Fluffy Friday
Naughty and Nice
A small Christmas blog on the ethics of being overheard . . . he’s making a list, he’s checking it twice . . .
Tea Break
The Academic Place
Have you been watching The Good Place? For UK viewers, it’s on Netflix, and it’s a very funny and sharp comedy based on exploring ethical points of view about what ‘goodness’ really is. I love it. The latest episode focussed on the Trolley Problem, which I have a particular soft Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
Ethical Eating – Quality of Human Life
If you’re based in the UK, you will have heard about the problems facing our dairy industry due to the plummeting price of milk, and even if you’re not, you’ll have seen me talk about it in the Ethical Eating Introduction. The welfare of our producers is another thorny issue. Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
Ethical Eating Month – Meat
The Ethical Eating month doesn’t start easily. We begin with the thorny issue of eating meat. When I wrote the first draft of this post it was extremely long because I wanted to outline the ethical process that led to my personal decision to eat meat. After writing it Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
Ethical Eating Month – Introduction
For someone who works in an agricultural college, I struggle with how to eat ethically. As we know, ethics are a personal thing, and my ethics may not be yours. My version of ethical eating is one that provides a good quality of life for the animals I eat, provides Read more…
Tea Break
Cecil the Lion and Trophy Hunting
This week’s horrible animal welfare story comes courtesy of a certain American dentist, yes we’re talking about the trophy killing of Cecil the lion. I won’t name the gentleman (the Guardian has no such qualms), but according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, he . . . Paid $50,000 for Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
Bacon Double Down
There was an interesting pair of articles in io9 last week, the report of double muscled pigs being bred by researchers in South Korea and China, and differences between how American scientists and the American public view science related issues. Seeing these two articles so closely together was interesting. The Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
Pig’s For Dinner
One of the things that was raised during the MOOC was scientists’ usage of euphemistic language (and also, my dislike of provocative language when I’m trying to promote animal welfare). It’s a topic I’ve been interested in for a while too. I was browsing reddit over the weekend and came Read more…
Knowledge Transfer
The Utilitarian Suffering
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is a simplistic understanding of utilitarianism – the ethical stance which we more formally say ‘maximises utility’. That is, we do what is best for the largest number of people (or animals). The greatest benefit with the smallest Read more…
