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THE RIGHT TO LIFE- A Critical Ethics
Mira Fong
"The humanist non-violent utopia will always remain a hypocritical lie
until so-called "enlightenment" and "progressive" human beings extend
equality and rights to the animals with whom we share this planet."
Dr. Steven Best
A Copernican Revolution
Every social movement is a response to a moral crisis. Two hundred years
ago, slavery was a common practice. People would be outraged if it still
exists today. Animal liberation strives to abolish the enslavement of fellow
animals. Far different from any other social movement which is generated
by self interest; animal rights seek justice and legal protection of the natural
rights of non-human kind.
The earliest publication on animal rights was the book titled "Animals'
Rights: Consider in Relation to Social progress" . It was written by the
English reformer Henry Salt (1851-1939), a vegetarian and antivivisectionist, who introduced Mahatma Gandhi to Henry David Thoreau.
Salt argued that each animal is a distinctive individual, entitled to live out
its natural life and not to be subjected to human interests based on the
assumption that non-humans have less value than humans. His words:"We
must get rid of the antiquated notion of a "great gulf" fixed between them
(non-human kinds) and mankind, and must recognize the common bond
of humanity that unites all living beings in one universal brotherhood."
pretty much summed up the mission of the movement half century later.
Today, there is a strong sense of solidarity among grass root activists
regardless of geographical differences. Since 1980s, animal rights has
steadily grown from a fringe movement to an influential force affecting
social changes. Its rippling effects can be felt across continents from Europe,
North America to Asia, Africa, and further into Russia, Eastern Europe,
Egypt, Turkey and many other countries. People are demanding justice for
fellow animals. The revolutionary forces to liberate the non humans
actually coincide with Hegel's prediction that the purpose of history is the
realization of freedom. Human history has been propelled by the struggle
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for justice and equality for all. Such as the French, the Bolshevik and the
Communist' revolutions as well as the abolition of slavery. In the 1960s, the
struggles for justice and equality manifested in various "rights movements",
they paved way for the animal rights' of the 80s. Although it is not certain
that human history has a purpose but no one would deny that freedom is
the will of all Earth inhabitants.
The significance of animal revolution can be compared to the Copernican
revolution as it alters the fundamental world view from a human centric to
a bio-centric paradigm. Such paradigm shift requires a sea change in man's
consciousness and behavior towards other earth beings as it is the only
solution for the survival of the planet. All animals are born free; they were
never meant to be caged, chained, farmed, experimented, dissected or
slaughtered by the human primate. Although many people find the notion
of animal rights threatening due to a conflict of interest as its ethical stance
challenges their accustomed thinking, habits and food preferences. For
those who have become educated of the subject matter, their lives are
forever changed.
This paper is an overview of the philosophical framework of the movement.
The subject of animal rights has generated a number of publications. Many
were written by distinguished professors in the fields of ethology, law and
philosophy. Specifically, the concepts of moral rights, painism, speciesism,
sentientism and veganism are discussed here as these are the basic tenets of
animal rights. The progress in legal reform concerning various animal
issues and the atrocities of factory farm animals that are directly tied to
agri-business and capitalism will also be addressed. As a critical theory of
ethics, the final section of this paper concludes with an internal critique of
humanism according to the continental philosopher Giorgio Agamben.
2. Sentientism
Back in the 70s, there were only a handful of books available on the subject
of animal rights, even fewer on animal cognition. Animal Mind by Donald
R. Griffin, a professor of zoology at Harvard, was the first to recognize
animals as thinking beings. Griffin's finding, regarding the similar neural
function of the brain in both humans and non-humans, had significant
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ethical implications because the recognition of animal sentience is needed
to establish a moral criterion as to how humans treating other animals.
A clear and simple definition on sentience is best provided by Dr. Webster
of the University of Bristol: "A sentient animal is one for whom feeling
matter". The basic characteristics of a sentient being include both the
mental and emotional capacities such as awareness, intentionality as well
as feelings of satisfaction or frustration. All sentient beings have desires and
wants according to their subjective interests. Sentientism has profound
moral significance as it asserts that each individual being that has
mental/neuro/biological states should be treated with ethical consideration.
Thereby, it is the basic premise to grant moral rights to the nonhumans.
In regarding to the sentiency of farm animals, Jane Goodall makes it very
clear that they also have mental and emotional lives. Like humans, they can
experience pleasure, joy, fear, anxiety, pain and depression. They also
possess self awareness and can comprehend what is happening to them.
The book "Minds of Their Own", by the ethologist Lesley J. Rogers,
explores animal mind and awareness. In it Rogers describes chicks develop
visual recognition of the hen as well as their siblings and form attachment
to the family soon after hatching. The recognition (through differentiation)
of other individuals is a sure sign of mental awareness. As for the ability to
communicate, Rogers observes that a young domestic chick "has at least
fifteen different recognizable calls....the chick possesses one of the
characteristics essential for being an individual." Other studies have
confirmed that farm animals can recognize facial expressions when
communicating with one another or with humans (see the documentary
film "Peaceable Kingdom" on you-tube). What makes us with these animals
on equal footing is that we are all sentient beings.
