having value and the values we have
Goals
To critically assess …
- How the scenarios relate to use of animals, pollution, ecology, and environmental protection
- The merits of each of the four options or courses of action
- Which rules of duty and utility are most relevant to the scenario
- Which option is best suit to the identified rules of duty or utility
- A personal response to the scenario and ones own rules of action
Cows-metic
Rusty Hinges is a livestock farmer,
like his father before.
But if the bank opts to foreclose,
Rusty will farm no more.
The bank offers to waive the loan,
exchanging fee for stock.
Ship them to a cosmetics firm,
instead of butcher’s block.
The contract signed and ungulates
shipped, his son, Louis, then hears.
The tests are just experiments,
cow carcass disappears.
But is there cause for their regret,
the deal struck fair and quick.
Livestock is raised for what it gives,
as steak or as lipstick.
Suppose Rusty must choose:
- claim that his cows have a rare skin disease
- honour the contract
- look for a loophole in the contract
- break the contract; join an animal rights group
What would Keri & Milo advise? What would you do?
Smells Like Money
Alma Martyr has lived to date
in a sultry, sleepy town.
Built ’round a mill that makes paper,
embossed with a small crown.
Walking along the rocky beach,
something appears awry.
Sludge flows by pipe into the cove,
the town’s water supply.
The mill says it is harmless waste,
but can’t control the flow.
If she reveals the brown seepage,
the mill will have to go.
Blow the whistle, shut down the mill
and lose their income source?
Or live with odour rather foul
— which gives folk least remorse?
Suppose Alma must choose:
- blow the whistle on the company
- forget what he saw and move away
- blackmail the company
- blow the whistle since waste water is worse than unemployment
What would Keri & Milo advise? What would you do?
Starfish Ashore
Starfish wash onto the beach,
more than one can ever reach.
So Sophie asks Randy’s help:
save the starfish, save the kelp.
Toss them back into the sea.
Save their lives, set them free.
Will he even bother trying,
if most of them will end up dying?
Yet life is not so set and brittle;
please help out, even a little.
Or is the more important part
that I must finish what I start?
Starfish are not gentle beings,
Randy begins to say.
Clams and oysters would all rejoice
to see the beach this way.
Suppose Sophie must choose:
- ask Randy to help save starfish and kelp
- leave the starfish to fend for themselves
- toss starfish back, hoping it makes a difference
- toss starfish back since it is mistake to do nothing because you can do only a little
What would Keri & Milo advise? What would you do?
Recycling Reality
Rosie Cheeks earned her name
from the work that aways came
when she bundled up the paper,
took off labels with a scraper.
Metal foil, plastic and glass,
place the bins upon the grass.
Maybe each week it was the same,
but Rosie dear would not complain.
Then Rosie moved into the woods,
a plain and simple neighbourhood,
where soon she began to amass
paper, plastic, and lots of glass.
Because the locals don’t recycle,
tossing instead into a landfill,
leaving Rosie feeling grim
filling trash bins to the brim.
Suppose Rosie must choose:
- drive to a nearby recycling depot since recycling benefits everyone
- don’t recycle; it’s not required where she lives
- don’t go to the recycling depot since it is inconvenient and adds exhaust
- give up newspapers and buy only fresh goods