Moral Theory
Contractarianism
Carruthers, Peter. Against the Moral Standing of Animals
Rowlands, Mark. Contractarianism and Animal Rights
The "Dominant" Approaches
Rights Theory
Cochrane, Alasdair. From human rights to sentient rights
Donaldson, Sue and Kymlicka, Will. Rights" (Critical Terms for Animal Studies)
Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights (short paper)
Regan, Tom. The Philosophy of Animal Rights (pamphlet)
Wrenn, Corey. Nonhuman Animal Rights, Alternative Food Systems, and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Consequentialism
John, Tyler and Sebo, Jeff. Consequentialism and Nonhuman Animals
Killoren, David and Streiffer, Robert. Utilitarianism about animals and the moral significance of use
Singer, Peter. All Animals are Equal
Responses & Alternatives to the "Dominant Approaches"
Anderson, Elizabeth. Animal Rights and the Value of Nonhuman Life
Diamond, Cora. Eating Meat and Eating People
Donovan, Josephine. Animal Rights and Feminist Theory
Frey, R.G. Animal Rights
Oliver, Kelly. Animal Ethics: Toward an Ethics of Responsiveness
Oliver, Kelly. What Is Wrong with (Animal) Rights?
Warren, Mary Anne. Difficulties with the Strong Animal Rights Position
Virtue Theory
Hursthouse, Rosalind. Applying virtue ethics to our treatment of other animals
Hursthouse, Rosalind. Virtue ethics and the treatment of animals
Rowlands, Mark. Virtue ethics and animals
Animal Minds, Agency, & Moral Status
Bekoff, Marc and Pierce, Jessica. Wild Justice Redux: What We Know about Social Justice in Animals and Why it Matters
Bermúdez, José Luis. Thinking Without Words: An Overview for Animal Ethics
Carron, Paul. Ape imagination? A sentimentalist critique of Frans de Waal’s gradualist theory of human morality
Carron, Paul. Monkeys, Men, and Moral Responsibility: A Neo-Aristotelian Case for a Qualitative Distinction
Delon, Nicolas. Moral Status, Final Value, and Extrinsic Properties
Ebert, Rainer. Are Humans More Equal Than Other Animals? An Evolutionary Argument Against Exclusively Human Dignity
Gruen, Lori and Andrews, Kristin. Empathy in Other Apes
Jones, Robert. Science, sentience, and animal welfare
Lynch, Joe. Is Animal Pain Conscious?
Monsó , Susana (with J. Benz-Schwarzburg & A. Bremhorst). Animal morality: What it means and why it matters
Regan, Tom. Frey on Why Animals Cannot Have Simple Desires
Rollin, Bernard. Animal Mind: Science, Philosophy, and Ethics
Sebo, Jeff. Agency and Moral Status
Sebo, Jeff. The Moral Problem of Other Minds
Applied Topics
Abortion and Animals
Abbate, C.E. Adventures in Moral Consistency: How to Develop an Abortion Ethic through an Animal Rights Framework
Jenni, Kathi. Dilemmas in Social Philosophy: Abortion and Animal Rights
Kao, Grace. Consistency in Ecofeminist Ethics: Contextual Moral Vegetarianism and Abortion
Animal Research
Against Animal Research
Engel, Mylan. The Commonsense Case against Animal Experimentation
Francione, Gary. The Use of Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Research: Necessity and Justification
Nobis, Nathan. A Rational Defense of Animal Experimentation
Regan, Tom. Animal Rights Advocacy and Modern Medicine: The Charge of Hypocrisy
Regan, Tom. Empty Cages: Animal Rights and Vivisection
Tuvel, Rebecca. Against the Use of Knowledge Gained from Animal Experimentation
Zambrano, Alexander. Animal Experimentation as a Form of Rescue
In Defense of Animal Research
Ringach, Dario. The Use of Nonhuman Animals Animals in Biomedical Research
Companion Animal Ethics
Abbate, C.E. A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being
DeGrazia, David. The Ethics of Confining Animals: From Farms to Zoos to Human Homes
Haramia, Chelsea. Why We Should Stop Creating Pets with Lives Worth Living
Kendrick, Heather. Autonomy, Slavery, and Companion Animals
Meijer, Eva. The Good Life, the Good Death: Companion Animals and Euthanasia
Milburn, Josh. Not Only Humans Eat Meat: Companions, Sentience, and Vegan Politics
Rollin, Bernard. Reasonable Partiality and Animal Ethics
Sparrow, Robert. The March of the Robot Dogs
Toit, Jessica. Is Having Pets Morally Permissible?
