Tatjana Višak - Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics

The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series

Series editors: AndrewLinzey and Priscilla Cohn

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. This series explores the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations.

Specifically, the Series will:

provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out ethical positions on animals;

publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accomplished, scholars; and

produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary in character or have multidisciplinary relevance.

Titles include:

ANIMAL SUFFERING

Philosophy and Culture

Elisa Aaltola

ANIMALS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare

Aysha Akhtar

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND POLITICAL THEORY

Alasdair Cochrane

ANIMAL CRUELTY, ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, AND HUMAN AGGRESSION

More Than a Link

Eleonora Gullone

ANIMALS IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD: ETHICAL PERCEPTIONS

A Sourcebook

Alastair Harden

POWER, KNOWLEDGE, ANIMALS

Lisa Johnson

THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

Andrew Knight

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS IN VISUAL CULTURE

Randy Malamud

POPULAR MEDIA AND ANIMALS

Claire Molloy

ANIMALS, EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

Siobhan OSullivan

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND SOCIOLOGY

Kay Peggs

SOCIAL WORK AND ANIMALS

A Moral Introduction

Thomas Ryan

AN INTRODUCTION TO ANIMALS AND THE LAW

Joan Schaffner

KILLING HAPPY ANIMALS

Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics

Tatjana Viak

Forthcoming titles:

HUMAN ANIMAL RELATIONS

The Obligation to Care

Mark Bernstein

ANIMAL THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN INDIAN RELIGIONS

Anna S. King

THE POLITICS OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

Daniel Lyons

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND THE STATUS OF ANIMALS

Ryan McLaughlin

REVIVING, REWILDING, RESTORING

Markku Oksanen and Helena Siipi (editors)

ON NOT EATING MEAT

Sabrina Tonutti

The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series

Series Standing Order ISBN9780230576865Hardback

9780230576872Paperback

(outside North America only)

You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above.

Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics

Tatjana Viak

Monash University, Australia

Tatjana Viak 2013

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2013 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries

ISBN: 9781137286260

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Contents

List of Figures

Series Editors Preface

This is a new book series for a new field of inquiry: Animal Ethics.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry.

In addition, a rethink of the status of animals has been fuelled by a range of scientific investigations which have revealed the complexity of animal sentiency, cognition and awareness. The ethical implications of this new knowledge have yet to be properly evaluated, but it is becoming clear that the old view that animals are mere things, tools, machines or commodities cannot be sustained ethically.

But it is not only philosophy and science that are putting animals on the agenda. Increasingly, in Europe and the United States, animals are becoming a political issue as political parties vie for the green and animal vote. In turn, political scientists are beginning to look again at the history of political thought in relation to animals, and historians are beginning to revisit the political history of animal protection.

As animals grow as an issue of importance, so there have been more collaborative academic ventures leading to conference volumes, special journal issues, indeed new academic animal journals as well. Moreover, we have witnessed the growth of academic courses, as well as university posts, in Animal Ethics, Animal Welfare, Animal Rights, Animal Law, Animals and Philosophy, HumanAnimal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Animals and Society, Animals in Literature, Animals and Religion tangible signs that a new academic discipline is emerging.

Animal Ethics is the new term for the academic exploration of the moral status of the non-human an exploration that explicitly involves a focus on what we owe animals morally, and which also helps us to understand the influences social, legal, cultural, religious and political that legitimate animal abuse. This series explores the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of humananimal relations.

The series is needed for three reasons: (i) to provide the texts that will service the new university courses on animals; (ii) to support the increasing number of students studying and academics researching in animal-related fields; and (iii) because there is currently no book series that is a focus for multidisciplinary research in the field.