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118-511: This article about a Japanese corporation- or company-related topic is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This hunting -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a specific civilian ship or boat is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals . The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain

236-436: A chariot , had a function similar to tournaments and manly sports. Hunting ranked as an honourable, somewhat competitive pastime to help the aristocracy practice skills of war in times of peace. In most parts of medieval Europe, the upper class obtained the sole rights to hunt in certain areas of a feudal territory. Game in these areas was used as a source of food and furs, often provided via professional huntsmen, but it

354-497: A cull ). Recreationally hunted species are generally referred to as the game , and are usually mammals and birds . A person participating in a hunt is a hunter or (less commonly) huntsman ; a natural area used for hunting is called a game reserve ; and an experienced hunter who helps organise a hunt and/or manage the game reserve is also known as a gamekeeper . Hunting activities by humans arose in Homo erectus or earlier, in

472-484: A frugivorous diet. Indirect evidence for Oldowan era hunting, by early Homo or late Australopithecus , has been presented in a 2009 study based on an Oldowan site in southwestern Kenya. Louis Binford (1986) criticised the idea that early hominids and early humans were hunters. On the basis of the analysis of the skeletal remains of the consumed animals, he concluded that hominids and early humans were mostly scavengers , not hunters, Blumenschine (1986) proposed

590-544: A noun ("the act, the practice, or an instance of hunting") and a verb ("to pursue for food or in sport"). The noun has been dated to the early 12th century, from the verb hunt . Old English had huntung, huntoþ . The meaning of "a body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds" is first recorded in the 1570s. "The act of searching for someone or something" is from about 1600. The verb, Old English huntian "to chase game" ( transitive and intransitive ), perhaps developed from hunta "hunter,"

708-469: A brain-damaged human could not make moral judgments, moral judgments cannot be used as the distinguishing characteristic for determining who is awarded rights. Cohen writes that the test for moral judgment "is not a test to be administered to humans one by one", but should be applied to the capacity of members of the species in general. Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for

826-462: A caution against disrespect of prey or against impudent boasting. With the domestication of the dog, birds of prey , and the ferret , various forms of animal-aided hunting developed, including venery ( scent-hound hunting, such as fox hunting ), coursing ( sight-hound hunting), falconry , and ferreting . While these are all associated with medieval hunting , over time, various dog breeds were selected by humans for very precise tasks during

944-638: A central role in animal advocacy since the 19th century. The anti-vivisection movement in the 19th and early 20th century in England and the United States was largely run by women, including Frances Power Cobbe , Anna Kingsford , Lizzy Lind af Hageby and Caroline Earle White (1833–1916). Garner writes that 70 per cent of the membership of the Victoria Street Society (one of the anti-vivisection groups founded by Cobbe) were women, as were 70 per cent of

1062-572: A distinctive way of hunting was popularized by the US author Ernest Hemingway and President Theodore Roosevelt . A safari may consist of a several-days—or even weeks-long journey, with camping in the bush or jungle , while pursuing big game . Nowadays, it is often used to describe hunting tours through African wildlife. Hunters are usually tourists, accompanied by licensed and highly regulated professional hunters, local guides, skinners , and porters in more difficult terrains. A special safari type

1180-502: A fantasy, a world of escape. Scruton singled out Peter Singer , a prominent Australian philosopher and animal-rights activist, for criticism. He wrote that Singer's works, including Animal Liberation , "contain little or no philosophical argument. They derive their radical moral conclusions from a vacuous utilitarianism that counts the pain and pleasure of all living things as equally significant and that ignores just about everything that has been said in our philosophical tradition about

1298-406: A gradation or spectrum with other types of sentient rights, including human rights and the rights of conscious artificial intelligences (posthuman rights). According to sociologist David Nibert of Wittenberg University , the struggle for animal liberation must happen in tandem with a more generalized struggle against human oppression and exploitation under global capitalism . He says that under

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1416-454: A hunt; the rituals done may vary according to the species hunted or the season the hunt is taking place. Often a hunting ground, or the hunt for one or more species, was reserved or prohibited in the context of a temple cult. In Roman religion, Diana is the goddess of the hunt. Hindu scriptures describe hunting as an occupation, as well as a sport of the kingly. Even figures considered divine are described to have engaged in hunting. One of

1534-811: A legitimate sacrifice of interests can vary considerably. Certain forms of animal-rights activism, such as the destruction of fur farms and of animal laboratories by the Animal Liberation Front , have attracted criticism, including from within the animal-rights movement itself, and prompted the U.S. Congress to enact laws, including the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act , allowing the prosecution of this sort of activity as terrorism . The concept of moral rights for animals dates to Ancient India , with roots in early Jain and Hindu history, while Eastern, African, and Indigenous peoples also have rich traditions of animal protection. In

1652-471: A master of the hunt, who might be styled mir-shikar . Often, they recruited the normally low-ranking local tribes because of their traditional knowledge of the environment and hunting techniques. Big game, such as Bengal tigers , might be hunted from the back of an Indian elephant . Regional social norms are generally antagonistic to hunting, while a few sects , such as the Bishnoi , lay special emphasis on

1770-519: A means of population control . Hunting advocates state that regulated hunting can be a necessary component of modern wildlife management , for example to help maintain a healthy proportion of animal populations within an environment's ecological carrying capacity when natural checks such as natural predators are absent or insufficient, or to provide funding for breeding programs and maintenance of natural reserves and conservation parks . However, excessive hunting has also heavily contributed to