For centuries, animals had been regarded as merely machines or automata
that can be disposed of. It was only in the 18th century, a few scientists
were willing to acknowledge that animals have feelings and mental events
thus initiating the research of animal sentience. Since then, the study of
animal cognition and sentience has become an important discipline in the
field of ethology. As a result, we have obtained a wealth of knowledge
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regarding the different kinds of intelligence and emotional capacities of
other animals. The Cambridge declaration on consciousness in nonhumans in July 2012 confirmed animal sentience based on solid evidence.
It proclaims: "The weight of evidence indicates that humans are not
unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate
consciousness. Non-human animals and birds, and many other creatures,
including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates."
Many animals have amazing memories , linguistic competence and the
ability to solve problems. For instance, pigs are like dogs, enjoy mental
challenges and creative activities as they are naturally curious. Their
abilities of understanding signs (our language) and expressions and
forming close relationship with humans are no less than our canine
companion (see "pig intelligence" on you tube). And yet, pigs are only
associated with ham or bacon. Such irony was commented on by the
biologist Richard Dawkins: "pigs and dogs, a double standard". The deep
seated discrimination of so-called "farm animals" has to do with the
propaganda machine through which people become addicted to meat and
dairy products. The agribusiness represents the epitome of capitalism
which is essentially a reductive materialism. Such ideology reduces human
beings to a one dimensional being, an agent of consumption. The meat
industries equate sentient beings as merchandize with economic values
thereby encourage maximal exploitation of anything that is profitable.
3. Speciesism and Painism
Both of these terms were coined by professor Richard Ryder. The critique of
speciesism is intended to deconstruct anthropocentrism. It was first
introduced by Ryder when he was a member of the Oxford group in the
1970s. The group was then protesting against the use of animals in
laboratories. Speciesism (or species hierarchism) refers to the
discrimination on the ground of species distinction in that man, as a
preeminent species that possess higher value, is superior to other species.
Ryder gives his counter argument: "Speciesism was like racism or sexism-a
prejudice based upon morally irrelevant physical differences. Since
Darwin we had known we are human animals related to all other animals
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through evolution; how then, can we justify our almost total oppression of
all other species?" (see the film "The Superior Human?" on you tube).
It is crucial to understand the ramification of speciesism as it justifies
"might is right" in animal slavery which has been manifested in numerous
forms of animal oppression despite the fact that humans are mammals and
belong to the primate species. Counter-speciesism rejects the human
centric behavior that marginalizes other beings. A statement that sums up
the whole argument against speciesism is provided by Bernd Heinrich, a
biologist: "We can't credibly claim that one species is more intelligent than
another unless we quantify intelligence with respect to what, since each
animal lives in a difference world of its own sensory inputs and decoding
mechanism of these inputs." The point is that the species difference is
irrelevant. What's morally relevant is that all sentient beings share the basic
physio/psychological/mental structures.
Historically, humanism (a human centric world view) has dominated the
metaphysical system since the early Greeks. Martin Heidegger, one of the
leading continental thinkers, turned against humanism in his postwar
writings "The technological enframing of beings". In it he laments that
living beings are regarded as mere resources or stock like "standing
reserve". They are subjected to a mechanized agricultural production. In
response to man's dominance over nature and other beings, Heidegger
contends: "Man is not the lord of beings. Man is the shepherd of being".
The German word "gelassenheit" for Heidegger signifies" man must let
beings be" .
Richard Ryder later introduced "painism", another important concept.
Painism opposes the notion that animals merely operate by reflex (devoid
of feelings and counsciousness), therefore they do not feel pain, a view has
been refuted by science. The latest scientific reports have confirmed that
fish, crabs and lobsters can feel pain and are regarded as sentient beings.
Ryder defines pain as: "any form of suffering or negative experience,
including fear, distress and boredom, as well as corporeal pain. Things
such as injustice, inequality and loss of liberty naturally cause pain." He
further clarifies: "One of the important tenets of painism is that we should
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concentrate upon the individual because it is the individual-not the race,
the nation or the species-who does the actual suffering."
Painism is the bedrock of a moral theory for all sentient beings. Any
individual being, be it a human or non-human, that can experience pain
should have moral standing. Each animal experiences its own pain; the
pain of a rabbit, bird, mouse or a monkey should not be compared with
species' difference, because pain is pain. This is the main point of Ryder's
theory, because: "All animal species can suffer pain and distress. Animal
scream and writhe like us; their nervous systems are similar and contain
the same biochemical that we know are associate with the experience of
pain in ourselves." When a lobster is being boiled alive and its body
struggles in violent convulsions, we know the animal is in great pain. We
simply know because we are animals as well.
