Ethics Newsline®

VARIOUS DATELINES
Three stories involving the ethics of how humans interact with animals made headlines last week:

• Two soft-drink giants, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, agreed to stop funding product research involving animals except when that research is required by law. The International Herald Tribune reports that the firms apparently reacted to pressure from animal rights advocates protesting the use of animals to test taste perception and in some cases to back health claims for products.
• British actor Roger Moore, one of the actors to play James Bond on screen, has signed on as a spokesman advocating a ban on foie gras, a paste made from birds’ livers. According to the Agence France-Presse, Moore sent a letter and DVD to lawmakers decrying the “cruel” process of forcing ducks to eat grain stuffed down their throats, which swells their livers to 10 times their normal size. The northern city of York is preparing to vote on a proposed ban of the delicacy. In the United States, California and Chicago have banned the sale of foie gras, and its production is prohibited in German and Italy, AFP reports.
• An 11-year old boy who killed a thousand-pound boar while hunting on a fenced preserve has become the center of praise and criticism. While Jamieson Stone’s father and hunting companion proudly featured a picture of the boy grinning over the giant carcass on the family website, critics and animal-welfare groups have raised questions about the ethics of letting children hunt, reports ABC News. The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dubbed father Mike Stone “Worst Dad in the Country” and suggested that hunting is comparable to animal torture — a predictor of future criminal behavior. But ABC quotes a child psychologist as saying hunting is not a predictor of future criminality, and quotes a National Rifle Association spokesman as saying “mentored hunting” is a safe pastime.