Project MUSE®: Journal of Animal Ethics - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Animal Ethics.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol.6 (2016) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Animal EthicsTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Animal Ethics2160-12672156-5414Latest articles in Journal of Animal Ethics. Feed provided by Project MUSE®From the Editors: No Space for Newts and Bats
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984703
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Political utterances are seldom worth philosophical engagement. Most are exercises in sloganeering and intended only for popular sound-bite consumption. But some are serious indications of an underlying political philosophy (or lack of one) and so are worthy of attention. Such is the case by the speech by Rachel Reeves, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer. She says, "We are reducing the environmental requirements placed on developers … so they can focus on getting things built and stop worrying about bats and newts" (Reeves, 2025).This view was endorsed by Angela Rayner, former deputy prime minister: "We can't have a situation where a newt's more protected than people who desperately need housing" (Baker, 2024).
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallFrom the Editors: No Space for Newts and Bats2026-03-10text/htmlen-USFrom the Editors: No Space for Newts and Bats2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®187792026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Invisible Suffering: Why Animal Ethics Must Confront the Welfare of Farmed Fish in the Global South
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984704
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In recent years, the field of animal ethics has rightly expanded beyond its original focus on companion animals and farmed animals in wealthy nations. Scholars have challenged speciesism, explored the inner lives of animals, and examined our moral obligations to them across a wide range of settings (Balcombe, 2016, p. 11). Nevertheless, a profound silence persists—one that speaks volumes. Farmed fish, which make up the overwhelming majority of animals killed for food, are rarely present in these conversations. Even less visible are the fish raised and killed in low- and middle-income countries, where regulatory systems are weaker and ethical scrutiny is minimal.This is not a minor omission. Each year, between 70
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallInvisible Suffering: Why Animal Ethics Must Confront the Welfare of Farmed Fish in the Global South2026-03-10text/htmlen-USInvisible Suffering: Why Animal Ethics Must Confront the Welfare of Farmed Fish in the Global South2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®253812026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10The Spirit and "All Flesh": Developing an Incarnational Pneumatology That Embraces the Nonhuman Creature
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984705
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The landscape of animal theology has predominantly been shaped by an emphasis on Christological dimensions, particularly focusing on soteriology and incarnation. Scholars such as Andrew Linzey, David Clough, and Richard Bauckham have explored the theological implications of Christ's redemptive work and the incarnation within the context of human-animal relationships. Linzey (1998, 2016) has emphasized the significance of the incarnation for all creatures, arguing that the Logos identifies not only with humanity but also with all creatures of flesh and blood. Clough (2014), in his cosmic Christology, broadens the scope of the incarnation to include the life substance shared among humans and other animals. Bauckham
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallThe Spirit and "All Flesh": Developing an Incarnational Pneumatology That Embraces the Nonhuman Creature2026-03-10text/htmlen-USThe Spirit and "All Flesh": Developing an Incarnational Pneumatology That Embraces the Nonhuman Creature2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®584742026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Cyno-Racist Colonialism: "Pariah" Dogs, "Dog Cull," and the State in Colonial India
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984706
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All dogs were created equal; however, this equality diminished upon their interaction with various human societies. In other words, as humans began to distinguish themselves from the humans of other societies, they also started to differentiate the animals within their societies from those of differing societies. Moreover, these beliefs in distinction are partially "natural" but predominantly "social." The "great divides" of "nature" and "society," which have never been compartmentalized but rather portrayed as "nature-culture hybrids" in the Latourian sense, provide a middle realm of "artifactual nature," where human and nonhuman interactions occur (Goldman & Schurman, 2000, pp. 575–576; Latour, 1993, pp. 51–55).
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallCyno-Racist Colonialism: "Pariah" Dogs, "Dog Cull," and the State in Colonial India2026-03-10text/htmlen-USCyno-Racist Colonialism: "Pariah" Dogs, "Dog Cull," and the State in Colonial India2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®833402026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Dignifying the Nonhuman: A Critical Reconstruction of Behavioral Ecology Through Animal Dignification
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984707
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What does it mean to treat nonhuman animals with dignity? While ethical discourse has often focused on welfare or rights, the concept of animal dignification introduces a complementary concern: recognizing animals as subjects with inherent value, independent of their biological function or utility. This perspective invites a reexamination of scientific paradigms that tend to interpret animal behavior primarily through the lenses of adaptation, functionality, and reproductive success.Behavioral ecology, grounded in modern evolutionary theory, has produced valuable insights into the ecological dynamics of animal behavior. However, its strong reliance on adaptationist models has been critiqued for narrowing the scope
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallDignifying the Nonhuman: A Critical Reconstruction of Behavioral Ecology Through Animal Dignification2026-03-10text/htmlen-USDignifying the Nonhuman: A Critical Reconstruction of Behavioral Ecology Through Animal Dignification2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®458892026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Antivegetarianism and the Fragile Status of Animals in Schopenhauer's Ethics
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984708
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Working largely outside of academia, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer opposed the (in his eyes) obscurantist tradition of post-Kantian idealism. And while Schopenhauer admired Kant for his theoretical philosophy, he rejected his ethics almost entirely. Inspired by Indian thought, a further reason for his opposition was the virtually complete neglect of nonhuman animals (hereafter referred to as animals) in Western moral philosophy.Indeed, it is not much of an exaggeration to say that, for Schopenhauer, the way a philosophy approaches animals can be seen as a litmus test: If animals are taken morally seriously, the view deserves serious consideration. Otherwise, it should be met with initial suspicion.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallAntivegetarianism and the Fragile Status of Animals in Schopenhauer's Ethics2026-03-10text/htmlen-USAntivegetarianism and the Fragile Status of Animals in Schopenhauer's Ethics2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®721962026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Exploring Human Obligations to Disabled Animals