1888-510: A means to an end, a view that places him firmly in the abolitionist camp. His theory does not extend to all animals, but only to those that can be regarded as subjects-of-a-life. He argues that all normal mammals of at least one year of age would qualify: ... individuals are subjects-of-a-life if they have beliefs and desires; perception, memory, and a sense of the future, including their own future; an emotional life together with feelings of pleasure and pain; preference- and welfare-interests;

2006-483: A mistake to portray animal rights activists as homogeneous." Even though around 90% of US adults regularly consume meat, almost half of them appear to support a ban on slaughterhouses: in Sentience Institute 's 2017 survey of 1,094 U.S. adults' attitudes toward animal farming, 49% "support a ban on factory farming, 47% support a ban on slaughterhouses, and 33% support a ban on animal farming". The 2017 survey

2124-440: A more egalitarian democratic socialist system, one that would "allow a more just and peaceful order to emerge" and be "characterized by economic democracy and a democratically controlled state and mass media", there would be "much greater potential to inform the public about vital global issues—and the potential for "campaigns to improve the lives of other animals" to be "more abolitionist in nature." Philosopher Steven Best of

2242-421: A particular situation". The idea that nonhuman animals are worthy of prima facie rights is to say that, in a sense, animals have rights that can be overridden by many other considerations, especially those conflicting a human's right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Garry supports his view arguing: ... if a nonhuman animal were to kill a human being in the U.S., it would have broken

2360-532: A patriarchal society: both are "the used"; the dominated, submissive " Other ". When the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Thomas Taylor (1758–1835), a Cambridge philosopher, responded with an anonymous parody, A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes (1792), saying that Wollstonecraft's arguments for women's rights could be applied equally to animals,

2478-429: A philosophical context, a prima facie (Latin for "on the face of it" or "at first glance") right is one that appears to be applicable at first glance, but upon closer examination may be outweighed by other considerations. In his book Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory , Lawrence Hinman characterizes such rights as "the right is real but leaves open the question of whether it is applicable and overriding in

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2596-479: A position he intended as reductio ad absurdum . In her works The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (1990) and The Pornography of Meat (2004), Carol J. Adams focuses in particular on what she argues are the links between the oppression of women and that of non-human animals. Some transhumanists argue for animal rights, liberation, and "uplift" of animal consciousness into machines. Transhumanism also understands animal rights on

2714-494: A positive view of universal healthcare, favor reducing discrimination against African Americans, the LGBT community and undocumented immigrants, and expanding welfare to aid the poor. Two surveys found that attitudes towards animal rights tactics, such as direct action , are very diverse within the animal rights communities. Near half (50% and 39% in two surveys) of activists do not support direct action. One survey concluded "it would be

2832-411: A right to life, some control over their environment, company, play, and physical health. Stephen R. L. Clark , Mary Midgley , and Bernard Rollin also discuss animal rights in terms of animals being permitted to lead a life appropriate for their kind. Egalitarianism favors an equal distribution of happiness among all individuals, which makes the interests of the worse off more important than those of

2950-535: A subsistence activity to a selective one, two trends emerged: The meaning of the word game in Middle English evolved to include an animal which is hunted. As the domestication of animals for meat grew, subsistence hunting remained among the lowest classes; however, the stylised pursuit of game in European societies became a luxury. Dangerous hunting, such as for lions or wild boars , often done on horseback or from

3068-512: A view summarised by the philosopher Roger Scruton , who writes that only humans have duties, and therefore only humans have rights. Another argument, associated with the utilitarian tradition, maintains that animals may be used as resources so long as there is no unnecessary suffering; animals may have some moral standing, but any interests they have may be overridden in cases of comparatively greater gains to aggregate welfare made possible by their use, though what counts as "necessary" suffering or

3186-429: A worse outcome. There are a number of positions that can be defended from a consequentalist or deontologist perspective, including the capabilities approach , represented by Martha Nussbaum , and the egalitarian approach , which has been examined by Ingmar Persson and Peter Vallentyne . The capabilities approach focuses on what individuals require to fulfill their capabilities: Nussbaum (2006) argues that animals need

3304-497: Is a moral intuition of many, probably most, Americans. We realize that animals feel pain, and we think that to inflict pain without a reason is bad. Nothing of practical value is added by dressing up this intuition in the language of philosophy; much is lost when the intuition is made a stage in a logical argument. When kindness toward animals is levered into a duty of weighting the pains of animals and of people equally, bizarre vistas of social engineering are opened up. Roger Scruton ,

3422-428: Is carried out on foot without hounds, using stealth. Animal-rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth independent of their utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering —should be afforded the same consideration as similar interests of human beings. Broadly speaking, and particularly in popular discourse,

3540-492: Is exemplified by Peter Singer , and the latter by Tom Regan and Gary Francione . Their differences reflect a distinction philosophers draw between ethical theories that judge the rightness of an act by its consequences (consequentialism/teleological ethics, or utilitarianism), and those that focus on the principle behind the act, almost regardless of consequences (deontological ethics). Deontologists argue that there are acts we should never perform, even if failing to do so entails

3658-428: Is illicit, and canonists generally make a distinction declaring noisy ( clamorosa ) hunting unlawful, but not quiet ( quieta ) hunting. Ferraris gives it as the general sense of canonists that hunting is allowed to clerics if it be indulged in rarely and for sufficient cause, as necessity, utility or "honest" recreation, and with that moderation which is becoming to the ecclesiastical state. Ziegler, however, thinks that

