AT: “Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Approaches Trade-Off”

AT: “Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Approaches Trade-Off”

Erik Marcus, Editor-Vegan.com, 2005, Meat Market: animals, ethics and money, p. 76-7

It’s true that, over time, the welfare movement will work its way down to eradicating lesser cruelties. The trouble is that animal agriculture is a moving target and is continually developing new methods for raising animals. If there’s one thing we can be sure of, it’s that the people who brought the word beak searing, gestation crates, and battery cages are certain to dream up comparably cruel innovations in the future. So, while welfare reformists busy themselves getting rid of the worst of today’s cruelties, the industry is rapidly devising new practices for tomorrow. What’s worse, the rollout of new practices is usually gradual, and it may be some time before new cruelties become widespread enough to gain the attention of welfare reformers.

The trouble with welfare reform is that it is always behind the curve. However, effective welfare reform may be at gradually getting rid of existing cruelties, it will always b powerless to prevent new cruelties from emerging.

AT: “Improving Conditions for Farm Animals Trades Off with Trend Toward Vegetarianism”

Erik Marcus, Editor-Vegan.com, 2005, Meat Market: animals, ethics and money, p. 71

One of the most unpleasant realizations I’ve had during my years in animal protection is that most Americans are simply unwilling to stop eating meat. They will often listen closely to the arguments supporting vegetarianism, but they will not change their diets. Despite this, most of these people do care about what happens to animals, and adamantly oppose cruelty. You won’t find many non-vegetarians joining vegetarian societies or sending money to animal rights groups. But animal welfare is the one cause that everyone can get behind, regardless of diet. I think that anyone who eats meat, yet opposes cruelty to animals, faces a moral imperative to become involved in seeking welfare reforms.

Many factory farming reforms are initiated by animal rights-oriented groups. The welfare movement will truly realize its potential when it inspires the country’s meat eaters to become active in seeking reform. When the day comes that the nation’s meat eaters demand better farmed animals welfare, enormous improvements will happen overnight.
DISMANTLEMENT MOVEMENT MORE EFFECTIVE THAN VEGETARIANISM

Erik Marcus, Editor-Vegan.com, 2005, Meat Market: animals, ethics and money, p. 84

What’s more, people who agree with dismantlement are much more likely to become involved with activism than are people who are merely vegetarian. And the greatest threat to animal agriculture is that the general public will get off the sidelines and take action against the industry. Animal agriculture takes a small hit whenever somebody becomes vegetarian or vegan, but the loss of one customer is something the industry can live with. What the industry won’t be able to endure is a steady stream of new activists seeking to put an end to animal agriculture.

**NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS**

**Animals Don’t Need Expanded Rights**

Captivity Doesn’t Threaten Animal Interests

Robert Garner, Professor of Politics, University of Leicester, 2004, Animals, politics and morality, p. 98-9

In the case of zoos and pet keeping the extent to which captivity harms interests will surely be a matter or empirical observation. Some animals, as we saw, do suffer from captivity by an inability to perform their natural behavior and it is likely that for many of these—polar bears, for instance – no zoo could provide an environment which did not harm their interests significantly. For other zoo animals, though, it is far from certain that captivity does harm their interests to any great extent or that for others, who at present are harmed, a more appropriate environment could not be created which would counter the harm objection. Similarly, we could apply the dame kind of analysis to the keeping of companion animals. Thus, it is difficult to find an animal rights objection in the case of a dog which is well-fed, regularly exercised, and is never deprived (or rarely deprived for long) of associating with animals of the same species. What interests, it should be asked, are being harmed in this case? The granting to animals of a right to liberty, therefore, will be a continent matter since we cannot say a priori at what point for different species captivity does begin to harm their interests.

Zoos Good

Joanne Vining, Associate Professor of Science and Chair Human Nature Research Laboratory @ Urbana College. “The Connection to other animals and caring for nature”. Human Ecology Review Vol 10, 2003

The main thrust of the formulations presented here is the alienation of humans from their natural roots, and their reluctance to see themselves as natural entities in a natural ecosystem. For many in the industrialized world, nature has become a sentimental luxury and along with it, the animals that either live there or in our homes. Keeping pets, watching wildlife, and visiting zoos offer connections with nature in ways that may be somewhat satisfying, but are still carefully controlled. Nonetheless it may be those activities that help us to gain a sense of ourselves as natural entities, subject to natural forces. If intimate association with animals is in fact an attempt to reconnect with our natural world, then it may be possible to heal the human-nature split and approach the world in a spirit of cooperation and conservation.

Donald G. Lindburg, Zoology Society of San Diego, 2003, The Animal Ethics Reader, eds. Armstrong & Botzler, p. 471

It is widely recognized that the original objective of zoos in maintaining collections of wild animals can no longer be condoned. Modern-day zoos, therefore, have redefined their missions in light of questions about the right to hold animals captive and the relevance and humaneness of this practice. They have done so by aligning themselves with conservationist objectives, a process that has entailed the investment of substantial resources in education, improved training of staff, modernization of exhibits, breeding, and in some cases, reintroductions, and research designed to improve health, welfare, and propagation efforts. The modern zoo also takes note of the world-wide decline in populations and their habitats and increasingly envisions a time when at least some species will exist only within their confines. For the vast majority of those who labor in the profession, therefore, pride of achievement and a personal sense of fulfillment are commonly found. Indeed, for most it is a pursuit to be nobly and passionately held.
TURN - ZOOS COMMITED TO THE HOLISTIC GOALS OF SPECIES PRESERVATION – DOES NOT MEAN THAT ANIMAL WELFARE IS DISCOUNTED

Donald G. Lindburg, Zoology Society of San Diego, 2003, The Animal Ethics Reader, eds. Armstrong & Botzler, p. 478-9