Thinking Critically About
The Animals We Use
The animals we use? What does that mean?
Although most people don’t think about it, they’re using animals
every day, many times. For instance, they eat animals or parts of
animals or things the animals produce, such as milk or eggs. When
they take a shower each day, their soaps, shampoos and other
personal care products contain animal products and may also have
been tested on animals. When they leave the house each day, most
people are wearing the skin of animals on their feet and perhaps on
their back. Of course, a lot of material that clothing is made from
contains the hair or fur or skin of animals. What many people
consider entertainment even includes animals. Perhaps they enjoy
watching horses or dogs race, or they take their children to
amusement parks or zoos that display captive animals.
Meanwhile, most people would say:
I love animals! I don’t want to hurt them!
Despite using animals each day, most people would say that they
either love animals, or they certainly wouldn’t want any harm to
come to them. But those two concepts are at odds. If you love
someone or don’t wish to harm them, you shouldn’t harm them.
However, by using animals you are indeed harming them, and in
most cases killing them. Now, if you needed to use them for survival,
that would be one thing. But in 2011 in the developed world, you
don’t. Why kill someone when you don’t need to?
Okay, it’s true that animals are killed for my way of life. But it’s not
like they’re people. Killing an animal isn’t the same thing as killing a
person.
Animals are like us in some ways, and unlike us in other, more
obvious ways. One crucial way they are like us is that they are
sentient. This means that dogs, cows, chickens, pigs, cats, goats,
turkeys and even fishes have the capacity to experience pleasure
and pain.
Nonhuman animals are not only sentient, but science has shown
that many also play, grieve, cuddle and deceive. They have
friendships, preferences, expectations and beliefs. They get bored and
frustrated. They even demonstrate some degree of moral code. The
fact is that animals lead lives rich in thought, emotion, culture and
relationships. As such, they care about their well-being, and they
have an interest in living their lives free from subjugation by others,
just like you do. Taking away someone’s freedom and using them
for your gain (which includes your palate or your clothing) is at
odds with the claim of not wanting to hurt them. For more on the
science of sentience and other qualities, see the work of Jonathan
Balcombe
www.jonathanbalcombe.com/
and
Marc
Bekoff
http://literati.net/Bekoff/.
What about using animals as long as we don’t inflict unnecessary
suffering?
Unnecessary suffering is cruel, you don’t want any part of cruelty,
and that’s admirable. But are you saying there’s such a thing as
necessary suffering when it’s not necessary to use animals?
What I mean is that the meat and eggs I buy have a label that says the
animals were humanely raised. I would never buy food from the
companies in those horrifying videos with all of those poor, abused
animals.
What if I control everything about your life including: what you eat
and when; if, and how you procreate (cows, chickens and pigs are not
left to naturally mate--they are impregnated with the help of people
who often use an apparatus known as a “rape rack”); when and how
your life is to end; and I slaughter you when I want to. Would you
characterize that process as humane? Is that scenario acceptable to
you? Any animal product you purchase in a store comes from an
animal subjected to this scenario.
At some smaller farms, such as family-run farms that you can
purchase animal products from, the animals do indeed eat their
natural diets, aren’t drugged or mutilated, and do run free. But let’s
talk about you again for a moment. Let’s say I treat you as well as I
can while you’re alive, yet you cannot escape me. I continue to use
you the way I wish to use you, I decide when and how you will die,
and I eventually kill you when I feel the moment is right. Let’s say I
shoot you in the head and you barely feel a thing. Is that okay with
you? Of course not; I’ve just ended your life. You’d probably say I
murdered you.
Furthermore, is it okay that I took your freedom away from you
and used your life, your body for my purposes? Of course not. You
have the right to your life free of use or enslave-ment by me. But
non-human animals do not have that right. And harming someone-killing someone--even if it’s legal or it’s what most other people in
your culture do, doesn’t make it the right or compassionate thing
to do. For more on farming, including the truth about the labels on
animal products, see Humane Myth at www.humane myth.org and
The Free-Range Myth at www.peaceful
prairie.org/freerange1.html.