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3776-402: Is more conformable to the ecclesiastical law . In practice, therefore, the synodal statutes of various localities must be consulted to discover whether they allow quiet hunting or prohibit it altogether. Small-scale hunting as a family or subsistence farming activity is recognised by Pope Francis in his encyclical letter, Laudato si' , as a legitimate and valuable aspect of employment within

3894-407: Is permitted. The Sikh gurus , especially Guru Hargobind and Guru Gobind Singh were ardent hunters. Many old Sikh Rehatnamas like Prem Sumarag , recommend hunting wild boar and deer . However, among modern Sikhs, the practice of hunting has died down; some even saying that all meat is forbidden. From early Christian times, hunting has been forbidden to Roman Catholic Church clerics . Thus

4012-408: Is related to hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic huntojan (the source also of Gothic hinþan "to seize, capture," Old High German hunda "booty"), which is of uncertain origin. The general sense of "search diligently" (for anything) is first recorded c. 1200. Hunting has a long history. It predates the emergence of Homo sapiens ( anatomically modern humans ) and may even predate

4130-464: Is represented by deities such as the horned god Cernunnos and lunar goddesses of classical antiquity , the Greek Artemis or Roman Diana . Taboos are often related to hunting, and mythological association of prey species with a divinity could be reflected in hunting restrictions such as a reserve surrounding a temple. Euripides ' tale of Artemis and Actaeon , for example, may be seen as

4248-418: Is right. "The holders of rights must have the capacity to comprehend rules of duty governing all, including themselves. In applying such rules, [they] ... must recognize possible conflicts between what is in their own interest and what is just. Only in a community of beings capable of self-restricting moral judgments can the concept of a right be correctly invoked." Cohen rejects Singer's argument that, since

4366-544: Is still called so. The practices of netting or trapping insects and other arthropods for trophy collection , or the foraging or gathering of plants and mushrooms , are also not regarded as hunting. Skillful tracking and acquisition of an elusive target has caused the word hunt to be used in the vernacular as a metaphor for searching and obtaining something, as in " treasure hunting ", " bargain hunting", " hunting for votes " and even " hunting down " corruption and waste . The word hunt serves as both

4484-446: Is the chasing of hares with hounds . Pairs of sighthounds (or long-dogs), such as greyhounds , may be used to pursue a hare in coursing, where the greyhounds are marked as to their skill in coursing the hare (but are not intended to actually catch it), or the hare may be pursued with scent hounds such as beagles or harriers. Other sorts of foxhounds may also be used for hunting stags (deer) or mink . Deer stalking with rifles

4602-511: Is the solo-safari, where all the license acquiring, stalking, preparation, and outfitting is done by the hunter himself. During the feudal and colonial times in British India , hunting or shikar was regarded as a regal sport in the numerous princely states , as many maharajas and nawabs , as well as British officers, maintained a whole corps of shikari s ( big-game hunters ), who were native professional hunters. They would be headed by

4720-696: The Corpus Juris Canonici (C. ii, X, De cleric. venat.) says, "We forbid to all servants of God hunting and expeditions through the woods with hounds; and we also forbid them to keep hawks or falcons." The Fourth Council of the Lateran , held under Pope Innocent III , decreed (canon xv): "We interdict hunting or hawking to all clerics." The decree of the Council of Trent is worded more mildly: "Let clerics abstain from illicit hunting and hawking" (Sess. XXIV, De reform., c. xii), which seems to imply that not all hunting

4838-542: The Arctic trap and hunt animals for clothing and use the skins of sea mammals to make kayaks , clothing, and footwear. On ancient reliefs , especially from Mesopotamia , kings are often depicted by sculptors as hunters of big game such as lions and are often portrayed hunting from a war chariot - early examples of royalty symbolically and militaristically engaging in hunting as "the sport of kings". The cultural and psychological importance of hunting in ancient societies

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4956-808: The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection by Cobbe in London in 1898; the Animal Welfare Board of India by Rukmini Devi Arundale in 1962; and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , co-founded by Ingrid Newkirk in 1980. In the Netherlands, Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand were elected to parliament in 2006 representing the Parliamentary group for Animals. The preponderance of women in

5074-623: The First World War . Unarmed fox hunting on horseback with hounds is the type of hunting most closely associated with the United Kingdom; in fact, "hunting" without qualification implies fox hunting. What in other countries is called "hunting" is called "shooting" (birds) or "stalking" (deer) in Britain. Fox hunting is a social activity for the upper classes, with roles strictly defined by wealth and status. Similar to fox hunting in many ways

5192-824: The Labrador Retriever , the Golden Retriever , the Chesapeake Bay Retriever , the Brittany Spaniel , and other similar breeds. Game birds are flushed out using flushing spaniels such as the English Springer Spaniel , the various Cocker Spaniels and similar breeds. The hunting of wild mammals in England and Wales with dogs was banned under the Hunting Act 2004 . The wild mammals include fox, hare, deer and mink. There are, however, exceptions in

5310-587: The Sharia . This recognition is based on both the Qur'an and the Hadith . The Qur'an contains many references to animals, detailing that they have souls, form communities, communicate with God, and worship Him in their own way. Muhammad forbade his followers to harm any animal and asked them to respect animals' rights. Nevertheless, Islam does allow eating of certain species of animals. According to Christianity , all animals, from

