival. Asian Pigs 1,500 years ago mated with European Pigs 300 years ago
Ecological concerns - threatens whole ecosystems (half native plant species have gone extinct by 2000)
Approaches to the Problems
The Nature Conservatory (TNC) the NPS and local preservationists solution?
Catch some and reduce the population
PETA ( People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)?
Expose the slaughter ( different than bacon?)
Destroy traps ( different than slaughter houses?)
Ethical Issues.
That they die?
How they die?
Pain and torturous death by dehydration- starvation- asphyxiation for the pigs
Other animals caught and die.
What are the competing values?
1. Keep the current local ecosystems healthy?
2. Return the ecosystems to as they existed in 1750, ( pre colonial?) TNS
3. Favor the interests of local people - indigenous people (American citizens)?
4. Interest of the pigs?
When there are competing values, the question for us: What value gets prioritized?
“Non native”. How long to use this term?
Cull or eradicate the pigs?
Does it matter how painfully?
Compare to the Northern Snake Head and Australian Cats?
Each Group take one of these perspectives
WW a Kantian Do
WW a Utilitarian Do
WW a EcoFeminist Do
WW a BioCentrist Do
Experimenting on Rats and Rabbits
Small Group Discussion a) Central Points? b) Your thoughts on the situation? c) What’s the right thing to do? d) What is the basis (the operative theory) for your argument?
Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0X_4XRRAi0
Why test on animals?
1- Effects of chemicals on the environment ( home and outside) to insure that Zinc and other metals and chemicals don’t harm people and other animals and ecosystems. Even have effects on the speed of climate change (EPA Guidelines from this case study)
.
Some Facts
Kinds of tests
a. Repeated dose toxicity tests
b. Lethal tests (Though they all get euthanized in the end)
The animals are bred for this purpose
Other reasons for animal testing?
2- Detergents and cosmetics (Outlawed in the EU and products banned)
Option: Google "Animals Testing" Images: Warning - these can be graphic ( Truth or Comfort? )
3- Drugs to enhance the health of humans (Medicine)
Estimates are 100,000,000 each year are tested
1,000,000 or so of these animals in the US
Estimates of 26,000,000 rodents and other not counted animals in the US
(These do not have to be counted according to law)
5% of the drugs tested on animals move forward to testing on humans
Cancer has been cured in mice for decades ( Has not worked on humans)
Monkeys who take certain HIV inhibitors cannot be infected with HIV ( Has not worked on humans)
Diseases and conditions fought with animals testing: Polio, smallpox, insulin, rubella, rabies,
Each Group take one of these perspectives
WW a Kantian Do
WW a Utilitarian Do
WW a EcoFeminist Do
WW a BioCentrist Do
What’s the difference in how we raise animals for food?
Bacon vs testing on pigs
Testing labs vs feedlots and slaughterhouses
The following graph excludes rodents, lizards, frogs
That’s 9 billion chickens for food in the US per year
A PROS AND CONS SITE:
https://animal-testing.procon.org/
Animal Testing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pNGuzuirQR4
Hawaiian Pigs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0X_4XRRAi0
