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THE RIGHT TO LIFE
A CRITICL ETHICS
MIRA FONG
房曼琪
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1. A Copernican Revolution
Every social movement is a response to a moral crisis. The same with the
animal liberation's. 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 moral 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 social reformer, Henry Salt (1851-1939), a vegetarian and antivivisectionist, who introduced Thoreau's idea, civil disobedience, to
Mahatma Gandhi. Salt argued that each animal is a distinctive individual,
entitled to live out its natural life and not to be subjected to human
interests. He opposed the assumption of human superiority over other
nonhuman animals, and thus excluding them from moral consideration.
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." His statement pretty much summed up the mission of the
movement half century later.
Today, there is a strong sense of solidarity among grass root rights' 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
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
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that human history has a purpose but no one would deny that freedom is
the will of all Earth inhabitants.
The significance of a paradigm shift of the animal revolution can be
compared to the Copernican revolution. It alters the fundamental world
view from a human centric to a bio-centric perspective. 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 have forever changed.
This article is an overview of the philosophical framework of the animal
liberation movement. The subject of animal rights has generated quite a
number of publications. Many were written by distinguished professors in
the fields of ethology, law and philosophy. Included here, the concepts of
moral rights, painism, speciesism, sentientism and veganism, as these are
the basic tenets of animal rights. They are fundamental in differentiating
between the rightists' position (or the abolitionist') and that of animal
welfarist's. The progress in legal reform concerning various animal issues
and the atrocities of factory farm animals that are directly tied to agribusiness 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
ethical implications because the recognition of animal sentience is needed
to establish a moral criterion as to how humans treating other animals.
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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
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.
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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 (as practical reasoning). 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
through evolution; how then, can we justify our almost total oppression of
all other species?" (see the film "The Superior Human?" on you tube).
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It is crucial to understand the ramification of speciesism as it justifies
"might is right" in animal slavery 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 similar 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 other living 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", a concept, I would argue, can
stand on its own in constituting the moral right of individual sentient being.
Painism opposes the notion that animals merely operate by reflex (devoid
of feelings and consciousness) and therefore do not feel pain, such a view
has long been refuted by science.
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
concentrate upon the individual because it is the individual-not the race,
the nation or the species-who does the actual suffering."
Scientific research has already confirmed that fish, crabs and lobsters can
feel pain and are regarded as sentient beings. When arguing that all
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vertebrates including fish have interest based on painism, Regan gives an
example: "Like humans, fish have a complicated physiology, anatomy,
brain, and spinal cord. They have highly developed nerve endings near the
surface of their bodies, especially near their mouths". He further
establishes the fact that fish have intelligence and interests:"Older fish
teach younger fish what to eat and what to avoid, and fish of any age can
learn where to find food by observing the behavior of other fish. Moreover,
fish have demonstrated what cognitive ethologists call associative
reasoning, or the ability to take what was learned in the past and apply it
to novel situations in the future."
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 denied due to
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 University 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 feel empathy for animals
(empathy is the ability to see another life from its point of view) and are in
favor of using alternatives to replace animal models in research and
drug/chemical testing. It is estimated that 59% of Americans between age
18-29 oppose animal experimentation.
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Another interesting concept that can be linked to the notion of sentiency
and 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, lacking self
awareness or consciousness, Merleau-Ponty proclaims that the body, which
inhabits the corporeal world, is the cogito, the subject of awareness. As both
the sensory and conscious center, the body is always open and present in
the world. Animals are the "flesh of the world" (to borrow a key phrase
from Merleau-Ponty); through sensory awareness, they understand and
interact with the world without the need for epistemological clarity.
Merleau-Ponty's naturalistic notion of the body, though mainly concerns
human cognition, also signifies a sentient character which is the common
denominator of all beings. In other words, the body is a breathing, sensing
and speculating being. To put it in the context, each sentient body matters
as Jeremy Bentham argues: "Everybody to count for one. No body for
more than one." (a statement was primarily to support his idea of equal
consideration).