5428-624: The University of Southern California , has suggested that the discovery of spear use by chimpanzees probably means that early humans used wooden spears as well, perhaps, five million years ago. The earliest dated find of surviving wooden hunting spears dates to the very end of the Lower Paleolithic , about 300,000 years ago. The Schöningen spears , found in 1976 in Germany , are associated with Homo heidelbergensis . The hunting hypothesis sees

5546-440: The University of Texas at El Paso states that the animal liberation movement, as characterized by the Animal Liberation Front and its various offshoots, "is a significant threat to global capital." ... Animal liberation challenges large sectors of the capitalist economy by assailing corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies and their suppliers. Far from being irrelevant to social movements, animal rights can form

5664-538: The control of fire , is emphasised in the so-called " hunting hypothesis " and de-emphasised in scenarios that stress omnivory and social interaction . There is no direct evidence for hunting predating Homo erectus , in either Homo habilis or in Australopithecus . The early hominid ancestors of humans were probably frugivores or omnivores , with a partially carnivorous diet from scavenging rather than hunting. Evidence for australopithecine meat consumption

5782-539: The domestication of livestock and the dawn of agriculture , beginning about 11,000 years ago in some parts of the world. In addition to the spear , hunting weapons developed during the Upper Paleolithic include the atlatl (a spear-thrower; before 30,000 years ago) and the bow (18,000 years ago). By the Mesolithic , hunting strategies had diversified with the development of these more far-reaching weapons and

5900-553: The domestication of the dog about 15,000 years ago. Evidence puts the earliest known mammoth hunting in Asia with spears to approximately 16,200 years ago. Many species of animals have been hunted throughout history. One theory is that in North America and Eurasia , caribou and wild reindeer "may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting" (see also Reindeer Age ), although

6018-551: The endangerment , extirpation and extinction of many animals. Some animal rights and anti-hunting activists regard hunting as a cruel , perverse and unnecessary blood sport . Certain hunting practices, such as canned hunts and ludicrously paid / bribed trophy tours (especially to poor countries), are considered unethical and exploitative even by some hunters. Marine mammals such as whales and pinnipeds are also targets of hunting, both recreationally and commercially, often with heated controversies regarding

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6136-485: The genus Homo . The oldest undisputed evidence for hunting dates to the Early Pleistocene , consistent with the emergence and early dispersal of Homo erectus about 1.7 million years ago ( Acheulean ). While it is undisputed that Homo erectus were hunters, the importance of this for the emergence of Homo erectus from its australopithecine ancestors, including the production of stone tools and eventually

6254-453: The Act. Nevertheless, there have been numerous attempts on behalf of activists, pressure groups, etc. to revoke the act over the last two decades. Many prehistoric deities are depicted as predators or prey of humans, often in a zoomorphic form, perhaps alluding to the importance of hunting for most Palaeolithic cultures. In many pagan religions, specific rituals are conducted before or after

6372-411: The British philosopher, argued that rights imply obligations. Every legal privilege, he wrote, imposes a burden on the one who does not possess that privilege: that is, "your right may be my duty." Scruton therefore regarded the emergence of the animal rights movement as "the strangest cultural shift within the liberal worldview", because the idea of rights and responsibilities is, he argued, distinctive to

6490-524: The Cartesian view of animals. Darwin noted the mental and emotional continuity between humans and animals, suggesting the possibility of animal suffering. The anti-vivisection movement emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, driven significantly by women. From the 1970s onward, growing scholarly and activist interest in animal treatment has aimed to raise awareness and reform laws to improve animal rights and human–animal relationships. For some

6608-629: The Law (1995) was the first extensive jurisprudential treatment of animal rights. In it, Francione compares the situation of animals to the treatment of slaves in the United States , where legislation existed that appeared to protect them while the courts ignored that the institution of slavery itself rendered the protection unenforceable. He offers as an example the United States Animal Welfare Act , which he describes as an example of symbolic legislation, intended to assuage public concern about

6726-560: The Seventh Circuit debated the issue of animal rights in 2001 with Peter Singer. Posner posits that his moral intuition tells him "that human beings prefer their own. If a dog threatens a human infant, even if it requires causing more pain to the dog to stop it, than the dog would have caused to the infant, then we favour the child. It would be monstrous to spare the dog." Singer challenges this by arguing that formerly unequal rights for gays, women, and certain races were justified using

6844-413: The US before 1989 were taught to ignore pain, he writes, and at least one major veterinary hospital in the 1960s did not stock narcotic analgesics for animal pain control. In his interactions with scientists, he was often asked to "prove" that animals are conscious, and to provide "scientifically acceptable" evidence that they could feel pain. Scientific publications have made it clear since the 1980s that

6962-539: The Western world, Aristotle viewed animals as lacking reason and existing for human use, though other ancient philosophers believed animals deserved gentle treatment. Major religious traditions, chiefly Indian or Dharmic religions , opposed animal cruelty. While scholars like Descartes saw animals as unconscious automata and Kant denied direct duties to animals, Jeremy Bentham emphasized their capacity to suffer. The publications of Charles Darwin eventually eroded