But I’m a vegetarian!
Many vegetarians think that eggs and milk products involve less
subjugation and/or suffering than other animal products, such as fur
or meat. They like to think that eggs are about as cruelty-free an
animal product as you can get, especially if they’re cage free. And
there’s a good reason they think that: we’re surrounded by messages
that tell us cage-free eggs are humane. Even the Humane Society of
the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
promote cage-free eggs.
But did you know that no matter where the egg production
facility is located, or what the visible-to-the-public conditions are,
the egg-laying hens come from the same hatcheries that kill the baby
rooster chicks at only one-day old because they have no use for
them? Did you know that hens are generally considered spent by
egg-laying facilities at one- to two-years old and are then killed?
And did you know that dairy cows are artificially inseminated
over and over, are genetically manipulated to produce an
unnaturally enormous amount of milk, and are killed by the time
they’re six-years old when their normal life span is over 20 years?
And did you know that while they’re alive, they are rarely permitted
to nurse their babies (the males and some females are taken away
from them to be confined, perhaps elsewhere, and slaughtered as
veal)? How do you feel about milk and eggs now?
As for the small farm that provides better living conditions for
the animals they kill, ask that farmer what happens to the male
chicks and the spent hens. Ask what happens to the newborn calves.
Ask how the cows are impregnated and how often. Always question
anyone who tells you that some process involving an animal is
humane, and decide for yourself if it’s acceptable. And ask yourself if
it’s acceptable to have almost all of your choices taken away from
you, and then your life taken from you, simply because someone
thinks your flesh tastes good or your child’s skin makes soft
gloves?
It seems like a stretch to be against horse racing and dog racing. It’s
not like the animals get killed, and they love to run. Aren’t they just
doing what they love to do?
Thousands of horses and dogs are created each year for the purposes
of racing, and with the hope of making their owners a profit. Early in
their lives, animals who don’t show promise are killed (this is what
“culled” means), and as the training process progresses, there are
further kills to narrow the group down to only the most compe-titive
animals. Many injuries during training result in further kills if the
careers of the animals are no longer promising. When the few
animals who do make it to competition are injured, they are often
killed if their injuries are too expensive to fix, or if the injuries will
be career ending even if they heal well. Some lucky animals end up
in the hands of rescue groups or sanctuaries, who will pay for their
treatment and either give them a home for life or get them adopted.
Okay, but what about experimenting on animals for medical
reasons, like to find a cure for disease or to see if something is
toxic?
Do you think it’s ethical to breed an animal for the sole purpose of
using her as the subject of an experiment (she’d more accurately be
the object, as something would be done to her)? Dogs, such as
greyhounds, who are docile and rarely bark, apparently make great
“subjects” and are often used for heart disease research. Beagles are
often used, as well.
Furthermore, do you think it’s ethical to seize animals from
pounds or from the streets for the purposes of caging them, cutting
them open or exposing them to hazardous substances, collecting
data, and then killing them? If it were your dog being experimented
on, would that be okay? Would it be ethical then? Most people say
no, as they’re emotionally attached to their dogs and value them.
The majority of animals used in research are rats, however, and
most people aren’t emotionally attached to them and don’t value
them. But is that what should matter? Given that rats have the same
capacity for pleasure, pain and terror as your dog does, is it humane
to breed them with genetic defects, artificially inflict them with
diseases, expose them to toxic substances, and kill them? Why would
it be ethical to use a nameless rat but not your dog? Is it ever ethical
to experiment on a sentient being, without her consent, just because
you can?
Finally, it’s never necessary to experiment on anyone. Either it’s
a choice or it’s dictated by a governing body such as the FDA. It
might be a legal necessity, but it’s certainly not a scientific one. In
fact, a growing number of scientists now believe that experimenting
on animals to gain knowledge about humans is just plain bad
science.
