But proponents of so-called humane farms overlook a crucial truth. The main reason that abuse and torture of farmed animals happens is not because factory farming is corrupt. It is not even because Big Ag execs are greedy, or because factory farm workers are often desensitized and sadistic, though all of these are factors. But the most important reason that abuse and torture of farmed animals happens is that consumers, including consumers of “humanely raised” animal products, are sending the message that it is morally acceptable to exploit, harm and kill animals for pleasure — for flesh and secretions we have no biological need to consume. You cannot pay people to inflict unnecessary violence on animals, and then make the case that those animals should not experience unnecessary suffering. It is a morally inconsistent, and therefore ignorable, position, one that it is easy for producers and most consumers to dismiss. Because if animals’ lives don’t even matter enough for us to spare them when we have plentiful alternatives, then on what grounds could their suffering possibly be said to matter? As long as we treat sentient individuals as units of production, we’re doing nothing more than reaffirming the core values of factory farming: that animals’ lives have no intrinsic worth, and that it is ethical to exploit and kill them even when doing so is not necessary to our survival. If we can look at animals as intelligent, loving and playful as our own cats and dogs, and think: Yes — but my desire for a fleeting pleasure is worth more than that individual’s entire life — then we can not make any meaningful arguments about how those animals should be treated. -Ashley Capps
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 01:52:05 +0000
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