7080-628: The ability to initiate action in pursuit of their desires and goals; a psychophysical identity over time; and an individual welfare in the sense that their experiential life fares well or ill for them, logically independently of their utility for others and logically independently of their being the object of anyone else's interests. Whereas Singer is primarily concerned with improving the treatment of animals and accepts that, in some hypothetical scenarios, individual animals might be used legitimately to further human or nonhuman ends, Regan believes we ought to treat nonhuman animals as we would humans. He applies

7198-544: The ability to suffer, nothing more, and once it is established that a being has interests, those interests must be given equal consideration. Singer quotes the English philosopher Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900): "The good of any one individual is of no more importance, from the point of view ... of the Universe, than the good of any other." Singer argues that equality of consideration is a prescription, not an assertion of fact: if

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7316-618: The animal rights movement; indeed, the terms "animal protection" and "protectionism" are increasingly favored. His position in 1996 was that there is no animal rights movement in the United States. Mark Rowlands , professor of philosophy at the University of Florida, has proposed a contractarian approach, based on the original position and the veil of ignorance —a "state of nature" thought experiment that tests intuitions about justice and fairness—in John Rawls 's A Theory of Justice (1971). In

7434-573: The animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur / hide , bone / tusks , horn / antler , etc.), for recreation / taxidermy (see trophy hunting ), although it may also be done for resourceful reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals (e.g. wolf hunting ), to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops / livestock / poultry or spread diseases (see varminting ), for trade/tourism (see safari ), or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species (commonly called

7552-525: The assignment of moral value and fundamental protections on the basis of species membership alone. They consider this idea, known as speciesism , a prejudice as irrational as any other. They maintain that animals should not be viewed as property or used as food, clothing, entertainment, or beasts of burden merely because they are not human. Multiple cultural traditions around the world such as Jainism , Taoism , Hinduism , Buddhism , Shinto and Animism also espouse forms of animal rights. In parallel to

7670-531: The attitude of individuals regarding the treatment of animals and animal rights. These include gender, age, occupation, religion, and level of education. There has also been evidence to suggest that prior experience with pets may be a factor in people's attitudes. According to some studies, women are more likely to empathize with the cause of animal rights than men. A 1996 study suggested that factors that may partially explain this discrepancy include attitudes towards feminism and science, scientific literacy, and

7788-530: The basis for a broad coalition of progressive social groups and drive changes that strike at the heart of capitalist exploitation of animals, people and the earth. R. G. Frey , professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, is a preference utilitarian. In his early work, Interests and Rights (1980), Frey disagreed with Singer—who wrote in Animal Liberation (1975) that the interests of nonhuman animals must be given equal consideration when judging

7906-483: The basis of animal rights is in religion or animal worship (or in general nature worship ), with some religions banning killing any animal. In other religions animals are considered unclean . Hindu and Buddhist societies abandoned animal sacrifice and embraced vegetarianism from the 3rd century BCE. One of the most important sanctions of the Jain , Hindu, and Buddhist faiths is the concept of ahimsa , or refraining from

8024-452: The better off. Another approach, virtue ethics , holds that in considering how to act we should consider the character of the actor, and what kind of moral agents we should be. Rosalind Hursthouse has suggested an approach to animal rights based on virtue ethics. Mark Rowlands has proposed a contractarian approach. Nussbaum (2004) writes that utilitarianism, starting with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill , has contributed more to

8142-399: The consequences of an act—on the grounds that animals have no interests. Frey argues that interests are dependent on desire, and that no desire can exist without a corresponding belief. Animals have no beliefs, because a belief state requires the ability to hold a second-order belief—a belief about the belief—which he argues requires language: "If someone were to say, e.g. 'The cat believes that

8260-548: The conservation of particular species, such as the antelope . India's Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 bans the killing of all wild animals. However, the Chief Wildlife Warden may, if satisfied that any wild animal from a specified list has become dangerous to human life or is so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery, permit any person to hunt such an animal. In this case, the body of any wild animal killed or wounded becomes government property. The practice among

8378-759: The debate about moral rights, law schools in North America now often teach animal law , and several legal scholars, such as Steven M. Wise and Gary L. Francione , support the extension of basic legal rights and personhood to non-human animals. The animals most often considered in arguments for personhood are hominids . Some animal-rights academics support this because it would break the species barrier, but others oppose it because it predicates moral value on mental complexity rather than on sentience alone. As of November 2019 , 29 countries had enacted bans on hominoid experimentation ; Argentina has granted captive orangutans basic human rights since 2014. Outside of primates , animal-rights discussions most often address

8496-516: The destruction of life. According to Buddhism, humans do not deserve preferential treatment over other living beings. The Dharmic interpretation of this doctrine prohibits the killing of any living being. These Indian religions' dharmic beliefs are reflected in the ancient Indian works of the Tolkāppiyam and Tirukkural , which contain passages that extend the idea of nonviolence to all living beings. In Islam, animal rights were recognized early by

8614-422: The development of agriculture, hunting usually remained a significant contributor to the human food-supply. The supplementary meat and materials from hunting included protein , bone for implements, sinew for cordage , fur , feathers , rawhide and leather used in clothing. Hunting is still vital in marginal climates, especially those unsuited for pastoral uses or for agriculture. For example, Inuit in

8732-469: The door is locked,' then that person is holding, as I see it, that the cat holds the declarative sentence 'The door is locked' to be true; and I can see no reason whatever for crediting the cat or any other creature which lacks language, including human infants, with entertaining declarative sentences." Carl Cohen , professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, argues that rights holders must be able to distinguish between their own interests and what

