There are many things to discuss when talking about why animals should have rights. Additionally, when talking about killing animals for meat, people give a lot of responses about why it isn’t wrong, some of which the responses to could fill up entire articles by themselves. However, here I will go over the basic ideas and address the main things said in response.
First of all, people talk about the ways in which human beings are intelligent and animals are not. But intelligence is not an indicator for whether you should have rights. The important thing is whether you are a conscious being who can feel, perceive, suffer, feel pain, feel enjoyment, etc. All beings may not have the same types of rights, because they have different needs, but all beings ought to be given equal consideration.
It is said that killing animals for their meat is natural. Whether or not the systematic killing of hundreds of millions of animals each year is a natural act is debatable. Especially when it comes to methods we use nowadays, involving cramming many animals together in filthy disease ridden areas in spaces too small to move in – or the methods associated with factory farming. But besides this, it doesn’t matter if an act is natural. That doesn’t make an act right. Things occurring in nature are not a good justification for what is right or wrong. Plenty of horrible unacceptable things humans should never allow occurs in nature. Disease, famine, drought, flooding, etc, are all natural. Should we try to copy these things, or allow them to run rampant on this basis?
People bring up tradition, or people’s nutritional needs. Our ancestors hunted animals in order to survive. We no longer need to eat animals to stay alive. Humans are omnivores and can be healthy without eating meat. Protein, along with other nutrients can be found in abundance in plants. It is especially easy to get enough nutrients if you still eat animal products such as milk or eggs. If you don’t eat such things, the main nutrient you need to worry about is vitamin B12, which is infused into foods such as cereals, yeasts, etc – and can be taken in supplement form. This nutrient is extremely important, but luckily, the body only requires an extremely small amount. Any excess B12 – that is, above a few micrograms is quickly flushed out of the body. Suppose we did have to kill animals, or make them suffer, and that we needed to eat them. Even then, we still don’t need to kill as many as we do now, we would kill the minimum amount, do the minimum amount of harm, and try to reduce the horrendous amounts of suffering we inflict.
Some people make an appeal to tradition. We’ve done something for thousands of years, therefore it is right. But just because we’ve done something for a long time, that doesn’t mean said decision isn’t harmful or misguided. Societies ought to be able to change. Slavery has been practiced since the dawn of humankind, yet it is now illegal in the entire world. Men and women, have been treated unequally for thousands of years, with a few exceptions in the past, where some progress was made in certain ancient civilizations; yet we’ve taken steps and made societal changes to help mitigate this.
Some people fear that if we didn’t kill animals for meat, that said animals would overpopulate, or that some people would have a lack of food. In response, let me bring up several points. First, think of the implications of using killing as a form of population control. Especially on those who are less intelligent. Secondly, farm animals wouldn’t overpopulate just because we quit killing and eating them. The reason we have so many farm animals is because we overbreed them, often forcefully to keep up with consumer demand for meat. If anything, we risk the animals going extinct, this is a separate issue, which I won’t go into here. As for the issue of food shortage, producing more animals uses up land we could use to grow more food for humans. It also uses up more plants and water, which could be used to feed people as well. It is more efficient to eat the plants we grow, than to use creatures such as cows as factories to turn grain, or corn, or grass into steak. If we quit breeding animals to turn them into meat, we would actually have more food. Whether this food is made available to everyone is an issue of things such as how we distribute resources or how we as a society treat the poor.
There are those who believe that while it is wrong to treat animals so horribly the way we do now, that it would be okay to turn them into meat if we did so in a manner that was less painful or humane. However, the act of killing is in itself inhumane. You can do so in more or less painful ways, there are situations where taking life may be deemed necessary. But whether or not you kill in a less cruel manner, you are still doing harm. Conscious beings instinctively want to stay alive, so that they can continue to have more experiences. When you kill a living being, you cut this ability short.
Nowadays, the majority of animals made into food are raised on Factory Farms, thousands of animals are crammed together in spaces too small to move, the areas are filled with so much ammonia human workers have to wear special masks to breathe, the animals are diseased, forcefully bred, and their horrible lives are then cut short. Some animals are killed minutes after being born. Animals have body parts cut off and aren’t given anesthesia. They are also slaughtered in ways which are agonizing and produce terror in the animals. Often, due to the vast amounts of animals, the excessive speed, and the often improperly trained workers, the animals suffer even more because they’re slaughtered improperly. The point is that the animals are treated like cogs in a machine – thus the name “Factory Farms.” Animals who are slaughtered for food suffer extensively, in even more ways than I’ve already mentioned.
It’s not really possible to efficiently turn animals into food or get large quantities of their milk and eggs anymore without these types of methods. Producers have to use vast amounts of animals to keep up with consumer demand, and the growing population of eight billion people. A little over two hundred years ago, our population was only one billion. Before that, it was not in the billions, but the millions. In addition, even if the only thing which matters is our gross mistreatment of animals and not their slaughter to be made into meat, there is still so much work required to make sure that animals are treated right, because of how deeply ingrained the way we treat animals is in each layer of society, and how deeply ingrained our attitudes towards them are. Especially when what we do to animals is so normalized when they’re being made into food – something that many people consider ‘the natural circle of life.’ Unfortunately people will tolerate the types of treatment of animals which they wouldn’t allow in other areas when it comes to their stomachs, or what they plan to eat for breakfast. In addition, when countries add small regulations to factory farming, such as giving the animals a few feet of extra room, or putting fewer chickens in the same cage, such regulations often go ignored, and we can barely enforce them. We don’t put any effort into enforcing the very paltry amounts of animal welfare laws which we already have. So how could we hope to completely regulate all the activities that go on in Factory Farms, while continuing to industrialize an animal’s flesh and the products which come from their bodies?
Let me add that we still need meaningful and sweeping reforms for Factory Farming. Such disregard is given for the suffering of animals and the issue has become an emergency for them. We need to support legislation that protects downed animals, and abolishes battery cages, force feeding, veal crates, and intensive confinement for animals. These will bring attention to the issue, and draw it into public awareness. Small token reforms such as a few extra inches of cage space won’t do. These will not only accomplish nothing, but will effectively kill the movement, because people will say, ‘hey, I guess we did something,’ and those who are less involved will go do something else.
Basic animal welfare laws forbidding the most obvious forms of animal cruelty must be given higher priority to be effective. What I am saying in response however, put simply is that in the long run we need to solve the roots of the problem, not just the symptoms. Generally, people don’t know or think a whole lot about the various ways in which animals are mistreated. Keep in mind that politicians who do want to help enact changes for animals have to tread very carefully, as one wrong move can stir up unhelpful controversy, outrage, and incur the wrath of the public.
Some people make the argument that the animals are already dead, so it doesn’t matter if we eat them. But if we continue to use this logic forever, the killing and mistreatment of animals will continue as well. The truth is that continuing to buy or consume meat creates a demand for it. Changing society will take a lot of effort because it will require a lot of people to change their attitudes and behaviors. Even after this, there is a lot of work to be done. Luckily for us, the more people who adopt an idea, the faster the idea grows. More people are open to and aware of it. It is a snowball effect. A great way to contribute to this momentum is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet.
There is a lot more which can be said to add to these topics, and about Animal Rights in general. However, I have covered everything I can at the moment within a reasonable amount of space. I will discuss other topics in other articles.
Anyways, that’s all for now, have a good day everyone.