And they have history on their side, as there have been
instances where testing done on animals showed that a substance
wasn’t dangerous, but that has turned out not to be the case (e.g.,
Thalidomide and Vioxx, among others). In fact, adverse reactions to
animal-tested medicines are now the fourth largest cause of death in
America.
There are myriad reasons why we still experiment on
animals (there’s a lot of money in conducting the research, breeding
the animals, transporting the animals, running the facilities, and
keeping these business machines alive), but that doesn’t mean it’s
good science or it’s ethical behavior. For more , see Advocates for
Science-Based Medical Research at www.afmacure-disease.org.
But if you’re against using animals, what about keeping cats and
dogs as pets?
We have domesticated dogs and cats and we continue to allow the
breeding of new ones when we’re currently killing them by the
millions each year in places called “shelters” simply because they are
homeless.
We have an obligation to the animals in shelters to do our best to
find good homes for them rather than kill them (and rehabilitate
them if necessary, and sterilize and return feral cats). For a
deconstruction of the myth of pet overpopulation as well as an
outline of how to create a no-kill community, see The No Kill Nation
at www.thenokillnation.com.
NOW WHAT?
Most people who begin considering the animals they use respond
with:
*I never thought of it that way!
*It seems so all-encompassing and overwhelming!
*We’ll never live in a world that doesn’t use animals!
*What can one person possibly do?
Those are all understandable reactions. Fortunately, there’s plenty that
you can do . . .
Transition to a vegan way of life.
If you believe animals aren’t ours to use, you ought to align your
actions with that belief, right? That’s what vegans do. Fortunately,
it’s easier than ever to dramatically decrease your usage of animals,
as there are many meat and dairy alternatives available in grocery
stores and over the Internet. For help decreasing the number of
animals who are killed for your diet, a 21-Day Vegan Kickstart
Program has been developed by Physicians for Responsible
Medicine and includes a community of support, nutrition
information, meal planning, and even recipes, and can be found
at http://pcrm.org/kickstart Home/
More than ever, manufacturers of clothing, shoes and accessories
are offering products not made from the hair, fur or skin of other
creatures.
(For
more,
see
The
Discerning
Brute
at
www.thediscerningbrute.com/ and Alternative Outfitters at
www.alternativeoutfitters.com). Furthermore, household and
personal care products that don’t contain animal products and
weren’t tested on animals are more and more common, both in
major retail stores and on the Internet. There’s even an iPhone
app for determining if a product is cruelty-free at
www.appolicious.com/shine/apps/37490-cruelty-freesymbiotic-software-llc Check out the Vegan Store at
www.veganstore.com/ and Vegan Essentials at www.vegan
essentials. com/ for all kinds of vegan products online.
For restaurants and grocery stores all over the world that
are vegan or vegan friendly, go to Happy Cow at www.happy
cow.net/, or download the VegOut iPhone app at
www.appolicious.com/tech/apps/38630-vegout-vegetarianrestaurant-guide-front-ended.
Support an organization that directly helps animals.
If you want to help animals directly by donating or volunteering,
there are local rescue groups, sanctuaries, wildlife rehabilitation
centers, no-kill shelters and TNR efforts (Trap, Neuter, Return of feral
cats, and see Alley Cat Allies for more at www.alleycat.org) all over
the world that desperately need help and funds. There are also
sanctuaries that care for victims of animal farms, both large and
small, such as:
P e a c e f u l P r a i r i e Sanctuary (CO) www. peacefulprairie.org;
Poplar
Spring
Animal
Sanctuary
(MD)
www.
animalsanctuary.org;
Maple
Farm
Sanctuary
(MA)
www.maplefarm
sanctuary.org;
Animal
Place
(CA)
http://animalplace.org/;
Animal
Acres
(CA)
www.animalacres.org/;
Kindred
Spirits
Sanctuary
(FL)
www.kindredspiritssanctuary.org/; and Farm Sanctuary (NY)
www.farm sanctuary.org/.
Thank you for considering
The Animals We Use!