Princeton Professor, Peter Singer, who is perhaps the most influential
philosopher for social change after Karl Marx, provides similar view on
painism. He thought that all animals including humans are sentient and
share the same interest, the desire to live a fulfilled life and fear of pain and
suffering; it is unjust to assume that fellow animals' pain is "less important
than the same amount of pain (or pleasure) felt by humans". Recent
surveys show that most people are in favor of using alternatives to replace
animal models in research. It is estimated that 59% of Americans between
age 18-29 oppose medical testing on animals.
Another relevant perspective can be added to Ryder's painism is the carnal
philosophy of the "body" introduced by the French phenomenologist
Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In contrast to the Cartesian view that the animal
body is an automaton where as human mind is the seat of cogito, MerleauPonty proclaims that the body is the cogito; it is through the body, the
sensory/conscious center, one engages the world. His naturalistic notion of
the body, though mainly referred to a human construct, also signifies its
sentient character which is the common denominator of all beings. To put it
in context, it implies that each individual body matters. To quote a phrase
from Jeremy Bentham: "Everybody to count for one. No body for more
than one." The autonomy of each living being is a necessary condition for
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species evolution. Each individual animal must be able to freely develop its
own intelligence to ensure its survival. Animals are not to be reduced to
properties or objects as it clearly violates the law of Nature. Animal rights
aims to restore animal freedom and independence.
4. Moral Rights
The concept of moral rights is the grounding argument for animal rights.
Professor Tom Regan, who is regarded as the philosopher of the animal
rights movement, argues that the interest of nonhuman animals need to be
respected, such as the desire to roam and explore to find food and shelter,
able to connect and communicate with its own social group, receiving
affections and recognition, and most of all, a life free from pain. Therefore,
they are entitled to have moral rights. Similar to Kant's moral theory that
each person should be treated as ends and not as means, Regan holds that
what constitutes the basis for equal moral right is that each individual
animal experiences itself as a subject and has its inherent value which
supersedes its usefulness, because: "each being is the subject-of-a-life and
has its own complex subjective world .". He reasons: "Human ethics is
based on the independent value of the individual: The moral worth of any
one human being is not to be measured by how useful that person is in
advancing the interests of other human beings...The philosophy of animal
rights demands only that logic be respected." Basically, Regan is asking for
the acknowledgement that each individual animal counts.
The word "animal" is merely a collective category and often has derogatory
signification as if humans are not part of the animal category. Jacques
Derrida, a French deconstructionist, thought that such collective term is
empty and meaningless since there are vast differences between various
animals and species and each has a unique personality. His remark
resonates with Regan's view that each sentient beings is a subject.
From a different perspective, Richard Ryder reasons for the moral rights of
animals based on the concept of moral continuum: "since Darwin,
scientists had agreed that there is no magical essential difference between
humans and other animals, biologically speaking, why then do we make
an almost total distinction morally? If all organism are on one physical
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continuum, then we should also be on the same moral continuum."
Granting the moral rights of fellow animals is the manifesto of the animal
rights movement, that is, the right not to be harmed and to live freely in
their own natural environment. The concept of moral right is necessary in
establishing legal status for animals through political process since law and
ethics are inseparable.
Although there are differences between humans and animals, for example,
humans have a distinct sense of history, cultural/national identity and the
awareness of one's own mortality which Heidegger describes as "beingtowards-death". Nonetheless, Peter Singer argues nonhuman animals
should not be treated as means since they also have the capacity to feel
pleasure and pain. Singer's moral theory is explained through the concept
of "equal consideration of interests". Based on the theory of calculative
utilitarianism, Singer proposes that the criterion of ethics be determined on
the provision of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of morally
significant beings. Contrary to the Kant's theory on moral duty, the
utilitarian position stresses the consequence of an action rather than the
intention behind it. Singer explains: "to take into account the interest of all
those affected by my decision. This requires me to weigh up all these
interests and adopt the course of action." For example, the ban of factory
farming would produce the greatest interest for the environment, human
health and the well being of the animals. Singer further contends: "If a
being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that
suffering into consideration, the principle of equality requires that the
suffering be counted equally with the like suffering-in so far as rough
comparisons can be made-of any other being."
One of the most uncompromising voices for defending the moral rights of
animals comes from a distinguished law professor, Gary Francione, the first
to teach animal "rights" in an US university. The creed of animal rights as
professor Francione spells out as follow: "An animal's right to live free of
suffering should be just as important as a person's right to live free of
suffering." All beings have inherent values; and the most fundamental
right for the non-humans is "the right not to be regarded as property".
They share the same status as persons despite the fact that many of our
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rights are irrelevant to the non-humans. In the book "Animals as Persons",
Francione specifies the notion of right as the pre-legal or the basic rights of
the non-human animal. In addition, Francione strongly advocates ethical
veganism as a crucial political activism for the animal liberation movement.
Both human and nonhumans connect with the world through mental and
sensory cogitation. The recognition of the moral rights for all sentient
beings requires all of us to examine our personal habits and belief system
that are influenced by cultural/species' prejudice as well as economic
interests.
