ARZone Member's Workshop

ARZone is pleased to present the third in our series of Member Workshops.

ARZone aims to host Member’s Workshops as an opportunity to involve all members in a conversation about issues and opinions raised in previous Guest Q&A sessions, in order to think critically about those questions and answers, to involve all members in open dialogue, to explore certain issues more fully, and to consider the ways we can all become more informed and better advocates for other animals.

Rather than feature a guest, ARZone workshops are conducted as open forum discussions for ARZone members, facilitated by the site admins.

The proposed topic for this week’s Workshop is “Rights vs. Welfare: What do we owe to all other animals?”

Here are a few questions and responses from recent guests which touch on these issues and may serve as starting points for your discussions:

David Pearce, when explaining what is an indirect utilitarian, concludes “You can have all the “rights” in the world, but if you’re a human or non-human animal in agony or despair, these rights are worthless. Ultimately it’s well-being that counts. That’s why I’m a utilitarian.” http://animalrightszone.blogspot.com/2011/04/indirect-utilitarian_25.html

Carol Adams considers what ‘rights’ mean to those who happen not to be privileged white males and whether ‘rights’ are up to the task of actually protecting those who have been systematically marginalized. She says: “So, as a radical feminist I am not convinced that we can just take rights, add women (or animals) and stir. The problem is more extensive and problematic than that.” http://animalrightszone.blogspot.com/2010/09/rights-v-feminist-ethic-of-care.html

Dan Cudahy makes the essential argument (from the Abolitionist Approach) against reforms of the current systems of exploitation (i.e. “protection”) saying: “Our ‘protection’ has *only* two purposes: 1) to use the animal in the most cost effective way possible, and 2) to make consumers feel better about exploitation and killing.” http://animalrightszone.blogspot.com/2010/09/saving-animals-who-are-suffering-now.html

Bruce Friedrich wonders whether the 97% of the population who see nothing wrong with our use of other animals for food, clothing, etc. even know or care about the difference between ‘rights’ and ‘welfare’. When asked about why PeTA presents the book Animal Liberation by Peter Singer as an “animal rights” book, he says: “Only a very few people – all of them either animal rights activists or animal rights philosophers (I believe) – will even understand your question, my friend. http://animalrightszone.blogspot.com/2011/02/peter-singers-book.html

Join us this weekend and share your thoughts about what “Animal Rights” means, and how the concept is - or is not - important to our understanding of human-nonhuman relations.

All members are encouraged to participate in this workshop, as well as to suggest topics for and participate in future forums in ARZone.

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) exists to help educate vegans and non-vegans alike about the obligations human beings have toward all other animals. By providing a space for a variety of blog posts, forum discussions, notes, videos and more, ARZone fosters a sense of community among its members. Through live online chats with a diversity of people who work both within and outside of the animal advocacy community, ARZone supports rational discourse and intelligent dialogue about the most pressing issues facing us today.

CHAT TIMES:
3:00pm           Sat 30th          Pacific Time
4:00pm           Sat 30h           Mountain Time
5:00pm           Sat 30th          Central Time
6:00pm           Sat 30th.         Eastern Time
11:00pm         Sat 30th          UK Time
8:00am           Sun 1st           Australian Eastern Standard Time

To find your time for this chat, please use this conversion site, or feel free to ask for help:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html