Abstract
Let us consider the first question: Should animals have moral standing? What would it be for an animal not to have moral standing, not to count for anything morally whatsoever? Consider an example: Joe gets his kicks out of clubbing calves. He just loves to smash the heads of calves. To say that the calves have no moral standing would be to say that they count for nothing moral ly. It would mean that Joe does nothing wrong as far as the calves themselves are concernedi although physically damaged, the calves could not be morally harmed, they could not be morally injured. The calves would not be the subjects of interests which could in any way be violated. And if Joe did all of his head smashing on a deserted island with no otherhUIll3D. beings around to either see or hear about these clubbings, Joe's actions would, from the moral standpoint, be completely neutral. They would be what we might call amoral, that is, without any moral significance whatsoever.
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