Eating Animals (Esp. Factory Farming)
Against Meat Eating
Abbate, C.E. Veganism, (Almost) Harm-Free Animal Flesh, and Nonmaleficence: Navigating dietary ethics in an unjust world
Bramble, Ben. The Case Against Meat
Engel, Mylan. The Commonsense Case for Ethical Vegetarianism
Engel, Mylan. The Immorality of Eating Meat
Gruen, Lori and Jones, Robert. Veganism as an Aspiration
Holdier, A.G. The Pig’s Squeak: Towards a Renewed Aesthetic Argument for Veganism
Hooley, Dan and Nobis, Nathan. A Moral Argument for Veganism
Huemer, Michael. Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism
Ilea, Ramona. Intensive livestock farming: Global trends, increased environmental concerns, and ethical solutions
Kemmerer, Lisa. Ethics and Eating Fishes
Lowe, Dan. Common Arguments for the Moral Acceptability of Eating Meat: A Discussion for Students
Norcross, Alastair. Puppies, Pigs, and Marginal Cases
Responses to Norcross
Abbate, C.E. Meat Eating and Moral Responsibility: Exploring the Moral Distinctions between Meat Eaters and Puppy Torturers
Harris, John and Richard Galvin. Pass the Cocoamone, Please’: Causal Impotence, Opportunistic Vegetarianism and Act-Utilitarianism
Hudson, Hud. Collective responsibility and moral vegetarianism
Nobis, Nathan. Vegetarianism and virtue: Does consequentialism demand too little?
Pluhar, Evelyn. Who can be morally obligated to be a vegetarian?
Simmons, Aaron. Animals, Freedom, and the Ethics of Veganism
Stănescu, Vasile. "Green" Eggs and Ham? The Myth of Sustainable Meat and the Danger of the Local
Tuminello, Joey. Industrial Animal Agriculture: An Environmental Justice Perspective
In Defense of Meat Eating
Kazez, Jean. The Taste Question in Animal Ethics
Lomasky, Loren. Is it wrong to eat animals?
Alternatives to Factory Farming
Disenhancing Animals
Rollin, Bernard. Telos, conservation of welfare, and ethical issues in genetic engineering of animals
Shriver, Adam. Knocking out pain in livestock: Can technology succeed where morality has stalled?
Thomson, Paul. The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken Problem
Responses to the "diminishment" approach
Henschke, Adam. Making Sense of Animal Disenhancement
Schultz-Bergin, Marcus. The Dignity of Diminished Animals: Species Norms and Engineering to Improve Welfare
Eating Happy Animals
Delon, Nicolas. The Replaceability Argument in the Ethics of Animal Husbandry (an overview of the arguments)
McMahan, Jeff. Eating Animals the Nice Way
Eating Insects
Fischer, Bob. Bugging the Strict Vegan
Eating Roadkill
Bruckner, Donald. Strict Vegetarianism is Immoral
Hunting
Demetriou, Dan and Fischer, Bob. Dignitarian Hunting: A Rights Based Defense
In Vitro Meat
Milburn, Josh. Chewing Over In Vitro Meat: Animal Ethics, Cannibalism and Social Progress
Milburn, Josh. Death-Free Dairy? The Ethics of Clean Milk
Schaefer, G. Owen and Savulescu, Julian. The Ethics of Producing In Vitro Meat
Entertainment & Sport
Circuses
Zoos
Bennett, Stephen. Are Zoos and Aquariums Justifiable? A Utilitarian Evaluation of Two Prominent Arguments
Emmerman, Karen. Moral Arguments Against Zoos.
DeGrazia, David. The Ethics of Confining Animals: From Farms to Zoos to Human Homes
Jamieson, Dale. Against Zoos
Pierce, Jessica and Bekoff, Marc. A Postzoo Future: Why Welfare Fails Animals in Zoos
Hunting
Kheel, Marti. The Killing Game
Oliver, Kelly. Hunting Girls: Patriarchal Fantasy or Feminist Progress?
Feminism and Animals
Donovan, Josephine. Attention to Suffering: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals
Emmerman, Karen. What’s Love Got to Do with it? An Ecofeminist Approach to Inter- Animal and Intra-Cultural Conflicts of Interest.
Gheaus, Anca. The Role of Love in Animal Ethics
Paxton George, Kathryn. Should Feminists be Vegetarians?
