Essay On Environmental Ethics And Animal Rights

There has been a long conflict in ethical decisions between environmental ethics and animal rights. The focus of environmental ethics is the natural community. Whereas the focus of animal rights is the individual animal. In Eric Katz’s “Is There a Place for animals in the Moral Consideration of Nature?” he addresses this problem between environmental ethics and animal rights. He offers two kinds of moral consideration: the well-being of the natural community and the protection of the natural individual. Whereas, other ethicists such as Tom Regan emphasizes the rights of animals and his goal of liberation of animals. This paper will focus on the Katz’s two moral considerations, the distinction between the two considerations, Regan’s view on

His ethics is focused on the rights of individual animals. Regan believes that animals are subjects of experience whose lives matter to them. This infers that animals hold intrinsic value themselves and has various rights. However, currently with animal testing, caging and hunting, animals are being deprived of their rights. Although it is a bit extreme comparison, Regan compares the situation of animals to slavery. “It is the right of slaves to be free, their right not to be treated as another’s property, their right not to be used as a mere means to another’s end – it is these basic moral rights that a system of chattle slavery systematically violates, not the principle that we must count equal interests equally” (Regan, 69). Currently, animals are treated as a means for food, a means for entertainment and a means for experiments. Animals are used in the benefit of humans. These individual animals are not seen as having its own rights and value. Regan’s view on ethics pursues is revolutionary to change this view on animals. He sought out liberation for animals because he views animals having their own intrinsic worth. Individual animals are not a means to an end, rather these individuals are ends within