Some philosophical arguments against animal abuse. Why should we human animals treat non-human animals morally?

Abstract

The growing concern about cruelty in the treatment of animals has been promoted, in large measure, by the dissemination in academic environments of philosophical approaches addressing the matter from different positions and principles. In the framework of this article I shall outline, by way of introduction, some of these philosophical arguments for the moral impropriety of animal abuse. To this end, we shall reconstruct the main concepts that led to the discussion of the need to expand the moral community framework for the consideration of animals. In this task we shall address Henry Salt’s conceptualization of animal rights and Singer’s formulation of the principal of equal consideration of interests, as well as Martha Nussbaum’s capacities approach. These considerations will constitute the initial formulation of a framework for explaining why we should have moral consideration for non-human animals.