8850-474: The emergence of behavioral modernity in the Middle Paleolithic as directly related to hunting, including mating behaviour , the establishment of language , culture, and religion , mythology and animal sacrifice . Sociologist David Nibert of Wittenberg University argues that the emergence of the organized hunting of animals undermined the communal, egalitarian nature of early human societies, with

8968-410: The equality of the sexes were based only on the idea that men and women were equally intelligent, we would have to abandon the practice of equal consideration if this were later found to be false. But the moral idea of equality does not depend on matters of fact such as intelligence, physical strength, or moral capacity. Equality therefore cannot be grounded on the outcome of scientific investigations into

9086-449: The extent to which it satisfies the preferences (interests) of those affected. His position is that there is no reason not to give equal consideration to the interests of human and nonhumans, though his principle of equality does not require identical treatment. A mouse and a man both have an interest in not being kicked, and there are no moral or logical grounds for failing to accord those interests equal weight. Interests are predicated on

9204-514: The food production system. Hunting is not forbidden in Jewish law , although there is an aversion to it. The great 18th-century authority Rabbi Yechezkel Landau after a study concluded although "hunting would not be considered cruelty to animals insofar as the animal is generally killed quickly and not tortured... There is an unseemly element in it, namely cruelty." The other issue is that hunting can be dangerous and Judaism places an extreme emphasis on

9322-546: The forest, Ravana kidnapped his wife, Sita , from their hut, while Rama was asked by Sita to capture a golden deer, and his brother Lakshman went after him. According to the Mahabharat , Pandu , the father of the Pandavas , accidentally killed the sage Kindama and his wife with an arrow, mistaking them for a deer. Jainism teaches followers to have tremendous respect for all of life. Prohibitions for hunting and meat eating are

9440-455: The fundamental conditions for being a Jain . Buddhism 's first precept is the respect for all sentient life. The general approach by all Buddhists is to avoid killing any living animals. Buddha explained the issue by saying "all fear death; comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill." In Sikhism , only meat obtained from hunting, or slaughtered with the Jhatka

9558-558: The human condition, and it makes no sense to spread them beyond our own species. He accused animal rights advocates of "pre-scientific" anthropomorphism , attributing traits to animals that are, he says, Beatrix Potter -like, where "only man is vile." It is within this fiction that the appeal of animal rights lies, he argued. The world of animals is non-judgmental, filled with dogs who return our affection almost no matter what we do to them, and cats who pretend to be affectionate when, in fact, they care only about themselves. It is, he argued,

9676-562: The hunt, reflected in such names as "pointer" and " setter ". Even as agriculture and animal husbandry became more prevalent, hunting often remained as a part of human culture where the environment and social conditions allowed. Hunter-gatherer societies persisted, even when increasingly confined to marginal areas. And within agricultural systems, hunting served to kill animals that prey upon domestic and wild animals or to attempt to extirpate animals seen by humans as competition for resources such as water or forage. When hunting moved from

9794-485: The idea of confrontational scavenging , which involves challenging and scaring off other predators after they have made a kill, which he suggests could have been the leading method of obtaining protein -rich meat by early humans. Stone spearheads dated as early as 500,000 years ago were found in South Africa. Wood does not preserve well, however, and Craig Stanford, a primatologist and professor of anthropology at

9912-406: The intelligence of nonhumans. All that matters is whether they can suffer. Commentators on all sides of the debate now accept that animals suffer and feel pain, although it was not always so. Bernard Rollin , professor of philosophy, animal sciences, and biomedical sciences at Colorado State University, writes that Descartes's influence continued to be felt until the 1980s. Veterinarians trained in

10030-499: The interpretation of the canonists is not in accordance with the letter or spirit of the laws of the church. Nevertheless, although a distinction between lawful and unlawful hunting is undoubtedly permissible, it is certain that a bishop can absolutely prohibit all hunting to the clerics of his diocese, as was done by synods at Milan , Avignon , Liège , Cologne , and elsewhere. Benedict XIV declared that such synodal decrees are not too severe, as an absolute prohibition of hunting

10148-591: The laws of the land and would probably get rougher sanctions than if it were a human. My point is that like laws govern all who interact within a society, rights are to be applied to all beings who interact within that society. This is not to say these rights endowed by humans are equivalent to those held by nonhuman animals, but rather that if humans possess rights then so must all those who interact with humans. In sum, Garry suggests that humans have obligations to nonhuman animals; animals do not, and ought not to, have uninfringible rights against humans. Women have played

10266-473: The majority of researchers do believe animals suffer and feel pain, though it continues to be argued that their suffering may be reduced by an inability to experience the same dread of anticipation as humans or to remember the suffering as vividly. The ability of animals to suffer, even it may vary in severity, is the basis for Singer's application of equal consideration. The problem of animal suffering, and animal consciousness in general, arose primarily because it

10384-701: The membership of the British RSPCA in 1900. The modern animal advocacy movement has a similar representation of women. They are not invariably in leadership positions: during the March for Animals in Washington, D.C., in 1990—the largest animal rights demonstration held until then in the United States—most of the participants were women, but most of the platform speakers were men. Nevertheless, several influential animal advocacy groups have been founded by women, including

10502-434: The mistreatment of animals, and in many countries there are laws that seem to reflect those concerns, "in practice the legal system allows any use of animals, however abhorrent." The law only requires that any suffering not be "unnecessary". In deciding what counts as "unnecessary", an animal's interests are weighed against the interests of human beings, and the latter almost always prevail. Francione's Animals, Property, and

