Of mice and men etc.

I've just finished Joan Dunayer's Sepciesism. I picked up a copy at the library because it had a cute mouse nibbling cheese on the cover.

Dunayer says the thrust of her book is "... that there is no good reason to give sentient, nonhuman animals greater moral consideration than humans"; I'd distil the theme of her book down to "overrun with bad ideas".

The problem with an absolute rights-based approach to animal ethics is that it's all rights, and no obligations. If your typical dolphin is as sophisticated a moral philosopher as she makes out, then they should not only be entitled to freedom of expression, but should also be accountable for, say, their penchant for torturing otter's to death. Shark's (if they're not starving) let their prey bleed out after an initial killshot, saving them energy but greatly increasing the prey's suffering. Jane Goddall showed us how some chimp mothers are completely lacking maternal empathy, keeping food for themselves and letting their offspring freeze in colder weather.

I don't want chimps visited by CYFS. I don't want dolphins in the dock. Animal liberation can come without an egregious conflation of human and nonhuman consciousness. More on this later.