In nature, each individual animal must be able to freely engage and
participate in order to develop its own intelligence and ensure its survival.
Animals are not to be reduced to properties or objects as it clearly violates
the law of Nature.
4. Moral Rights
The concept of moral rights for nonhumans is the grounding argument for
animal rights. Those argue against the moral rights of animals are based on
the assumption that animals are unable to perform moral judgment and are
not members of a moral community. The truth is that animal do have their
own forms of social regulation and many higher mammals posses the
ability of empathy and inference. It is rather ironical and self contradictory
to claim that as moral agents, humans are superior than other animals,
therefore, have "the right to exploit" other sentient beings.
Professor Tom Regan, who is regarded as the philosopher of the animal
rights movement, refers the idea of rights as "valid claims". The word
"right" involves justice, a demand for fair treatment. Beyond the rights that
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are recognized by law, moral rights are also valid claims, they refer to the
entitlement of the basic rights to life, liberty and bodily integrity. These are:
"the variations on the main theme, that theme being respect" , according to
Regan. In other words, the right that unifies all other rights, is the right to
be treated with respect. Moreover: "Possession of moral rights confers a
distinctive moral status". The interests (meaning both the welfare and
preference ) of an individual animal need to be respected, such as the desire
to roam and explore to find food and shelter, free to connect and
communicate with its own social group, receiving affections and
recognition, and most of all, a life free from pain. Therefore, animals are
entitled to have moral rights.
Kant's moral theory holds that each person should be treated as ends and
not as means, Regan takes it further, to include other animals. He argues
that what constitutes the basis for equal moral right is that each individual
animal experiences itself as a subject and has its "inherent value" (Regan's
key concept) which supersedes its usefulness, because: "each being is the
subject-of-a-life and has its own complex subjective world ". Regan
therefore proclaims: "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." His view has been adopted by the Unitarian Universalist
Animal Ministry, an active animal advocacy group for animal justice as they
recognize "the inherent worth and dignity of all sentient beings".
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
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humans and other animals, biologically speaking, why then do we make
an almost total distinction morally? If all organism are on one physical
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. It 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 that 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" and is based on a form 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 states: "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."
In arguing for the moral rights of animals, I would like to propose another
concept, "The Principle of Autonomy ", since it is the pre-condition for
various propositions regarding animal ethics. Although the concept of
autonomy is discussed in ethics (as moral autonomy) such as Kant's moral
imperative theory, who thought that an autonomous individual makes his
own decision regarding the course of his action for the sake of moral duty.
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The principle of autonomy, besides its significance in relation to the moral
right of an individual, can be understood in the context of species' evolution
as well. All sentient beings are, by nature, self aware and autonomous in
order to evolve within a correlative and integrative system, within which
each animal is free to find fulfillments according to its capability. Animal
autonomy, the intelligent response to environment in a self-directed
manner, is based on the ability to form cognition through sensory input.
Knowledge of the environment through interpreting previous experiences
(based on memories) enables animals in decision making (a form of
practical reasoning) as well as attending its overall well being, physically
and emotionally.
Being autonomous allows the individual's preference to be maximally
satisfied. These capabilities constitute the basic rights for animal according
to the "Universal Declaration on Animal Rights". They are also considered
as entitlement for animals according to the law professor Martha
Nussbaum, who explains her view through the theory of "capability
approach". Animals are made crippled and driven insane in circuses, zoos,
marine parks, factory concentration farms and research laboratories when
deprived of autonomy and not able flourish according to their capabilities.
It is a violation of the natural law when one species takes on a dominant
position to imprison others as if they are objects without the will and minds
of their own. What makes all lives equal is that we all share the same will to
live and desires to be fulfilled. The principle of autonomy is also recognized
by Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of cognitive ethology (the study of
animal mind and emotions). He proclaims: "Sentient (conscious, feelings)
animals are autonomous individuals. They are not just pain avoiders, they
are pleasure seekers. The capacity for pleasure expands an individual's
interests beyond merely avoiding pain." All lives are born free. It is the
vastness of nature that bestows freedom to all beings. The joy of a bird is to
fly freely in a boundless sky, and dolphins' in an open sea; the abundance of
a fruit-laden rainforest is intended for the enjoyment of all earth dwellers.
