Practical Ethics

Peter Singer states that there is no moral justification for refusing to take animal suffering seriously. He calls for a boycott of the meat industry on the basis of equal consideration of interests. Singer affirms that experiments on animals should only be carried out if experimenters would be willing to also use human beings at an equal or lower level of consciousness. He then responds to common objections to his views. In a concluding section he presents a strong case against the killing of rational and self-conscious animals such as the great apes.