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984709
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This article argues that humans have more moral duties toward disabled domestic animals than is currently accepted in society. From minor cosmetic differences to severe medical conditions, every disabled animal is deserving of a good life and freedom from harm by virtue of being a subject-of-a-life.Often, animals are killed because of their disability. It is difficult to parse precisely what percentage of animals born with a disability are euthanized in the United States alone, but we can make some educated guesses based on species. Exact statistics on what happens to disabled dogs and cats do not exist, but we do have statistics for how many animals in shelters are euthanized per year. In 2023 alone in the United
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallExploring Human Obligations to Disabled Animals2026-03-10text/htmlen-USExploring Human Obligations to Disabled Animals2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®840782026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10The Paradox of Colonial Compassion: Legality and the Question of Animal Sacrifice in Late Colonial India
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984710
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Nothing in this Act shall render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by the religion or religious rites and usage of any race, sect, tribe, or class.Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, enacted by the government of India in 1890, portrays the limitations of legal endeavors to protect animals. While the law was enacted as a means to prevent all kinds of inhumane treatments toward animals, including overdriving, beating, or causing them unnecessary pain, it failed to curb the brutality practiced against animals in religious rituals. As interference in religious customs had been perceived as "an abomination to a Hindu" (Strachey, 1903, p. 491), the colonial government did not risk
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallThe Paradox of Colonial Compassion: Legality and the Question of Animal Sacrifice in Late Colonial India2026-03-10text/htmlen-USThe Paradox of Colonial Compassion: Legality and the Question of Animal Sacrifice in Late Colonial India2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®740852026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10The Repugnant Conclusion of Effective Animal Altruism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984711
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Contemporary animal advocacy has been strongly influenced by effective altruism, which has helped to draw more people and more funding into the movement and also shaped the strategic focus of advocates within the movement. In this article, I examine the philosophical foundations of effective animal advocacy, which is effective altruism in the context of animal advocacy (Sebo, 2019). Many effective animal advocates do not subscribe to a specific philosophical view but rather want to "help animals as effectively as possible." But if we try to add more specificity to this idea, the most popular interpretation is that when choosing between two actions to help animals, we should pick the one that maximizes the net
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallThe Repugnant Conclusion of Effective Animal Altruism2026-03-10text/htmlen-USThe Repugnant Conclusion of Effective Animal Altruism2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®641672026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10"Can They Suffer?": Rereading Bentham's Question Through Derrida
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984712
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In 1789, during the French Revolution, when the path to equality between men was starting to be carved, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) appealed to the moral consideration of those other beings whose physical and biological constitution still counted for their moral exclusion. Bentham appealed, then, for the moral consideration of other animals based on their ability to suffer. He wrote:The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmall"Can They Suffer?": Rereading Bentham's Question Through Derrida2026-03-10text/htmlen-US"Can They Suffer?": Rereading Bentham's Question Through Derrida2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®550982026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10Animal Ethics in the Anthropocene: Navigating the Inevitability of Human Interference in Nonhuman Lives
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984713
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Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves: Why Animals Matter for Pandemics, Climate Change, and Other Catastrophes presents a powerful case for reconceiving our relationships with nonhuman animals so that respect and compassion replace the disregard and cruelty too often revealed in our treatment of other species. Sebo convincingly argues that it is both morally incumbent upon us to transform our behavior toward nonhuman animals and that such transformation is necessary even from a purely self-interested perspective as a means of preventing or mitigating pandemics, climate change, and other catastrophes. Sebo's ideas are ambitious, bold, meticulously advanced, and potentially world-changing.Notwithstanding the particular
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallAnimal Ethics in the Anthropocene: Navigating the Inevitability of Human Interference in Nonhuman Lives2026-03-10text/htmlen-USAnimal Ethics in the Anthropocene: Navigating the Inevitability of Human Interference in Nonhuman Lives2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®377342026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10About the Authors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984714
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christopher erhard is a lecturer in philosophy at LMU Munich, Germany. He holds an MA in philosophy and a PhD from LMU. He is associate editor of Husserl Studies, the author of Denken über nichts: Intentionalität und das Problem der Nicht-Existenz bei Husserl (De Gruyter, 2014), and coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Agency (Routledge, 2021). His research and teaching focus is on classical phenomenology, analytic philosophy of mind and action, and animal ethics. Email: christopher.erhard@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.wasseem emam is a researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, and director of Ethical Seafood Research Glasgow, UK. His forthcoming book from Taylor and Francis is entitled
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/678/image/coversmallAbout the Authors2026-03-10text/htmlen-USAbout the Authors2026-03-102026TWOProject MUSE®72122026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-10