5. Meat from the Modern Asylum
We humans have insatiable curiosity about everything from the outer
universe to the origin of life on earth. We cheered when we saw on film, a
whale, a dolphin or other injured wildlife being rescued. And yet, when it
comes to discuss the conditions of lab and food animals, we turn a blind eye
to their suffering. Even the media (which are mainly controlled by the
government or corporations) intentionally conceal the gruesome reality
behind the dairy and meat industries in fear of ruining people's appetite.
The remoteness of our relation with animals that are labeled as human food
is strategically created by way of linguistic alteration (living beings are
labeled as bacon, steak, burger, cheese...) so to prevent our sentiments
towards them. Each piece of flesh, though neatly packaged from a
dismembered being, is still a part of a sentient being that had a face, with
eyes could see horror, ears could hear screams and nose could smell death.
Ironically, animals that we form emotional bond as companions such as
dogs and cats, get the same medical attention as humans including the care
of specialists in cardiology, neurology and oncology.
And yet non-companion animals are condemned to a living hell, the
intensive confinement system. Among them, pigs, chicken and turkeys (the
space allowed for each chicken is the size of a laptop) suffer the worse
treatment, although the dairy industry is not any less cruel than the meat
factories (see the 2 minute film "Imagine a World Without Factory
Farming" on you tube). Intensive factory farming, in every sense is a
concentration camp that conducts routine animal genocide. The only crime
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these animal commit is that a godlike species has a taste of their flesh. Such
species prejudice is no different than racism which was commented by the
social theorist Theodoe Adorno regarding the holocaust of the Jews:
"Auschwitz begins whenever someone looks at a slaughter house and
thinks they are only animals."
These days, one can find a lot of information about factory farming on
internet (see the documentary film "Undercover at Smithfield Foods" on
you tube), hence I won't repeat here. There are increasing numbers of
scholars, public intellectuals and journalist speaking out against such
corporate farming. One such powerful protest was the publication
"Dominion" by Mathew Scully, a leading conservative journalist. The book
is a comprehensive coverage and interrogation of all forms of animal
cruelties. The question Scully poses to the public is:"Can glorious man peer
into these places of stinking, nightmarish bedlam, down to the creatures
that creepeth therein, into their brutish hearts to grasp their suffering?
Not only can we grasp it-it is our own worst nightmare." There is a moral
urgency in Scully's message:"What makes a human being human is
precisely the ability to understand that the suffering of an animal is more
important than the taste of a treat."
Scully also gave a detailed report in the book of his visit to the Smithfield
owned factory farms in Virginia. They are the world's largest producer of
pigs (from raising the animals to packing plant as well as advertising). Here,
animal farms are not farms but metal and concrete warehouses identified
only by numbers that resemble concentration camps. Sentient beings are
treated as if they are agricultural crops. These numbered buildings, in every
sense, are asylums of innocent and sane animals that have been driven mad
from fear, boredom, depression and hysteria: "Confinement doesn't
describe their situation. They are encased, pinned down, unable to do
anything but sit and suffer and scream at the sight of gods." Further, for
these gentle creatures, every waking minutes is: "Never leaving except to
die, hardly able to turn or lie down, horror-stricken by every opening of
the door, biting and fighting and going mad." portrayed by Scully.
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The ingestion of toxic tissues and cells from cows, pigs, chicken or turkey is
responsible for the degradation of human health. The overcrowding
condition of factory farms is the breeding ground for infectious diseases
including streptococcus and other drug resistant bacteria and viruses.
These animals are routinely fed with growth hormones, antibiotics and
pesticides from their feed. Pigs are also fed with the remains of their own
kind. Recent studies confirmed that these animals have developed severe
stomach inflammation (must be painful) from being fed with genetically
modified soybeans. The intake of GE food also has adverse effects on their
immune systems, kidneys and reproductive function.
According to Dr. Collin T. Campbell, professor Emeritus of Nutritional
Biochemistry at Cornell University, meat based diet is the number one
cause of common diseases (watch his lecture "The China Study" on You
Tube). The warning from his 30 years research on the consumption of
animal products is that it creates a vicious cycle from sick animals to sick
people to a sick environment. Ironically, factory farm industries continue to
receive millions of dollars as subsidies from the federal government. In fact,
legislators in several states have recently passed the ag-gag bill that would
make documenting animal cruelties in factory farms illegal. The law reflects
a morally debased capitalism (that legitimizes animal holocaust) mainly to
protect the interests of the wealthy industries by concealing the despicable
farming behavior from public eyes .
In nature, predators kill their prey with a brief attack. They kill to survive,
not for pleasure. In contrast, humans consume animal products for the
pleasure of taste and convenience. Each year, forty eight billions farm
animals are slaughtered globally, that's eight times of the human
population. It would be unthinkable to assume that the highly evolved ecobiodiversity meant to exclusively support the burden of one overweight and
populated human-primate along with its billions of farmed mammals.
