Erin Mckenna

Living with Animals (eBook, PDF)

Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Living with Animals brings a pragmatist ecofeminist perspective to discussions around animal rights, animal welfare, and animal ethics to move the conversation beyond simple use or non-use decisions. Erin McKenna uses a case study approach with select species to question how humans should live and interact with various animal beings through specific instances of such relationships. Addressing standard topics such as the use of animals for food, use for biomedical research, use in entertainment, use as companions, use as captive specimens in zoos, and use in hunting and ecotourism through a revolutionary pluralist and experimental approach, McKenna provides an uncommonly nuanced accounts for complex relationships and changing circumstances. Rather than seek absolute moral stands regarding human relationships with other animal beings, and rather than trying to end such relationships altogether, the books urges us to make existing relations better.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 212
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. November 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798881876364
• Artikelnr.: 74846258

Autorenporträt

Erin McKenna is professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon. She is author of Livestock: Food, Fiber, and Friends;American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present, co-authored with Scott L. Pratt; The Task of Utopia: A Pragmatist and Feminist Perspective; and co-editor with Andrew Light of Animal Pragmatism.

Inhaltsangabe

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Animal Stories-a brief examination of well-known fictional stories about
human relationships with other animal beings. I expect to address
Charlotte's Web (spiders and rats as the focus), Chicken Run, Babe (pigs
and dogs as the focus), Curious George, Black Beauty, The Call of the Wild,
White Fang, Moby Dick, and The Whale: A Love Story. The stories will be
discussed briefly here to outline the range of issues discussed in the book
and allow me to introduce the main pragmatist ecofeminist commitments.
II. Chimpanzees and Other Primates-will move from the discussion of Curious
George to the lives of several real chimpanzees captured in Africa, used in
research, on display in entertainment, kept as pets, and living in zoos or
sanctuaries. The discussion will extend to other apes and monkeys.
III. Horses and Cattle-will move from the discussion of Black Beauty to the
contemporary lives of horses in cities, in competition, and at work on
ranches. As ranch horses their lives connect to the lives of cattle and
grazing cattle are often in competition with "wild" horses in the U.S.
These overlapping lives result in complex situations where someone eating
beef may unwittingly be contributing to the death of horses. The slaughter
of both animals will be examined as will their impact on the environment.
IV. Pigs and Poultry-will move from the discussion of Chicken Run and Babe
to examine the conditions of contemporary industrial farming and the
emerging alternatives of pasture-based agriculture. I will discuss and
evaluate what these different systems mean for the animals themselves, the
environment, for farmers, and for consumers.
V. Whales and Fish-will move from the discussion of Moby Dick and The
Whale: A Love Story to examine the increased critical attention focused on
keeping dolphins and whales in captivity and using them in entertainment.
The impact of aquariums, hatcheries, and keeping fish as pets will be
examined along with contemporary fishing practices and fish farms.
VI. Pests-will move from the discussion of Charlotte's Web to examine how
humans interact with those animals they consider to be pests. Spiders,
mice, and rats are common examples of such animals who live in our houses,
but animals such as coyotes, snakes, mosquitos, and ticks are also
generally unwanted. Since most of these animals are not known to humans as
individuals their stories will be told through their relationships with,
and impacts on, humans and other animals. Mice and rats leave the pest
category when used in biomedical research (that benefits humans, pets, and
livestock) and that will be examined as well.
VII: Cats and Canines-will move from the discussion of The Call of the Wild
and White Fang to examine how humans respond to those animals who can kill
and eat them. What does understanding the nature of wolves and big cats
mean for our relationships with the dogs and cats with whom we share our
homes.
VIII. Conclusion-I plan to end the book by using one or two examples of
particular human lives through which I show how they impact all of the
kinds of animals discussed above on a daily basis. For example, someone
eating a vegan diet may contribute to the death of apes by consuming
products with palm oil, someone advocating to end the slaughter of horses
may cause more horses to suffer, someone who is vegetarian may be saved by
a pig valve or medicine tested on cats.