10620-690: The moral rights of humans are based on their possession of certain cognitive abilities, and because these abilities are also possessed by at least some nonhuman animals, such animals must have the same moral rights as humans. Although only humans act as moral agents, both marginal-case humans, such as infants, and at least some nonhumans must have the status of "moral patients". Moral patients are unable to formulate moral principles, and as such are unable to do right or wrong, even though what they do may be beneficial or harmful. Only moral agents are able to engage in moral action. Animals for Regan have " intrinsic value " as subjects-of-a-life, and cannot be regarded as

10738-501: The morality, ethics and legality of such practices. The pursuit, harvesting or catch and release of fish and aquatic cephalopods and crustaceans is called fishing , which however is widely accepted and not commonly categorised as a form of hunting. It is also not considered hunting to pursue animals without intent to kill them, as in wildlife photography , birdwatching , or scientific-research activities which involve tranquilizing or tagging of animals, although green hunting

10856-408: The movement has led to a body of academic literature exploring feminism and animal rights, such as feminism and vegetarianism or veganism , the oppression of women and animals, and the male association of women and animals with nature and emotion, rather than reason—an association that several feminist writers have embraced. Lori Gruen writes that women and animals serve the same symbolic function in

10974-524: The multiple, or possibly main, environmental factors leading to the Holocene extinction of megafauna and their replacement by smaller herbivores . In some locations, such as Australia, humans are thought to have played a very significant role in the extinction of the Australian megafauna that was widespread prior to human occupation. Hunting was a crucial component of hunter-gatherer societies before

11092-523: The names of the god Shiva is Mrigavyadha (deer-slayer). The word Mriga , in many Indian languages including Malayalam, not only stands for deer, but for all animals and animal instincts (Mriga Thrishna). Shiva, as Mrigavyadha, is the one who destroys the animal instincts in human beings. In the epic Ramayana , Dasharatha , the father of Rama , is said to have the ability to hunt in the dark. During one of his hunting expeditions, he accidentally killed Shravana , mistaking him for game. During Rama's exile in

11210-500: The order of millions of years ago. Hunting has become deeply embedded in various human cultures and was once an important part of rural economies—classified by economists as part of primary production alongside forestry , agriculture , and fishery . Modern regulations (see game law ) distinguish lawful hunting activities from illegal poaching , which involves the unauthorised and unregulated killing , trapping , or capture of animals. Apart from food provision, hunting can be

11328-415: The original position, individuals choose principles of justice (what kind of society to form, and how primary social goods will be distributed), unaware of their individual characteristics—their race, sex, class, or intelligence, whether they are able-bodied or disabled, rich or poor—and therefore unaware of which role they will assume in the society they are about to form. The idea is that, operating behind

11446-453: The presence of a greater emphasis on "nurturance or compassion" among women. A common misconception on the concept of animal rights is that its proponents want to grant non-human animals the exact same legal rights as humans, such as the right to vote . This is not the case, as the concept is that animals should have rights with equal consideration to their interests (for example, cats do not have any interest in voting, so they should not have

11564-415: The real distinction between persons and animals." Tom Regan countered this view of rights by distinguishing moral agents and moral patients. According to a paper published in 2000 by Harold Herzog and Lorna Dorr, previous academic surveys of attitudes towards animal rights have tended to suffer from small sample sizes and non-representative groups. However, a number of factors appear to correlate with

11682-633: The recent past include some indigenous peoples of the Amazonas ( Aché ), some Central and Southern African ( San people ), some peoples of New Guinea ( Fayu ), the Mlabri of Thailand and Laos , the Vedda people of Sri Lanka , and a handful of uncontacted peoples . In Africa, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes are the Hadza of Tanzania. Even as animal domestication became relatively widespread and after

11800-407: The recognition of the moral status of animals than any other ethical theory. The utilitarian philosopher most associated with animal rights is Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University . Singer is not a rights theorist, but uses the language of rights to discuss how we ought to treat individuals. He is a preference utilitarian , meaning that he judges the rightness of an act by

11918-522: The respondents who were strong Christian fundamentalists and believers in creationism were less likely to advocate for animal rights than those who were less fundamentalist in their beliefs. The findings extended previous research, such as a 1992 study which found that 48% of animal rights activists were atheists or agnostic . A 2019 study in The Washington Post found that those who have positive attitudes toward animal rights also tend to have

12036-406: The right to vote). A 2016 study found that support for animal testing may not be based on cogent philosophical rationales, and more open debate is warranted. A 2007 survey to examine whether or not people who believed in evolution were more likely to support animal rights than creationists and believers in intelligent design found that this was largely the case—according to the researchers,

12154-635: The same set of intuitions. Posner replies that equality in civil rights did not occur because of ethical arguments, but because facts mounted that there were no morally significant differences between humans based on race, sex, or sexual orientation that would support inequality. If and when similar facts emerge about humans and animals, the differences in rights will erode too. But facts will drive equality, not ethical arguments that run contrary to instinct, he argues. Posner calls his approach "soft utilitarianism", in contrast to Singer's "hard utilitarianism". He argues: The "soft" utilitarian position on animal rights

12272-421: The set of seven mechanical arts . Although various other animals have been used to aid the hunter, such as ferrets , the dog has assumed many very important uses to the hunter. The domestication of the dog has led to a symbiotic relationship in which the dog's independence from humans is deferred. Though dogs can survive independently of humans, and in many cases do ferally, when raised or adopted by humans