6. Veganism as political activism
"I have enormous respect for vegetarians. They are further ahead than
most of us. They have gone through the thought process in making their
eating choices." Says Michael Pollan, who understands and supports the
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vision of veganism. Today, our food choices is crucial, one either chooses
compassion or cruelty. As a social activism by way of public campaigns,
veganism advocates compassion and non-violence. Like Buddhism, vegans
cultivate compassion, non-violence and a strict diet that refrains from
animal products such as meat, poultry, dairy, eggs and sea food. Since the
development of the industrial farming about half century ago, choosing a
vegan diet has becoming an ethical imperative (see "Ethics in a Meat Free
World-Philip Wollen at TEDx Melbourne" on you-tube. Mr. Wollen was
the vice president of the Citibank). A vegan simply takes the stand by
refusing to participate the institutionalized animal exploitation.
One important sector of veganism is the vegan anarchism, an ideology
became popular in 1995 and shares similar objectives with the animal
rights/Earth liberation movement. Vegan anarchism regards the global
factory farming as directly linked to capitalism. They view animal liberation
as an extension of human liberation. Their goal is to free both humans and
animals from political and economic oppression. Vegans and anarchists,
together they form an alliance to oppose the capitalistic economic policy.
For example, the oligarchy of multi-national corporations has infiltrated
the central government, dictating its food policies including the total
control of replacing natural agriculture with Franken food crops. Monsanto,
a biotechnology giant, has been promoting genetic engineering of farm
animals causing unimaginable physio/psychological disturbances of the
animals. The patenting of genetically manipulated pigs is already on its way
(see "Monsanto patent for a pig" on you tube).
For the vegan environmentalists, factory farming is one of the worst
destructive practices as it is unsustainable and has serious impact on
climate change (see "A River of Waste-The Hazardous Truth about
Factory Farms-on you tube). The nitrous oxide and methane produced by
the meat industries account for the major factor in green house emission
that causes global warming and ice melt. Methane, produced by farm
animal wastes, traps heat and causes temperature to rise. According to
reports, an intensive dairy farm with 2500 cows can produce as much
animal wastes as a city of 411.000 people. Scientists have recently
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confirmed that greenhouse gas, which is a man made cause, is at its highest
level in two million years.
Another urgent reason to promote veganism is that the world population is
expected to increase which means the demand of meat production will be
greater unless people switch to a plant based diet that is healthy for one's
body as well as the planet. The heavy consumption of animal products in
our culture, in Peter Singer's view, is mainly a habit:"People who eat pieces
of slaughtered nonhumans everyday find it hard to believe that they are
doing wrong and they also find it hard to imagine what else they could
eat."
There is absolutely no reason to support the rationale that humans need
animal protein. For instance, many Buddhists in Asia follow a vegan diet
and live a healthy life. The cultivation of compassionate eating has been
around for thousands of years. In the Mahayana tradition, the foremost
spiritual practice is not the seeking of one's own liberation but to cultivate
empathy, the ability to put oneself in the position of the suffering beings as
if one's own and come to their rescue. The point here is that our food
choices (primarily from animal products) are basically misguided. We have
mistaken the extravagant ways of manipulating food varieties (influenced
by commercial interests) as a necessity. Such eating habit creates confusion
in our bodies and causes chronic gastro/intestinal inflammation as it
disrupts the integrity of the digestive system.
One unusual phenomenon of our species is that we are the only animal on
the planet suffers from obesity. This is why every health magazine offers
advices on how to lose weight. What was the natural diet for our species
before the development of agriculture including the domestication of other
animals? One needs look no further than our primate cousins.
Chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest relatives, are mainly vegetarians.
They build their powerful physique by living on plant based diet. 98% of
their food sources are from seeds, flowers, leaves, barks and from eating
social insects. How close are humans related to other primates?
Researchers have confirmed that the human genome closely resembles that
of the gorilla, the largest living primate. And yet our supermarkets and
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restaurants are saturated with animal products which contributes to a host
of obesity-related diseases.
7. The Animal Manifesto
As the animal rights movement gains its momentum, there are increasing
academic supports from both scholars and scientific communities. They
have helped to gain public recognition of our fellow beings. The study of
animal intelligence/emotion provides vital information for the proponents
of animal rights while they seek legal status of non-human animals. We
have learned that many mammals have the abilities to deduce or infer from
experiences and some may even have the concept of causality. Like us, they
have emotional lives and can form intimate relation with one another.
Some animals also experience bereavement when losing a member of their
tribe. Like us, their bodies become tense when feeling threatened and
relaxed when sensing affection from another being. What this tells us is
that other animals are not that different from the human animal. We can
intuit the moods and thoughts of an animal from its facial expressions and
bodily gestures without having to rely on language; the same we
understand music through feelings, needs no translation.
