Due Thursday Sept 15 - Focus on Companion Animals

Armstrong and Botzler (hereafter Armstrong), Part Nine: Animal Companions (542-583)

Bernard E. Rollin and Michael D. H. Rollin, “Dogmaticisms and Catechisms: Ethics and Companion Animals” (546-550)
Clare Palmer, “Killing Animals in Animal Shelters” (570-578)
And at least browse the intro and some of the other articles in this section. . .

Yi-Fu Tuan, “Animal Pets: Cruelty and Affection” (Kalof and Fitzgerald, hereafter Kalof)
Class notes here: Excollege HAR, class notes on companion animals.pdf
First pbworks upload here: First pbworks upload

Due Thursday Sept 22 - Introducing Animal Ethics [focus on Singer]

Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights” (Armstrong 19-26)
Peter Singer, “Practical Ethics” (Armstrong 36-46)

Supplemental works by Singer (optional)

"Animal Liberation at 30": http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/may/15/animal-liberation-at-30/
"Famine, Affluence, and Morality": http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972----.htm

(skim if necessary) Carl Cohen, “Reply to Tom Regan” (Armstrong 26-29)
(skim if necessary) R.G. Frey, “Rights, Interests, Desires and Beliefs” (Armstrong 55-58)
Martha Nussbaum, “The Moral Status of Animals” (Kalof 30-36)
You might also want to read a blog post of mine on the topic, which provides a general overview: http://ikesharpless.com/?p=279
Class notes here: Excollege HAR, class notes on animal ethics.pdf
Second pbworks upload here: Second pbworks upload

(for reference, if you're interested: a similar upload from my students last year here

Due Sept. 29 - Focus on NGOs and Public Policy

The three assigned readings (Stone, Schwarz, and Sharpless) have been sent to you by email
First short paper due - NGO analysis
Class notes here: HAR, class notes on public policy and NGOs.pdf
Post comments on your selected NGO here

Due Oct. 6 (different from syllabus! Jumping ahead a week...): Guest Teaching by Allen Rutberg

J. Baird Callicott, “The Philosophical Value of Wildlife” (Armstrong 439-443)
Dale Peterson, “To Eat the Laughing Animal” (Armstrong 485-489)
Marti Kheel, “The Killing Game: An Ecofeminist Critique” (Armstrong 454-463)
Alastair S. Gunn, “Environmental Ethics and Trophy Hunting” (Armstrong 464-473)
Aldo Leopold, "The Land Ethic", available here: http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html
Third pbworks upload here: Third pbworks upload

Due Oct 13 - focus on Animal Consciousness

Daniel Dennett, “Animal Consciousness: What Matters and Why” (Armstrong 113-119)
Marian Stamp Dawkins, “Animal Minds and Animal Emotions” (Armstrong 120-125)
Bernard E. Rollin, “Animal Pain” (Armstrong 135-140)
Marc Bekoff, “Wild Justice and Fair Play” (Kalof 72-90...this is longer than the others - skim if necessary, but at least get the core idea)
Class notes here: HAR class notes, animal consciousness.pdf
Fourth pbworks upload here: Fourth pbworks upload

Thur. Oct. 20 – Animals as Food, 1: Livestock Agriculture and the Global Food System

David DeGrazia, “Meat Eating” (Armstrong 219-224)
Temple Grandin, “Thinking Like Animals” and “A Major Change” (Armstrong 225-231)
Animal Agriculture Alliance, “Animal Agriculture: Myths and Facts” (Armstrong 236-242)
Carol Adams, "The Rape of Animals, the Butchering of Women" (Armstrong 268-273)

(optional) “The Sexual Politics of Meat” (Kalof 171-181)

Michael Pollan, "Farmer in Chief": http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?_r=1
"The Omnivore's Delusion: Against the Agri-Intellectuals": http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals/article_print

(optional) "Spoiled: Organic and Local is so 2008": http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/spoiled-organic-and-local-so-2008

Fifth pbworks upload here: Fifth pbworks upload

And here are the notes from the wildlife session Allen Rutberg guest-taught: HAR class notes, on wild animals (Allen Ruberg's day).pdf

Class notes: HAS class notes, food animals, day 1.pdf
Reading response pushed back to the 27th...but do feel free to hand in a draft - also come to class ready to start discussing general ideas about a final project)

