Animal Ethics

Animal ethics and rights is a very touchy subject. Upon reading the introduction of module 13, I immediately knew my answer or what I thought my opinion and thoughts would be concerning animal rights. I love to eat meat and so the thought of not being able to have access to the meat that I love to eat because of concerns with the equality of animals is mind boggling to me. After I read the two articles though, I must say that I have a slightly different understanding of the whole concept. Many of us are familiar with the term “to each is his own.” This term is especially adamant in cultural relativism. Cultural relativists follow the idea that different cultures, whether primitive or modern, vary when it comes to customs, manners, taboos, and daily habits. I think this philosophy must be considered in the topic of animal rights because different cultures have different habits. In America, most people eat cows, pigs, lamb, chicken and such meats but it is uncommon to eat a dog, cat, snake, and such. In other cultures around the world, killing and eating cats and dogs is very common. So I strongly believe that when it comes to animal ethics and rights, it is dependent on the culture. Some people choose to be vegetarians and that works very well for them, others could not do that, so they should do what works for them. As the article by Ronald Epstein explains, Buddhism principles value all kinds of life and frown upon the killing of any form of life whether animal or human being, so if in a culture like that, I believe it is best to abide by those rules. If you go into another religion, like Christian, were the belief is to be able to eat animals, then so be it. I think it is a personal decision and based on our beliefs and preferences, we can decide what we feel about animal rights and ethics.