Marc Bekoff, professor Emeritus of cognitive ethology (the study of animal
mind and emotions), thought that humans and many other animals share
common features of the brain. As thinking and feeling beings, animals are
entitled to have full recognition and can be considered as persons. Each has
a unique personality. In his book "Minding Animals", Bekoff gives the
following defense of his view: "Calling a nonhuman a person does not
degrade the notion of personhood. However, this move would mean that
animals would come to be treated with respect and compassion that is due
them, that their interest in not suffering would be given equal
consideration with those of humans." As observed by Bekoff, many animals
with mental sophistication also use tools, have culture, possess self
awareness and their own form of language and reasoning.
As a scientist, Bekoff is making a difference by steering science towards a
more socially responsible discipline. Along with Dr. Jane Goodall, they
formed an organization, "Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals",
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to promote ethical conducts in behavior research. In his latest book "The
Animal Manifest", Bekoff tells of fascinating cases of animal intelligence
and emotions such as: "monkeys teach their kids to floss their teeth,
magpies recognize their reflection, bees display consciousness, and crabs
don't just feel pain but remember it." Farm animals such as cows "display
strong emotions; they feel pain, fear, and anxiety, and studies have shown
they worry about future. They and other agricultural animals make and
miss their friends." The heartfelt message of the book, that animal beings
can feel and think and each individual must be treated with kindness, is
pretty straightforward. Since the environmental destruction and animal
exploitations are directly linked to man's irresponsible behavior, Bekoff
urges people to be aware of their life styles and habits (influenced by
culture and commercial propagandas), as they can have negative impacts
on the lives of other animals. In a consumption based culture, people need
to be conscious of what they buy. There are plenty of alternatives choices
without having to use animal products.
Regarding the animal model for bio-medical research (the numbers of
animals used in research in 2012, not including rats, mice and birds are
about 949,584 ) Bekoff comments: "Animal models have very limited
utility, they are expensive, and they raise all sorts of ethical questions.
Why pursue research methods that harm animals and provide results that
are not particularly relevant for humans?". Thousands of animals used in
universities as well as for commercial purposes. The deeply ingrained
animal model used for medical, pharmaceutical and product testing is
simply inappropriate as lab results are only an approximation. The logic is
simple: humans are not rats or mice or rabbits.
As a passionate activist, Bekoff advocates compassionate activism (similar
to the practice of engaged Buddhism): "Any manifesto is a call to action.
This animal manifesto is a plea to regard animals as fellow sentient,
emotional beings, to recognize the cruelty that too often defines our
relationship with them, and to change that by acting compassionately on
their behalf". The animal manifesto is unanimously recognized by many
ethologists, biologists, psychologists, medical doctors, philosophers,
lawyers, veterinarians, journalists and other professionals.
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Forty years after the Oxford group's campaign for animal rights (Peter
Singer was among them), the subject matter of the human/non-human
intersection is now part of the academic studies. The Oxford University
Press has recently published two significant books "Animal Rights" in 2001
and "Animal Studies-An Introduction" in 2013. Both were written by its
graduates, Dr. Paul Waldau, who was also a lecturer on animal law at
Harvard Law School and is the legal director of the Great Ape Project (for
the rights of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans). His book
"Animal Studies" covers the broad spectrum of the movement as well as
philosophical, legal and political debates. By questioning the speciesist'
mentality, Waldau engenders a new way of thinking in terms of human and
non-human relations. Like many other honored scholars, Waldau is also a
dedicated animal rights activists who recognizes the urgency of the
movement.
Another activist professor is Steven Wise of Harvard Law School, who
redefines the moral dimension as well as specific legal strategies to protect
individual animal or species. Wise has been championing the legal rights of
animals for over two decades. In his book Drawing the Line, Wise
documents case studies to prove that certain species do meet the criteria of
personhood, such as the non-human primates, dolphins, elephants, dogs
and other mammals; they also possess self awareness, intelligence,
emotions, desires and language capacity. Man can no longer use the
distinction theory, us versus animal others, to justify its tyrannical behavior
towards fellow animals. There is absolutely no ground to support the claim
that Homo sapiens were given the divine right to be the ruler on planet
Earth. We simply act as if we are.
Freedom is not a privilege for humans alone. All lives are born free, an
undeniable fact. The emancipation of non-human animals is directly linked
to the liberation of our own species as Steven Best, professor of philosophy
and a dynamic activist, proclaims:"Human and animal liberation
movement are inseparable, such that none can be free until all are free."
In order to engage academics with social activism, Dr. Best directs the
"Institute for Critical Animal Studies" as a forum for scholarly discussions
on animal liberation as well as emphasizing actions and practices over
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theories. From a historical perspective, Best considers man's destruction of
the environment and the increasing number of animals slaughtered and
experimented (tens of billions are killed in the US each year) to be the sixth
"Great Extinction Crisis" in the history of the planet (the last one being 65
million years ago). We are indeed need a new paradigm (or a new
consciousness) to avert such crisis. This is the reason why Best proclaims:
"animal rights is the next logical step in human evolution".
