Animals Like Us

I used this book this semester in a course "Ethics & Animals Like Us" (the course title was inspired by this book). The students really liked the book. I think they found him much more readable, easy-to-understand and convincing than Tom Regan or Peter Singer. Rowlands has a rather "hip" writing style as well; more enjoyable than standard academic prose. Rowland's moral perspective is basically this: an action is morally OK only if you'd be willing to allow it to happen *IF* you didn't know who you were. So, racist actions are wrong because you wouldn't want people to treat you that way if you were of race X; sexist actions are wrong because you wouldn't want to be treated that way if you were of sex Y. Similarly, if you didn't know if you were a human or a non-human, would you want a system might allow you to suffer greatly and die young so that others could experience the (comparatively trivial) pleasures of eating you? Or would you want a system where you could be tortured and killed in a lab to satisfy some scientists' curiosity, or electrocuted or gassed so someone could wear your skin and try to look cool (but actually look like an idiot)? Definitely not! Rowlands argues that since it would be irrational to choose such a world -- if you didn't know your species -- it's immoral for these things to happen in the actual world. Basically, it comes down to seeing things from the others' point of view, walking in their shoes (or paws). This is a really great book (the forward by Colin McGinn is excellent as well); everyone should read it and see practical ethics at its best. It should be yet another thorn in the side of those who who torture and kill animals for fun and profit, as well as those who support them, and have nothing of any merit to say in their own defense. One thing the book lacks is a "for further reading". ...

In this clearly argued book, Rowlands claims that it is simply unjust to harm animals. As conscious, sentient beings, biologically continuous with humans, they have interests that simply can't be ignored. Using simple principles of justice, he argues that animals have moral rights, and examines the consequences of this claim in context to vegetarianism, animal experimentation, zoos, hunting, as well as the animal rights activism that has resulted from the recognition by a fairly small group of political activists that animals can't simply be considered in relation to humans.