TOP NEWS THIS WEEK
NY Bans Pet Store Sales of Dogs, Cats, Rabbits: Starting December 15, New York will prohibit retail pet stores from selling dogs, cats, and rabbits, targeting the exploitative puppy mill industry. While the law allows pet stores to rent space to adoption organizations, it effectively ends the commercial breeding-to-retail pipeline that has caused immense suffering. This represents a shift toward viewing companion animals as individuals to be adopted, not products to be sold. Read more on Newsday.
Plant-Based Diets 20% More Affordable: New research from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reveals that vegan diets are 19% cheaper than the standard American diet and 25% cheaper than Mediterranean diets. The study found that avoiding animal products could save individuals over $650 annually compared to a standard diet. Plant Based News has the story.
Mixed Results in Initiatives to Ban Factory Farms: Last week, we discussed Berkeley’s factory farm ban. Similar measures faced challenges in other localities. While Berkeley’s preventative ban passed with 60% support, initiatives in Sonoma County and Denver faced defeat after intense opposition campaigns. The industry spent nearly $2 million fighting Sonoma’s Measure J alone, spreading misinformation about the ban’s impact. Despite these setbacks, activists view increased public discourse about animal exploitation as progress. Get the scoop on Sentient Media.
SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT
Anthropic Engineer Highlights Sentience Over Intelligence
In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, philosopher Amanda Askell talked about her experience training Anthropic’s Claude in ethics, and shared some of her own views on ethics. She emphasized that what makes beings morally considerable is their capacity to experience, not their intelligence. She pointed out that intelligence, like height or strength, is merely a functional trait, while the ability to feel and experience is what’s really special, whether talking about humans, nonhuman animals, or potentially sentient AI. This is important not only because she delivered an antispeciesist message on a popular podcast that’s viewed by millions of people, but also because it shows us that there are people with antispeciesist views training the AIs that will be an increasingly large part of our societies in the near future.
DID YOU KNOW?
Factory farming emerged in the 1920s when farmers began adding vitamin D to chicken feed, allowing them to keep birds indoors year-round. This industrialization of animal farming coincided with the rise of assembly-line production in other industries. Ironically, while factory farming was developing, animal activists of the era were primarily focused on opposing vivisection and promoting humane treatment of horses and companion animals. The massive scale of animal exploitation through factory farming went largely unchallenged until the 1960s. By then, the system was deeply entrenched, with billions of animals confined indoors. This historical blind spot reminds us to stay vigilant about emerging forms of animal exploitation before they become normalized and institutionalized.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Intelligence vs. Sentience in Moral Consideration
Amanda Askell’s perspective raises important questions about how we value different beings. If intelligence isn’t what makes a being morally considerable, how should society restructure its treatment of animals? Share your thoughts on why sentience, rather than intelligence, should guide our ethical treatment of other beings.
Stay informed and keep advocating for a more vegan world. See you next week with more updates!
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