Animal Rights and Human Responsibilities
Reaction Sheet
Dennis McCallum, facilitator
[The reaction sheet includes more items than we can actually discuss. The questions
and scenarios tend to lead people toward the central issues of whether there
is a difference between animals and humans, and if so, what the difference is.]
- Do animals have feelings? What evidence can you think of pro or con?
Give your opinion on the moral content of the following items:
A rock rolls down a hillside.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A rock rolls down a hillside and kills a beaver at the bottom
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A rock rolls down a hillside and kills a baby at the bottom
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A person pushes a rock down the hillside and kills a baby at the bottom.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A man jumps out of a bush and seizes a rabbit. He wrings its neck, killing
it before eating it.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A red-tailed hawk flies down and strikes a rabbit, biting its spine and
killing it.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A lady feeds live mice to her pet snake.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A woman slaps a mosquito on her neck, splattering it dead
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A family sets rat traps and kills several diseased rats in their yard
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
For religious reasons, a starving cow wanders by a starving two year
old--no one does anything.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Our of religious convictions, Haitians butcher a chicken and sprinkle
its blood.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Several deer in a metropolitan park gradually starve to death one winter.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
City officials send men out with rifles to shoot several deer in an over-populated
metro park.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A ruler in an over-populated Asian country orders people over 80 to be
killed.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A dog bites a young girl and her parents have the dog euthanized
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A dog owner decides to euthanize his pain-wracked cancerous dog
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A lab uses baboons to discover a vaccine for aids
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Another lab learns how to use baboon hearts for transplants in humans.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Yet another lab uses living rabbits' eyeballs to test the toxicity of
new cosmetics
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A city is surrounded by a siege. A woman slays her infant and eats his
body.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
A city is surrounded by a siege. A woman slays the family pig and eats
its body.
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Horse riding
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Dog racing
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Rodeo bronco and bull riding
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Bull fighting
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Boxing
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
People eat beef
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
People eat milk-fed veal
Immoral
Morally
permissible Not
a moral issue
Summary Questions:
- T or F Animals have feelings
- T or F Humans and animals are essentially the same except for physical
differences such as size, amount of gray matter, opposing thumbs, etc.
- T or F The real difference between humans and animals lies in the non-material,
spiritual area.
- T or F The same moral rules should be applied to both humans and animals.
Animals have the same rights as humans.
- T or F Animals have rights, but they are below, or lesser than those
of humans.
- T or F Animals do not have rights, humans have responsibilities.
- T or F Humans can do whatever they want to animals.
Animal Rights: A growing consensus!
See the Animal Rights Invitation
See the Animal Rights Resource Sheet
