"Ape Rights and the Myth of Animal Equality"
Incidentally:
"Underground" by Barack Obama
Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I read the Saletan piece and couldn't figure out the point (beyond the me-too news report about Spain). It sounds like he thinks acknowledging inequalities among animals betrays the animal rights cause.
I got the same impression. The last half is a weird, unexpected (I don't know Saletan that well), and juvenile attack (e.g., "Special rights for animals in committed relationships! It sounds like a Moral Majority for vegans."). I find it particularly odd that Saletan's inequality critique begins with observations about, to me, the sensibleness of the Spanish law:
"GAP calls humans, chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans "members of the community of equals," and Singer holds out the possibility that GAP "may pave the way for the extension of rights to all primates, or all mammals, or all animals." But the arguments GAP has deployed in Spain don't advance the idea of equality among animals. They destroy it.
"GAP is scientifically honest. And science doesn't show mental parity between great apes and human adults. What it shows, as the group's president acknowledges, is that great apes "experience an emotional and intellectual conscience similar to that of human children." Accordingly, the Spanish proposal doesn't treat apes like you or me. It treats them like "humans of limited capacity, such as children or those who are mentally incompetent and are afforded guardians or caretakers to represent their interests.
"And that's just the top rung of the inequality ladder."
Really, this is all just stupid. Animals rights has to draw the line somewhere. Perhaps GAP and Spain aren't being inclusive enough; perhaps they should extend lesser rights to lesser animals. But all Saletan seems to be saying is "OMG discrimination!!!1" Is this what I should expect from him?
Post a Comment