Plumwood, Val. Integrating Ethical Frameworks for Animals, Humans, and Nature: A Critical Feminist Ecosocialist Analysis
Wrenn, Cory. Social Movement Prostitution: A Case Study in Nonhuman Animal Rights Activism and Vegan Pimping
Wrenn, Corey. Toward a Vegan Feminist Theory of the State
Religion and Animals
Christianity
John, Tyler. Christian Dominion and Animal Abuse (Op-Ed)
Linzey, Andrew. The Bible and Killing for Food
Lynch, Joe. Theodicy and Animals
Buddhism
Fenton, Andrew. A moderate Buddhist animal research ethics
Finnigan, Bronwyn. Buddhism and Animal Ethics
Jainism
Tuminello, Joey. Jainism: Animals and the Ethics of Intervention
"Wild Animal" Ethics
Delon, Nicolas. Animal Agency, Captivity, and Meaning
Delon, Nicolas and Purves, Duncan. Wild Animal Suffering is Intractable
Donaldson, Sue and Kymlicka, Will. Between Wildness and Domestication: Rethinking Categories and Boundaries in response to Animal Agency
Ebert, Rainer and Machan, Tibor. Innocent Threats and the Moral Problem of Carnivorous Animals
Faria, Catia (with Eze Paez). It’s Splitsville: Why Animal Ethics and Environmental Ethics Are Incompatible
Kasperbauer, T. J. Should We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon? The Ethics of De-Extinction
Martin, Angela. Animal Vulnerability and its Ethical Implications: An Exploration
Palmer, Clare. The moral relevance of the distinction between domesticated and wild animals
Palmer, Clare. What (If Anything) Do We Owe Wild Animals?
Pepper, Angie. Adapting to Climate Change: What We Owe to Other Animals
Animal Minds
General
Animals Like Us : Animal Emotions (Wildlife Documentary: 59 minutes)
Animal Odd Couples (One hour, 47 minutes)
A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla: Full Documentary (67 minutes)
Koko Amazing Talking Gorilla ( Koko recounts death of mother by poachers: 10 minutes)
How animals think (Nova Science Now Episode: 53 minutes)
How smart are Animals? (NOVA Science Now Episode: 55 minutes)
A Lion Called Christian (45 minutes)
*Christian the Lion: Reunion (short version, with Celine Dion song: 3 minutes)
A Look Inside the Animal Mind (Podcast with Marc Bekoff: 42 minutes)
Animal Moms Reunited With Their Babies (4 minutes)
Moral behavior in animals (Frans de Waal Ted Talk: 16 minutes)
Mysteries of the animal mind (Nature of things Episode: 44 minutes)
What animals are thinking and feeling, and why it should matter (Carl Safina Ted Talk: 16 minutes)
Farmed Animal Minds
The Emotional World of Farm Animals (52 minutes)
The Inconvenient Truth About Thinking Chickens (Presentation by Lori Marino: 120 minutes)
Maybelle's Story (Cow who was reunited with her baby: 10 minutes)
Maybelle's reunion with her baby (2 minutes)
Reunion of mother sheep with her two babies (3 minutes)
Mother cow's heartbreaking emotional anguish after losing her newborn calf (3 minutes)
The Private Lives of Chickens (58 minutes)
The Private Lives of Cows (60 minutes)
Animal Rights Theory (Tom Regan)
"The Case for Animal Rights" (Tom Regan Speech: 8 minutes)
"An Introduction to Animal Rights" (Tom Regan Lecture: 50 minutes)
Animal Experimentation
"Ethics and Animal Research" (Nathan Nobis Lecture Series)
Mother Love: Monkey Maternal Deprivation Experiments (27 minutes)
Test Subject (Scientists speak out about animal research: 17 minutes)
Eating Animals
Health
Do animals hold the key to your health? (Aysha Akhtar Ted Talk: 14 minutes)
Power Foods for the Brain (Neal Banard Ted Talk- 17 minutes)
Factory Farming
Factory Farming (Interview with Michael Huemer: 60 minutes)
Heartbreaking Footage Shows Baby Cows Stolen from their Mothers (2 minutes)
Is it okay to eat meat? Peter Singer tackles the best objections against vegetarianism (22 minutes)
Why Hamburgers Should be Illegal (Talk by Ingrid Newkirk: 43 minutes)
"Humane" Meat
'Humane Meat' (Mini lecture by Ingrid Newkirk: 11 minutes)
Jasmine Harman Explains What the Dairy Industry Does to Baby Cows (Mother cow is separated from her baby: 2 minutes)
Selling Eden: Environmentalism and the Myth of "Humane" Meat (Interview/Presentation with Vasile Stanescu: 56 minutes)
