Author Archives: orcasandanimals

The Troubling Current Beneath the Surface of Animal Advocacy

Over the past few decades non-profit animal advocacy has increasingly centred the philosopher Peter Singer and latterly his movement of Effective Altruism, from relatively humble beginnings at Oxford University where founders survived on baguettes and hummus, they quickly became wedded … Continue reading

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Towards a Vegan Ideology: Anarchist Rob Murdoch argues that veganism is not enough

The following is an article that featured in The Vegan magazine in Autumn 1989. “The intellectually lazy among us see veganism as the ‘be all and end all’ – a panacea for the world’s ills. Others recognize that although wide-ranging … Continue reading

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Is Utilitarianism Demanding?

In this article Brian Tomisik considers some of the issues with utilitarianism and demandingness, and it is interesting to consider how the prevailing utilitarian view often found in the animal side of effective altruism and which dominates many of the … Continue reading

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Effective Altruism for Animals: Consideration for different value systems

Recently i’ve been giving more thought to the issue of diversity and inclusion in Effective Altruism, and part of this process included wondering how the Foundational Research Institute (FRI) had considered issues around diversity[i] and inclusion at its inception. I … Continue reading

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Eating some animals to rescue others? How addressing speciesism can help more animals

I recently came across a fundraiser for a cat and dog shelter near Bristol, and whilst it’s really worthwhile supporting groups that are helping cats and dogs, it is worth considering that in terms of animal suffering cat and dog … Continue reading

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Effective Altruism for Animals: Utilitarian equivocation and moral consistency

I recently came across a comment from William MacAskill that helped me to think a bit more about Effective Altruism (EA) and utilitarianism.  Previously I hadn’t really thought it possible to move beyond the association between them, especially with Peter … Continue reading

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The Unilateralist’s Curse and Effective Altruism for Animals

This is a short article that seeks to examine how it could be possible to apply some of the ideas associated with the Unilateralist’s Curse to EAA and veganism. I was initially drawn to this idea by the way that … Continue reading

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Advocacy tips from Tom Regan

The following ideas represent some really helpful advocacy tips that featured in Tom Regan’s War Analogy article. ‘From my reading of Gandhi, I have come away with five principles: 1. Practice humility The last thing other animals need is another … Continue reading

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An interview with Tom Regan

The Vegan, Winter 2006, Archive. Tom Regan is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at North Carolina State University. He is also an uncompromising ‘Animal Rights Advocate’ (ARA). In his latest book Empty Cages – Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights he … Continue reading

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Addressing movement politics to improve animal advocacy

I think it could be fair to say that people are generally reluctant to deal with the fairly opaque politics of the animal movement.  This could be for several reasons, including the idea of taking time away from grassroots animal … Continue reading

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