Planet Debate 2011 September/October l-d release Animal Rights
“Animal Rights” Discourse Counterproductive to Improving Farm Animal Welfare
Download 1.43 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- “Animal Rights” Discourse Counterproductive to Improving Farm Animal Welfare
- Welfare Regulations Sufficient to Solve
“Animal Rights” Discourse Counterproductive to Improving Farm Animal WelfareCOUNTEPRODUCTIVE TO ADDRESS FARM ANIMAL WELFARE AS AN “ANIMAL RIGHTS” ISSUE Erik Marcus, Editor-Vegan.com, 2005, Meat Market: animals, ethics and money, p. 74-5 Singer and other ethicists deserve enormous credit for looking carefully at complicated issues like animal testing, and for crafting sophisticated analysis rather than spouting simpleminded dogma. Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, and the general public cannot be expected to read this material. As far as the public is concerned, all animal rights activists are dead-set against any form of animal use, regardless of how little or how much humans stand to benefit.
At every turn, activists should demand agriculture interests to account for the suffering that occurs on factory farms. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to hold the spotlight on this cruelty when animal rights philosophy is involved in the argument. Representatives of animal agriculture are smart enough to continually drive the discussion away from the ten billion farmed animals who die each year, and toward the contradictions that arise from the public’s simplistic understanding of animal rights. SHOULD FOCUS ON ANIMAL AGRICULTURE ABUSES – NOT A BROAD ANIMAL RIGHTS AGENDA—FOR EFFECTIVE ACTIVISM Erik Marcus, Editor-Vegan.com, 2005, Meat Market: animals, ethics and money, p. 83 Just as slavery was once America’s most pressing human rights violation, there can be no doubt that the effort to eliminate cruelty to animals should focus on agriculture. Animal agriculture accounts for more than 97 percent of animals killed by humans in the United States. Farmed animals therefore deserve priority, and arguments made on their behalf should not be weakened by lumping in rhetoric pertaining to hunting, medical research, or companion animals. We live in a world where the majority of people have a highly exploitative attitude toward animals. It’s therefore of the greatest importance to convince the public that animal agriculture is a vicious industry, and that regardless of one’s feelings about other forms of animal use, the situation regarding farmed animals is intolerable. By continually drawing attention back to the harsh nature of animal agriculture, we can maximize the number of people willing to take action. The Civil War was fought and won largely by people with racist attitudes, who nevertheless viewed slavery as an affront to human decency. Similarly, by confining our rhetoric and action to overcoming the injustices of animal agriculture, we will enable as many people as possible to participate. “Animal Rights” Discourse Counterproductive to Improving Farm Animal WelfareCONCERN FOR ANIMAL WELFARE DOES NOT RELY ON WINNING ARGUMENT FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS – BASIC ETHICS DEMANDS IT Robyn Mallon, Attorney, 2005, Journal of Medicine and Law, Summer, 9 Mich. St. J. Med. & Law 389, p. 407 One does not have to take an animal rights stance to believe that animals should receive minimal humane standards of treatment at slaughterhouses and feedlots. Rather the position is one of more basic decency and common sense for other beings that are very capable of suffering and feeling pain. Consumers should become more educated as to the origin of their meat and demand higher standards. Perhaps the notion of animals of property is something that needs to be changed in the law because it is obvious that animals can feel pain as evidenced by the screams of pigs in the slaughterhouse being scalded alive. An animal is simply not property in the same sense as a table or antique jewelry. An alternative to the animals as property regime is to give animals "equitable self ownership." n161 This way, title is split into an equitable and a legal title with the animal being holder to equitable title in itself because animals have the interest to live. n162 This would allow an animal to sue to recover for injuries inflicted against it. n163 Perhaps adopting a different paradigm for the ways animals are viewed within society and within the legal system will make the factory farm obsolete. Welfare Regulations Sufficient to SolveANIMAL AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY SHOULD IMPLEMENT STANDARDS TO IMPROVE ANIMAL WELFARE Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, 2008, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, [http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Industrial_Agriculture/PCIFAP_FINAL.pdf], p. 83 Recommendation #1. The animal agriculture industry should implement federal performance-based standards to improve animal health and well-being. a. The federal government should develop performance-based (not resource-based) animal welfare standards. Animal welfare has improved in recent years based on industry research and consumer demand; the latter has led, for example, to the creation of the United Egg Producers’ certification program and the McDonald’s animal welfare council. However, in order to fulfill our ethical responsibility to treat farm animals humanely, federally monitored standards that ensure at least the following minimum standards for animal treatment: Good feeding: Animals should not suffer prolonged hunger or thirst; Good housing: Animals should be comfortable especially in their lying areas, should not suffer thermal extremes, and should have enough space to move around freely; Good health: Animals should not be physically injured and should be free of preventable disease related to production; in the event that surgical procedures are performed on animals for the purposes of health or management, modalities should be used to minimize pain; and Appropriate behavior: Animals should be allowed to perform normal nonharmful social behaviors and to express species-specific natural behaviors as much as reasonably possible; animals should be handled well in all situations (handlers should promote good human–animal relationships); negative emotions such as fear, distress, extreme frustration, or boredom should be avoided. b. Implement a government oversight system similar in structure to that used for laboratory animal welfare: Each IFAP facility would be certified by an industry-funded, government-chartered, not-for-profit entity accredited by the federal government to monitor IFAP. Federal entities would audit IFAP facilities for compliance. Consumers could look for the third-party certification as proof that the production process meets federal farm animal welfare standards. c. Change the system for monitoring and regulating animal welfare, recommend improvements in animal welfare as science, and encourage consumers to continue to push animal welfare policy. Improved animal husbandry practices and an ethically based view of animal welfare will solve or ameliorate many IFAP animal welfare problems. d. Federal standards for farm animal welfare should be developed immediately based on a fair, ethical, and evidence-based understanding of normal animal behavior. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 1.43 Mb. Share with your friends:
|