12390-537: The smallest to the largest, are cared for and loved. According to the Bible, "All these animals waited for the Lord, that the Lord might give them food at the hour. The Lord gives them, they receive; The Lord opens his hand, and they are filled with good things." It further says God "gave food to the animals, and made the crows cry." The two main philosophical approaches to animal ethics are utilitarian and rights-based. The former

12508-502: The soldiers in British India during the 1770s of going out to hunt snipes , a shorebird considered extremely challenging for hunters due to its alertness, camouflaging colour and erratic flight behavior, is believed to be the origin of the modern word for sniper , as snipe-hunters needed to be stealthy in addition to having tracking skills and marksmanship . The term was used in the nineteenth century, and had become common usage by

12626-417: The species tends to defer to its control in exchange for habitation, food and support. Dogs today are used to find, chase, retrieve, and sometimes kill game. Dogs allow humans to pursue and kill prey that would otherwise be very difficult or dangerous to hunt. Different breeds of specifically bred hunting dog are used for different types of hunting. Waterfowl are commonly hunted using retrieving dogs such as

12744-410: The status of mammals (compare charismatic megafauna ). Other animals (considered less sentient) have gained less attention— insects relatively little (outside Jainism ) and animal-like bacteria hardly any. The vast majority of animals have no legally recognised rights. Critics of animal rights argue that nonhuman animals are unable to enter into a social contract , and thus cannot have rights,

12862-550: The status of women and less powerful males declining as the status of men quickly became associated with their success at hunting, which also increased human violence within these societies. However, 9000-year-old remains of a female hunter along with a toolkit of projectile points and animal processing implements were discovered at the Andean site of Wilamaya Patjxa, Puno District in Peru . Evidence exists that hunting may have been one of

12980-520: The strict Kantian ideal (which Kant himself applied only to humans) that they ought never to be sacrificed as a means to an end, and must be treated as ends in themselves. Gary Francione, professor of law and philosophy at Rutgers Law School in Newark, is a leading abolitionist writer, arguing that animals need only one right, the right not to be owned. Everything else would follow from that paradigm shift . He writes that, although most people would condemn

13098-399: The term "animal rights" is often used synonymously with "animal protection" or "animal liberation". More narrowly, "animal rights" refers to the idea that many animals have fundamental rights to be treated with respect as individuals— rights to life , liberty , and freedom from torture that may not be overridden by considerations of aggregate welfare. Many advocates of animal rights oppose

13216-492: The treatment of animals, but difficult to implement. He argues that a focus on animal welfare, rather than animal rights, may worsen the position of animals by making the public feel comfortable about using them and entrenching the view of them as property. He calls animal rights groups who pursue animal welfare issues, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , the " new welfarists ", arguing that they have more in common with 19th-century animal protectionists than with

13334-526: The value of human life. Islamic Sharia Law permits hunting of lawful animals and birds if they cannot be easily caught and slaughtered. However, this is only for the purpose of food and not for trophy hunting. A safari, from a Swahili word meaning "journey, expedition," especially in Africa, is defined as a journey to see or kill animals in their natural environment, most commonly in East Africa. Safari as

13452-516: The varying importance of different species depended on the geographic location. Mesolithic hunter-gathering lifestyles remained prevalent in some parts of the Americas , Sub-Saharan Africa , and Siberia , as well as all of Australia, until the European Age of Discovery . They still persist in some tribal societies , albeit in rapid decline. Peoples that preserved Paleolithic hunting-gathering until

13570-578: The veil of ignorance, they will choose a social contract in which there is basic fairness and justice for them no matter the position they occupy. Rawls did not include species membership as one of the attributes hidden from the decision-makers in the original position. Rowlands proposes extending the veil of ignorance to include rationality, which he argues is an undeserved property similar to characteristics including race, sex and intelligence. American philosopher Timothy Garry has proposed an approach that deems nonhuman animals worthy of prima facie rights. In

13688-582: Was also expected to provide a form of recreation for the aristocracy. The importance of this proprietary view of game can be seen in the Robin Hood legends, in which one of the primary charges against the outlaws is that they "hunt the King's deer". In contrast, settlers in Anglophone colonies gloried democratically in hunting for all. In medieval Europe, hunting was considered by Johannes Scotus Eriugena to be part of

13806-694: Was argued that animals have no language . Singer writes that, if language were needed to communicate pain, it would often be impossible to know when humans are in pain, though we can observe pain behavior and make a calculated guess based on it. He argues that there is no reason to suppose that the pain behavior of nonhumans would have a different meaning from the pain behavior of humans. Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, argues in The Case for Animal Rights (1983) that nonhuman animals are what he calls "subjects-of-a-life", and as such are bearers of rights. He writes that, because

13924-807: Was presented in the 1990s. It has nevertheless often been assumed that at least occasional hunting behaviour may have been present well before the emergence of Homo .This can be argued on the basis of comparison with chimpanzees , the closest extant relatives of humans, who also engage in hunting, indicating that the behavioural trait may have been present in the Chimpanzee–human last common ancestor as early as 5 million years ago. The common chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) regularly engages in troop predation behaviour, where bands of beta males are led by an alpha male . Bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) have also been observed to occasionally engage in group hunting, although more rarely than Pan troglodytes , mainly subsisting on

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