8. Progress in Achieving Legal Rights of Animals
The goal of animal liberation movement is to broaden the moral dimension
to include all animals, a position well reasoned by professor
Regan:"Animals have a life of their own that is important to them apart
from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it.
What happens to them matters to them." There have been many major
reforms around the world since the 1980s in areas concerning animal
welfare.
In 1992, Switzerland amended its constitution to recognize animals as
beings and not things, which meant that they are to be included in moral
and legal framework. In 2002, Germany became the first country to grant
animals constitutional rights. The same year, England banned fur farms. In
The Netherlands, a political party was established to specifically focus on
the rights of animal who subsequently succeeded in gaining seats in the
Dutch parliament. In the US, California passed the bill in 2008 to ban
imports from other states of eggs produced in overcrowded cages. Similar
measures were also approved in Michigan, Florida, Arizona and other
states.
Another success was achieved through joint efforts of several national
animals rights organizations in fighting the legal battle with corporate
agribusiness. They were able to reach an agreement to ban the extreme
caging of farm animals. By 2015, California law will require adequate space
for all farm animals so they will be able to stand up, lie down, turn around
and fully extend their limbs.
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Around the world, Great Britain and several other countries are now
prohibiting the use of wild animals in circuses. The ethical issue over the
captivity of larger animals has led to the change of zoo management, many
are now no longer keeping elephants in zoos. In 2012, a nationwide ban of
the sale and use of metal traps was implemented in Taiwan which resulted
from pressure of the country's animal rights groups as well as PETA on the
government. In China, animal rights are gaining strength because of the
involvement of the younger generation; there have been increasing public
protests in the country on behalf of animals. Urged by the animal welfare
and rights groups from both within the country and overseas, the Chinese
government has initiated the drafting of its first animal protection law.
All of the 27 countries including Portugal, Greece and Poland that make up
the European Union have unanimously acknowledged the extreme cruelty
in factory farming system. The EU law now prohibits keeping laying hens in
bare wire cages and requires all hens have room to spread their wings. Also,
the confinement (or immobilizing) of pigs and veal in individual stall (a
tight space about 2 feet by 7 feet) is no longer permitted. Beginning in
March 2013, it is illegal to export cosmetics that are tested on animals to
other EU countries. In Australia, as of January 2013, the country is no
longer purchasing eggs from factory farms.
New Zealand was the first country to grant basic rights to the great ape
species in 1999, chimps and other primates were no longer used in research,
testing or teaching in New Zealand. In 2008, Spain extended rights (the
right to life) to the great apes. Other countries such as Austria, New Zealand,
the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and the UK are following suits. As of
May 2013, the US National Institute of Health is close to make its historical
decision that they will no longer fund chimp experiments and is in the
process of winding down funding for primate research. Recently, the New
England Primate Research Center of Harvard University, announced its
plan to close the facility. The campaign to free chimpanzees was led by a
group of professionals including primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists
and philosophy professors. It was a declaration of the recognition of the
legal rights of non-human primates such as the right to life, the protection
of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture.
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Many other initiatives for the welfare of animals along with successful
legislations have been set in motions in many non-Western countries where
traditions permit animal cruelties.
9. Stop the Anthropological Machine
Are human behaviors rational and ethical? How do the homo sapiens
become suspended from the natural order? Are we a species rupture from
its natural existence? Is ontology a machine of discrimination, to turn
"what is" into "what is not or a non-being"? These are the investigations
conducted by the Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben. Although his
philosophy provides no defense of animal rights, it has relevance in regard
to the cause of man/animals separation, which he traces back to the origin
of anthropocentrism in theology, metaphysics and bio-sciences. In contrast
to the conventional assumption of what man is, Agamben asks "what is
man?" A question is also central to professor Steve Best:"Can we recognize
that the animal question is central to the human question? Can we grasp
how the exploitation of animals is implicated in every aspect of the crisis
(of the social and natural worlds) in our relation to one another and the
natural world?"
In Agamben's view, the human species appears to be an eruption, a self
exclusion (or negation) from the category of animal. By way of an internal
analysis, Agamben found that the concept of humanity has no real meaning
but an empty ideal: "within man-separates man and animal, and to risk
ourselves in this emptiness." The self-exception of the homo species means
a suspension from its own animality by creating a category within itself. To
put it in a different context, it means that the human species no longer
evolves naturally and is basically technologically dependent.
To explain the phenomenon of man's self exception, Agamben introduces
the concept "the anthropological machine" in his book "The Open, Man and
Animal" as his ontological critique. The machine has both metaphysical
and political implications. Philosophically, it is a "production of man
through the opposition man/animal, human/inhuman". Such distinction
(or misconception) has been imbedded in the Western thoughts from
Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant to many others. In fact, the whole mentality of the
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enlightenment, in close scrutiny, contains the seed of man's controlling of
Nature. It presupposes humans as superior than other animals based on a
criterion of rationality. In this regard, classical metaphysics is both a
system of falsification and a reductive treatment of beings. The truth is that
such human centric reasoning has nothing to do with pure reason or ethics.