One of the most uncompromising voices for defending the moral rights of
animals comes from a distinguished law professor, Gary Francione, the first
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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." The most fundamental right for the non-humans is "the right
not to be regarded as property" according to Francione. They share the
same status as persons despite the fact that many of our 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 nonhuman animal. Such right refers to a claim or entitlement, to have an
interest protected against human's. In addition, Francione strongly
advocates ethical veganism as the baseline for the abolition of animal
slavery.
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
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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 far, in every sense, is a
concentration camp that conducts routine animal genocide. The only crime
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 Theodor 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
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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, horrorstricken 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 the morally corrupt 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 to nine billion by the year 2050, which means the
demand of meat production (or the killing of animals for food) will be
much greater unless people switch to a plant based diet that is healthy for
one's body as well as the planet. In response to the controversy of chicken
farming and the domination of food markets by giant animal agribusiness,
the Hampton Creek Company based in California, now offers consumers a
new vegan product, "Beyond Eggs", in an attempt to replace eggs from
severely abused chickens. "Beyond eggs" represents a revolutionary food
concept. Mr. Tetrick, the CEO of the company, gave his comment regarding
chicken factory farming: "1.8 trillion eggs are produced each year in the
US, 99% of these eggs are from dimly lit, feces and urine-smelling
industrial warehouses...it is a broken industry".
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
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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
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 in seeking 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. As sentient beings,
nonhuman 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.
As thinking and feeling beings, animals are entitled to have full recognition
and can be considered as persons. Each one has a unique personality. In his
book "Minding Animals", professor Marc 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,
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that their interest in not suffering would be given equal consideration with
those of humans." Many animals with mental sophistication also use tools,
have culture, possess self awareness and the ability to empathize, have their
own form of language and reasoning. They understand the world around
them and of each other more than we could ever know. Bekoff gives a
moving account of animal understanding: "Without the exchange of a
sound or a gesture between us, each had perfectly understood the other. I
had at last made contact with that seemingly lost universal silent
language which, as those illuminated ancients pointed out long ago, all
life is innately equipped to speak with all life whenever minds and hearts
are properly attuned."
Bekoff also stresses the significant differences in concept and policies
between animal welfarists and animal rightists as he points out in
"Minding the Animals": "the welfarist position assumes that it is all right
to use animals to meet human ends as long as certain safeguards are
employed. They believe that the use of animals in experiments and the
slaughtering of animals for human consumption are all right as long as
these activities are conducted in a humane way...the pain and death
animals experience are sometimes justified because of the benefits that
humans derive ". On the contrary, the rightists are abolitionists, they
believe that animals have moral and legal rights, in particular, the right to
live freely; they are not to be cages and chained as food animals, nor to be
experimented on. According to Regan's rights view: "It is not refinement in
research protocols that is called for; not mere reduction in the number of
animals used; not mere generous use of anesthetic or the elimination of
multiple surgery...no larger cages, but total abolition."
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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",
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." Further, "birds can become
pessimistic or optimistic according to their living conditions, fishes
recognize individuals and favor some over the others. They have life long
memories. ..fishes of different species hunt cooperatively". As for
chimpanzees, Bekoff remarks:"adult male and female chimpanzees will
adopt orphans and care for them for years." Moreover, 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 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 an over
consumption 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 research, pharmaceutical and product
testing is simply inaccurate as lab results are only an approximation. The
logic is simple, Bekoff contends, because humans are not mice or rabbits.