Exposing the Humane Hoax - Does humane slaughter really exist? (11 minutes)
The Humane Myth (3 minutes)
In Vitro Meat
In Vitro Meat (30 minutes)
The End of Animal Farming (Jacy Reese Ted talk: 13 minutes)
In vitro meat - the ethics, technology and politics behind it (Erica Petrillo Ted Talk: 16 minutes)
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism Now (Introduction to ecofeminism and interviews with Carol Adams, Josephine Donavan, Vandana Shiva and others: 37 minutes)
Feminism and Animals Rights (Interview with Ingrid Newkirk: 3 minutes)
Legal Rights
Chimps Have Feelings to: They Should also have rights (Steve Wise Ted Talk : 13 minutes)
Christine Korsgaard on Legal Rights for Animals (Audio only: 59 minutes)
Nonhuman Rights Project Aims to Grant Personhood to Animals (Interview with Steve Wise: 9 minutes)
Personhood Beyond the Human: Steve Wise on the Legal Case for Rights for Apes (Lecture by Steve Wise: 42 minutes)
The Struggle of the Nonhuman Rights Project for the Legal Personhood of Nonhuman Animals (Lecture by Steve Wise: 50 minutes)
Speciesism & Equality
Animal Equality (Interview with Peter Singer: 3 minutes)
Peter Singer - Non-Human Animal Ethics (20 minutes)
The Superior Human (74 minutes)
We are all Noah: Part I (1986 Documentary by Tom Regan; click here for part II: 30 minutes total)
"What is Speciesism?" (Interview with Richard Ryder: 4 minutes)
What Will Future Generations Think of Our Treatment of Animals? (Paul Shapiro Ted Talk: 13 minutes)
Who lives, who dies, and why: ignoring and redecorating nature and specious speciesism ( Marc Bekoff presentation: 36 minutes)
Miscellaneous
Kant, Autonomy, Animals (Mini Lecture by Andrew Chignell: 7 Minutes)
ENGAGED PHILOSOPHY is a site that gives faculty and students tools to implement activist or service projects in philosophy classes—assignment guidelines, sample projects, and testimonials and data supporting civic engagement results. For animal-specific project ideas, see this page.
One model for a service learning course: Taking Animals Seriously, by Kathie Jenni at the University of Redlands. "A four week long internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah that is grounded in study of the history, issues, philosophies, and strategies of the animal welfare movement. One and one half days per week are devoted to class time; the remaining three and one half days each week are devoted to full time work in all aspects of the Sanctuary: cleaning, feeding and watering, socializing with and exercising animals, veterinary care, adoption services, humane education, and community outreach. Students may specialize in one facet of animal care during their final two weeks." Jenni has written about the course in this volume.
Bioethics
Animal Bioethics - Robert Streiffer 2010
Cognition and Minds
Animal Cognition - Cameron Buckner
Animal Minds - Nicolas Delon 2017
Animals & Science - Kathie Jenni 2014
Animal Minds - Alex Morgan 2016
Animal Minds - Matthew Pianalto 2013
Animal Minds - Jeff Sebo 2019
The Environment
Animals, the Environment, and World Religion - D. Pinault 2017
Animals and Climate Change - Jeff Sebo 2019
Introduction to Animal Ethics
Animal Ethics and the Law- Cheryl Abbate 2020
Animal Ethics - Mark Causey
Humans and Other Animals - Kathie Jenni 2020
Ethics and Animals - Chris Korsgaard 2017
Animal Ethics - Matthew Pianalto 2012
Animal Ethics - Matthew T. Riley 2016
Ethics and Animals - Jeff Sebo 2017
Policy
Animal Ethics and Policy - Kathie Jenni 2020
Practical Applications
Animal Ethics and Service - Kathie Jenni 2019
Effective Animal Advocacy - Jeff Sebo 2018
Animal Ethics in Theory and Practice: An Animal Studies Seminar - Ike Sharpless
Religion
Animals and Religion - Laura Hobgood 2015
Animals, the Environment, and World Religion - D. Pinault 2017
Society and Culture
Animals in Human Cultures: Interdisciplinary Perspectives - Jody Berland 2015
Animals in Human Society: Inequality, Conflict, and Social Justice - David N. Pellow 2016
Animals & Society - Corey Wrenn 2012