Animal Ethics Keeping Big Cats as Pets Essay

Your paper should be divided into 4 sections

Section 1
Raise a question about how humans should treat a specific group of animals in a specific situation.

• This should be a question where you are genuinely uncertain about what is the ethically right or best answer. If you already think you know the right answer, it will be harder to write this paper well, because your bias will very likely show, and it will likely make your analysis worse.
• Example questions: should dolphins be used for entertainment? Is it ethical to kill and eat a chicken if it was raised on your family’s farm? What does a pet owner morally owe their pet cat?
• Explain why you are (and why your reader should be) interested in this question. That is, why is the question an important one to explore? What is morally or philosophically interesting about it?

To answer this question, connect the question to one of the four core concepts we’ve discussed this semester: rights, well-being, personhood, or autonomy. Depending on the answer to your question, what might that reveal about one of these concepts?

Section 2
Identity and articulate two potential answers to your question.

The answers could be “yes, always” and “no, never” if, for instance, you question is something like, “Is it ethical to own tigers as pets?” But you might want to focus on more nuanced answers, such as, “only if you’re a highly trained individual” or “never unless there is no other option for the animal.”

For each answer, provide one reason in support of that answer being true. Discuss the core concepts and other relevant philosophical terms where helpful.

For example, with the “Is it ethical to own tigers at pets?” question, if your answers are “yes” and “no”, you could discuss why maybe the answer is “yes” if it’s important to not restrict individual people’s rights, maybe the answer is “no” if it’s important to protect the well-being of tigers, and the safety of humans.

In this section, you are essentially debating yourself. If you provide plausible, compelling reasons for both answers, and I cannot tell which answer you actually favor, then you have done a good job in this section.

• Section 3
  Choose one of the authors we have read this unit, and explain which of the two answers they would agree with, or if they would have their own, third answer.
• Use evidence from the text (that is, quote specific passages) to explain how you know which answer the author would agree with.

Explain the author’s reasoning for their answer, using evidence from the text.

To do this, you need to explain how their answer to this specific question fits in with their overall account or theory regarding animal ethics, which you will need to summarize and cite.

• Focus on explaining the relevant the concepts and reasoning the author uses in the reading.

Section 4
Choose one of the answers to your main question and discuss one interesting or important ethical implication that would result, if that answer is true.

This means you have to take one of the answers and logically follow where it goes. For example, if you choose the answer that it is unethical to own tigers as pets because they are too dangerous to be around human communities, you could discuss whether that principle extends to a hermit living on their own, far away from other people. Or you could instead discuss how dangerous is too dangerous when it comes to other pets. Or you could discuss whether this danger principle applies to other activities, like sky diving, drag racing, or playing with fireworks.