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Bekoff, who dropped out of a graduate program in 1976, because he did not
want to kill cats as part of an ongoing research. Are animals merely things
can be manipulated and destroyed? Is it ethical to force innocent beings to
suffer diseases or injuries that they do not have such as wiring a voltage
machine to a monkey's brain to enforce a brain dysfunction in order to
study brain research for humans? Or to force rats to ingest toxins to detect
its reaction and yet the animals are unable to communicate when having
recurrent headaches or feeling nauseous with stomach pain (rats are unable
to vomit)?
Animal experimentation is flawed by design and results are mainly
speculative. The model of torturing animals to find cures for human
diseases is based on an out dated tradition; there are inherent and obvious
differences between humans and other animals in anatomy, physiology and
metabolism. This explains why 9 out of 10 drugs that have tested on
animals failed in human clinical trials.
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 scholars, Waldau is also a dedicated
animal rights activist 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" and to prove a forum for scholarly
discussions on animal liberation as well as emphasizing actions and
practices over theories. From a historical perspective, Best considers man's
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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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Since 2009, many countries have outlawed the use of some or all animals in
circuses, such as Bolivia and several European countries. Great Britain 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
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legal rights of non-human primates such as the right to life, the protection
of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture.
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 its animality? Are we a species ruptured from a
natural genealogy that links to the nonhuman others? Is ontology a
machine of discrimination, turning "what is" into "what is not or a nonbeing"? Is the categorical division between humans and nonhumans
intended for homo sapiens to assert its sovereignty over the category of
animal? These are the investigations conducted by the Italian philosopher,
Giorgio Agamben. Although his philosophy provides no defense for the
ethical standing of animals, it offers profound insight into the cause of
man/animals categorical separation, which he traces back to the origin of
anthropocentrism in theology, metaphysics and bio-sciences.
Contrasting 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 appear to be an eruption, a self
exclusion (or negation) from the category of animal. He uses the concept
"homo sacer" to illustrate the paradox of a self assigned status which allows
man to remain within the law and a moral community; and yet, selfexcluded from the rule of law. By doing so, man is entitled to have
sovereignty over others, including the power to determine what is a
qualified life (bios) and what is a bare life (zoe). This is Agamben's
reasoning on the historical reduction of living beings into the status of
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"bare life". Such a status is deprived of any rights and is excluded from
moral considerations.
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 selfexception 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
enlightenment, in close scrutiny, contains the seed of man's controlling of
Nature. It presupposes humans as superior than nonhumans based on a
criterion of rationality.
According to Agamben, 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 justify the domination of the
others. Freud, the architect of human psyche, 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 has strategically excluded animality (the common element of
humans and nonhumans) by giving humanity a logical priority, through
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which it severs species' continuity. Such priority allows man to treat the
nonhumans by any means as they are regarded as "below the law or ethics".
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 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.
The anthropological machine has also conducted 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
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
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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 own ethical/categorical 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 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 (take action to end
animal slavery now), because every minute, 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.
May 2013
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. Tom Regan, Animal Rights, Human Wrongs 2003
6. Steven Best, Animal Rights and the New Enlightenment
7. Gary Francione, Animals-Property or Person, Rutgers Law School 2004
8. Gary Francione, Animals as Persons-Essays on the Abolition of Animal
Exploitation 2008
9. Mathew Scully, Dominion 2003
10. Marc Bekoff, Minding Animals 2002
11. Marc Bekoff, Animal Manifesto 2010
12. Steven Wise, Rattling the Cage-Toward the Legal Rights for Animals
2000
13. Michael Pollan, An Animal's Place, The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2002
14. Giorgio Agamben, The Open-Man and Animal 2004
15. Minds of Their Own, Lesley J. Rogers 1997
16. Applied Ethics in Animal Research-Edited by John P. Gluck, Tony
DiPasquale, F. Barbara Orlans 2002
17. Gary Yourofsky, End Animal Murder Now- on you tube
18. Is Animal Testing Justified? -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.
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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. Award winning documentary 2012
6. Why is Factory Farming such a Big Deal?
Note: The listed references are mostly from publications after year 2000.