Thur. Oct. 20 – Animals as Food, 2: Focus on Diet and Food Choices

Steven L. Davis, “The Least Harm Principle May Require That Humans Consume a Diet Containing Large Herbivores, not a Vegan Diet” (Armstrong 243-247)
James Rachels, “The Basic Argument for Vegetarianism” (Armstrong 260-267)
Kathryn Paxton George, “A Paradox of Ethical Vegetarianism: Unfairness to Women and Children” (Armstrong 274-280)
David Nibert, “The Promotion of “Meat” and its Consequences” (Kalof 182-189)
(Optional, but recommended) David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster": http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster
Sixth pbworks upload: Sixth pbworks upload
Class notes here: Animals as Food, day 2, class notes on diet and vegetarianism.pdf
Reading response paper due (guidelines in syllabus) - feel free to send me questions or drafts anytime up to 24 hours before the paper is due.
Be ready to discuss at least some general ideas for your final paper (I meant to do this last week, but didn't get around to it in class...)

Thur. Nov. 3 - Animals as Experimental Subjects

David DeGrazia, “The Ethics of Animal Research” (Armstrong 308-316)
Baruch Brody, “Defending Animal Research” (Armstrong 317-325)
F. Barbara Orlans, “Ethical Themes of National Regulations Governing Animal Experiments: An International Perspective” (Armstrong 334-341)
(optional) Lynda Birke, “Into the Laboratory” (Kalof 323-335)

Another piece by Birke (Armstrong) - "Who - or what - are the rats (and mice) in the laboratory?"

David Morton, "Some Ethical Issues in Biotechnology Involving Animals" (Armstrong)
Final project outine (or brainstorm) due - feel free to email me with any questions as you're working on this...
Class notes: HAR class notes, animals as experimental subjects.pdf
Seventh upload here: Seventh pbworks upload

Thur. Nov. 10 – Animals in Education and Entertainment (Focus on Zoos)

Randall L. Eaton, “Orcas and Dolphins in Captivity” (Armstrong 497-500)
Dale Jamieson, “Against Zoos” (Armstrong 507-512)
Michael Hutchins et al, “In Defense of Zoos and Aquariums” (Armstrong 513-521)
Randy Malamud, “Zoo Spectatorship” (Kalof 219-236)
[optional] An On Point radio broadcast on the Tilikum controversy: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2010/07/21/killer-whales-tanks-and-tensions
Class notes: HAR class notes, animals in zoos.pdf
Eighth upload here: Eighth pbworks upload

Thur. Nov. 17 – Animals as Symbols

John Berger, “Why Look at Animals” (Kalof 251-261)
Boria Sax, “Animals as Tradition” (Kalof 270-277)
(at least skim) Claude Lèvi-Strauss, “The Totemic Illusion” (Kalof 262-269)
Class notes: HAR class notes, animals as symbols.pdf
Pbworks upload here: Ninth pbworks upload

Thur. Dec. 1 - Animal Law

Steven Wise, “A Great Shout: Legal Rights for Great Apes” (Armstrong 589-595)
Richard Posner, “Book Review of Rattling the Cage” (Armstrong 596-600)
Richard Epstein, “The Dangerous Claims of the Animal Rights Movement” (Armstrong 601-604)
Selected passages from key legal cases (and class notes): Class notes and compiled notes on Animal Law.pdf
Print out some of and look over the HSLF's 111th Legislative Scorecard: http://www.hslf.org/humanescorecard/

Feel free to just print out a few pages of this (the main senate/house pages, and then the ones that have your state's senators/reps would work...)

Final paper rough draft due (at least four pages and five sources - this doesn't need to be the first four pages, necessarily...)
Tenth upload here: Tenth pbworks upload

For this upload, please look through the 'key legal cases' handout above (which is mostly a condensation of my class notes from a Harvard Law School Animal Law course I took a while back), and pick a legal case to look into in a bit more depth.

Thur. Dec. 8 – Recapitulation and Legal Case Study: Navy Sonar and Cetaceans

Sharpless, “Winter v. NRDC”: Sharpless, Winter v NRDC.pdf
Parsons et al, “Navy Sonar and Cetaceans”: navy sonar and cetaceans.pdf
Stocker, “Ocean Bioacoustics, Human-Generated Noise and Ocean Policy”: ocean-noise-and-policy.pdf
Class notes: HAR, class ntoes on marine mammals and navy sonar.pdf

And notes from the Armstrong reading on cetaceans (which we skipped): HAR, Supplemental class notes on cetaceans (from Armstrong).pdf

Last upload here: Eleventh pbworks upload

Readings to date, HAR 2011