If you ever cried watching Charlotte's Web, you'll likely understand the significance of a class like Animal Ethics and the Law. The philosophy course, taught by assistant professor Cheryl Abbate, investigates the moral demands associated with human-animal interactions. It also takes into account what legal systems can do to promote a "flourishing" relationship between the animal and human communities.

In the course, students are given the opportunity to beyond in-class lectures and debates by directly interacting with live animals, usually through visiting local animal shelters or other organizations. There's also a service-learning component that in the past has included projects such as creating a website for a local animal sanctuary.

PHIL 352: Animal Ethics

This class is occasionally offered as a 300-level special topics class in the philosophy department and as a 200-level class in the Honors College.

This service-learning course explores our moral duties to the nonhuman animals with whom we share this world, explains Abbate. In particular, students explore and debate applied moral topics pertaining to animal use on farms, research facilities, zoos, sanctuaries, and so forth. They also explore what we owe to both the animals who live in our homes (“pets”), animals who live on their own within human communities (“liminal” animals), and animals who live in the wilderness (“wild” animals).

Students then apply what they learn in class in the real world by assisting local animal rescues and/or by putting forth their own unique initiative to help animals in the local community. 

Why is it being taught?

Thanks to the recent work of animal protection groups, our society is becoming increasingly aware that animals are often harmed unnecessarily by certain “animal-using” industries, Abbate says. When we take a close look at the world around us, she continues, we will find that “wild” animals are often harmed unintentionally as a side-effect of every-day human activity.

Who’s taking it?

This class is for undergraduate students of any level. "College students in particular seem to be especially concerned with the way we treat and impact the lives of other animals, perhaps because they are becoming aware of how interconnected everything is – humans, animals, and nature," Abbate says.

Who’s teaching it?

Cheryl Abbate, assistant professor in UNLV's department of philosophy. Abbate specializes in animal ethics and has published more than 30 academic pieces on animal ethics. For the past 10 years, she's been an active volunteer at animal shelters and organizing anti-speciesist educational outreach events on college campuses. 

Experiential Learning Opportunities

In addition to lectures and discussions, says Abbate, this class involves a service-learning component. In the past, students have created a website for a local farmed animal sanctuary. Currently, some students in this class are assisting the Poppy Foundation, a local cat rescue, by collecting newspapers, which are used daily in the shelter’s litter boxes.

Students in the Honors-level course are divided into small groups and are tasked to come up with a creative way to help animals in the local community.

One group project educated Mt. Charleston residents and visitors about the moral problem of feeding wild horses by creating a flyer that will be sent to all residents and distributed in the visitor center. Another group focused on the recently proposed Clark County pet store ordinance, with some students even speaking in defense of the ordinance at the last Clark County commissioner meeting. Another group is creating a proposal to encourage on-campus dining facilities to offer more plant-based food options.

And on Dec. 5, the 200-level and honors-level animal ethics courses will join together to host a “thrifting for animals event,” which will be located at the Pida Plaza on campus. All proceeds will be donated to the Poppy Foundation.

What students might be surprised to learn

That by acting collectively, students can have both impact and fun in the class. Many animal ethics courses are limited to academic lectures and discussions, Abbate says.

"Yet, there is something very troubling about only doing 'armchair philosophy' in a course about animals, given how much animals need our physical help," Abbate says. "A service-learning course like this enables students to understand not only how animals suffer in this world, but it moreover provides students with some practical tools to take action and make moral repair. And it encourages students to see that, although so many animals around us suffer devastating harms, we aren’t completely powerless. We can make a difference both individually and by acting within groups – and we can have fun while doing so."

What even lay people should know from this course

"We all have the ability to think critically about the human-animal connection and the way we treat animals; a background in academic philosophy isn’t at all necessary for this," says Abbate.

In fact, many people who have never taken a philosophy course have come to radically change the way they view and treat animals simply by reading books like Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation or by watching a film like Dominion.

"Unfortunately, most of us have been socialized to either not think about the moral implications of our treatment of animals or to simply view many of the animals around us as mere tools for our use. This not only obviously has negative consequences for animals, but it often has harmful consequences for humans, too. It’s in both the interest of animals and humans to create a world of peaceful co-existence."

Where do students go next?

Students who are interested in learning more about animal ethics should consider taking other ethics courses offered by the philosophy department, such as Ethical Theory. Any general discussion about ethics and morality has implications for our treatment of other animals. 

The reading list

Books:

• Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
• Ingrid Newkirk & Gene Stone: Animal Kind
• Marc Bekoff, The Emotional Lives of Animals
• Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

Movies:

• Speciesism
• Dominion
• Earthlings