It is rather an instrumental rationality, a means to achieve certain interest
or power. Freud, the architect of human psyche, in his view, had thought
otherwise. Humans do not act in accordance with reason as the self is made
up with irrational elements.
Regarding the ontological demarcation of humans and animals, Agamben
sheds light on the hidden agenda of Western ontology. He observes:
"ontology, or first philosophy, is not an innocuous academic discipline, but
in every sense the fundamental operation in which anthropogenesis, the
becoming human of the living beings is realized." What he meant was that
ontology had strategically excluded animality (the natural elements of
human beings) by giving humanity a logical priority. Such priority allows
man to treat the non-humans by any means as they are regarded as below
the law.
Actually, the anthropological machine is the root cause of man's self
alienation which differs from Marx's and Existential idea of alienation.
Here, alienation has to do with man's entrenchment in its own species'
narcissism. According to Agamben, the machine produces man's self
exclusion both internally (the suspension from his own animality) and
externally (a categorical division of human/animal). As a political
apparatus, it justifies the extermination of certain human race such as the
Holocaust of the Jews as they were regarded as non-humans. Similarly, the
anthropological machine also has impact on the holocaust of fellow animals
as they are regarded as rudimentary or "bare life", deprived of any rights.
This is exactly the same mentality that has been operating in modern
animal industries, or rather, an institutionalized barbarism. Here are the
facts: the number of food animals killed in the US alone according to Gary
Yourosky (who has investigated firsthand of animal sacrifice in both factory
farm and laboratory) is about ten billion land animals and eighteen billion
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marine animals per year. They are murdered not for our self defense but
simply because they are considered as "Zoe" or bare life.
Modern man is preoccupied with economic activities and has become "an
animal of boredom", living in a state of nothingness. This is why our species
has insatiable cravings for novelties to counter its inner emptiness. The
cure lies in the revival of man's own animality (human are also primates). It
is the only way to heal the wound from man's primordial split.
All beings are related through a common ancestry and are equal residents
on the Earth planet. The heart pulsates inside of us is the same as in theirs.
Instead of insisting on the differences between us and them, we need to
cultivate a relatedness of being-with instead of an anguish existence with
machines.
Each being seeks its own expressions as self presencing. The totality of a
being is irreducible. The birds are singing outside as I am composing this
paper. They have returned to celebrate the arrival of spring. In the garden,
the bees are humming from blossoms to blossoms. Yonder, green meadows
are bidding animals to feast and play. And yet, we take it for granted that
the so-called food animals have no such rights. For them, days are eternal
nights and life is nothing but slow withering. They never know what it's like
to live under the roof of an open sky and run freely on the soft earth. There
is an urgency of the animal liberation movement (meaning to take action
now to end animal slavery) as billions of animal beings are suffering at the
hands of man.
The way humans treating other nonhumans is a reflection of who we are.
Animal rights challenges us to rethink the question "what is it to be
human?" and the answer is to be found in our ethical relationship with
fellow animals.
References:
1. Richard Ryder: Animal Revolution 2000
2. Richard Ryder: All Beings that Feel Pain Deserve Human Rights 2005
3. Peter Singer: Writings on an Ethical Life 2000
4. Tom Regan: The Case for Animal Rights 1983
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5. Steven Best: Animal Rights and the New Enlightenment
6. Gary Francione: Animals-Property or Person, Rutgers Law School 2004
7. Gary Francione: Animals as Persons-Essays on the Abolition of Animal
Exploitation 2008
8. Mathew Scully: Dominion-The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals,
and the Call to Mercy 2003
9. Marc Bekoff: Minding Animals 2002
10. Marc Bekoff: Animal Manifesto 2010
11. Steven Wise: Rattling the Cage-Toward the Legal Rights for Animals
2000
12. Michael Pollan: An Animal's Place, The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2002
13. Giorgio Agamben: The Open-Man and Animal 2004
14. Minds of Their Own: Lesley J. Rogers 1997
15. Gary Yourofsky: End Animal Murder Now- on you tube
Recommendations-Award Winning Feature films on You-Tube:
1. The Superior Human? 2012 . A philosophical critic on Speciesism.
Interview with contemporary thinkers such as Richard Ryder, Bernard
Rollin and Steven Best.
2. Peaceable Kingdom 2004. Won several awards including Best Feature
Documentary.
3. Fork Over Knives 2011. Scientific facts based on the China study, a
Cornell- Oxford Project.
4. Earthlings 2005. Won the best content award at Boston International
Film Festival.
5.Undercover at Smithfield Foods. An award winning documentary 2012
6. Why is Factory Farming such a Big Deal?
Notes: The listed references are mostly from publications after year 2000.