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The Animal Ethics Reader

he last several decades have witnessed a remarkable surge of interest in exploring the ethical dimensions of humans’ utilization of, and impact upon, (other) animals. One reflection of this growing interest is the increase in the number of courses offered at North American colleges on the broad topic of human–animal relationships. The Humane Society of the United States has compiled a list of over 100 such courses. The Animal Ethics Reader will appeal both to instructors of these courses, as a useful textbook, and to general readers seeking a comprehensive introduction to the issues. This anthology offers a wide-ranging and judicious selection of articles by different authors about the moral implications of human interactions with animals. The 86 articles—actually excerpts from previously published material—are divided thematically among 10 Parts. Each Part is prefaced by a one-page Introduction in which the editors outline the authors’ topics. In addition, each article is introduced with a twoor three-sentence summary of the author’s thesis. Each Part concludes with several Study Questions and an excellent Annotated Further Reading, which supplements the bibliographies that follow the individual articles. In addition, the book contains a Forward, a General Introduction, and an Index. In the Forward, Bernard Rollin examines the rising concern for animal welfare in North American and European societies and the recent proliferation of legislation to constrain the abuse of animals in the areas of research, food production, and leisure activities. The General Introduction, composed by the editors, offers a brief (10page), sweeping survey of human attitudes toward animals over the last 500,000 years. It is, unfortunately, the least successful section of the book. The authors have tried to condense too much material, with the result that their statements are too compressed and too uncritical to be meaningful. Consider a sentence on page 3: “Martin Luther and John Calvin expressed concern for God’s creatures.” A reader might conclude—erroneously—that the humane treatment of animals became a tenet of Protestant doctrine. And, considering that the stated purpose of the Introduction is to trace the history of human attitudes, it is surprising that there is no mention of Genesis 1.26, a passage that IN THE LITERATURE