Gary Comstock: Feeling Matters: The Role of Animals in Sustainable Communities

[Original Abstract from Lecture]

In discussions of building sustainable communities, we often discuss our obligations to future generations of humans. But what obligations, if any, do we have to non-human animals now and in those future theoretical communities? The answer requires us first to understand several key distinctions, starting with the difference between sentient (feeling) and non-sentient (non-feeling) animals. To develop defensible public policies about the use of animals in agriculture and scientific experimentation, we must first acknowledge substantial similarities and subtle differences in the emotions and desires of humans and other nonhuman mammals. These will shape what orientation we must take to non-human animals. Gary Comstock, author of the books Research Ethics and Vexing Nature, draws on comparative cognitive science and on empirical studies of animal behavior to defend vegetarianism and the circumscribed use of animals in research.