Module #11: Use of animals for food, fiber, and research

Leaders: Michael Stoskopf, NC State; and Gary Comstock, NC State

Members: Alan Beck, Purdue; Ed Pajor, Purdue; Joe Garner, Purdue; Joan Hopper, ISU; Don Beitz, ISU; Rob Streiffer, UW, Doug Vincent, UH; Millie Worku, NC A&T; and Gary Varner, Texas A&M.

This module will provide general training for doctoral candidates using animals for food and fiber, helping them to think through the moral status of animals from various moral traditions, including Cartesianism, utilitarianism, animal welfare and animal rights.

Based on an original research contribution by team member Varner, the module describes three ethical traditions:

  Approved practices Philosophical basis Scientific beliefs
1. Animal Use      

"Animals were put here for our use by (Nature, God). Their primary purpose is to serve us. They are our property; we are their masters."

 Cockfighting, bullfighting, Injuring animals for movies, Cosmetic testing, Confined exotic anima,l hunting, Sport hunting, Circuses, rodeo Consciousness necessary to suffer. Language and reason necessary for consciousness. R. Descartes, P. Carruthers Animals lack reason, language, & consciousness. Have only "non-conscious" experiences.
2. Animal Welfare      
"We are stewards of animals created by (Nature, God). They are our companions; we should care for them. We may use them considerately." Raising food animals humanely, Slaughter with minimal pain, Pets and animal ownership, Subsistence hunting, Some, not all, rodeo events, Killing animals for clothes, Some, not all, zoo animals Consciousness necessary to suffer. Trade-off costs against benefits. Benefits to humans of using animals often outweigh the costs to the animals.
P. Singer, R. G. Frey		 Animals possess consciousness. Have interests, can suffer pain. But these pains & pleasures are on a comparatively low level.
3. Animal Rights      
"Animals have their own interests, desires, and social lives. We should respect their interests because they are subjects of a life, just as we are." Vegetarianism, or veganism, Conserve wildlife habitat, Rightists may condone some illegal activities to save especially intelligent animals, such as great apes. Opposed to much animal research Many opposed to leather, milk Consciousness necessary to suffer. Do not trade-off costs against benefits. Animal interests are typically equivalent to identical human interests
T. Regan, E. Pluhar		 Animals possess interests. Some can reason about their immediate future. Some live in social groups, and have projects that matter to them.

The module then describes the following four cases and asks for students’ reactions.

1. Hog care

"You (as a veterinarian) are called to a 500-sow farrow-to-finish swine operation to examine a problem with vaginal discharges in sows. There are three full-time employees and one manager overseeing approximately 5000 animals. As you examine several sows in the crated gestation unit, you notice one with a hind leg at an unusual angle and inquire about her status. You are told 'She broke her leg yesterday and she's due to farrow next week. We'll let her farrow in here and then we'll shoot her and foster off the pigs'." (Source: Canadian Veterinary Journal) Bernard Rollin writes: "Before commenting on this case, I spoke to the veterinarian who had experienced this incident, a swine practitioner. He explained that such operations run on tiny profit margins and minimal labor. Thus, even when he offered to splint the leg at cost, he was told that the operation could not afford the manpower entailed by separating this sow and caring for her..."

Question: Should immediate euthanization of such animals be required by law?

Answer this question from the perspective of each of the three positions described above.

2. Beef slaughter

Approximately 30 million cattle are slaughtered yearly in the United States . When it comes to.the slaughter procedure itself, the large-scale, state-of-the-art facilities capable of slaughtering as many as 400 or 600 animals per hour are, perhaps contrary to popular belief, the most humane. The races approaching the stunning chute can be designed to look just like those through which cattle have traveled previously for routine veterinary care, experienced handlers can move animals along without prodding, cattle do not "smell blood in the chutes," and "stunning" is a misnomer for what happens in the kill chute, since a properly placed shot with a "stun gun" obliterates the animal's brain, making it impossible to regain consciousness.

Question: Is this method of slaughter permissible? Should it be the legally required method?

Answer these questions from the perspective of each of the three positions described above.

3. Milk cows

On average, milking cows spend between three and four years in production, after which they are slaughtered for relatively low-grade beef. Dairy farmers maintain high productivity by breeding cows to calve about yearly. The calves are removed from their mothers immediately or within days, with most of the female calves becoming replacement milk cows and almost all of the male calves being raised for veal. Statistics indicate that about one seventh of the cattle slaughtered yearly are from dairy herds.

Question: Is this method of milking morally permissible?

Answer these questions from the perspective of each of the three positions described above.

4. Laying hens

Today over 90% of laying hens in the United States live caged in intensive egg production facilities, which have increased the average yield per hen from 70 in 1933 to 275 today. In these facilities, birds cannot forage, flap their wings, dust-bathe, nest, establish dominance hierarchies, or even preen themselves in natural ways; culling of injured birds is economically inefficient, and the entire population of a battery operation is slaughtered and replaced periodically (every 12-15 months on state of the art operations).

Poultry are still exempt from federal humane slaughter legislation and by comparison to state of the art cattle slaughter facilities, poultry slaughter is still a relatively indelicate affair; fully conscious birds are hung from their legs on conveyor belts before being stunned and beheaded.

Question: Is this method of obtaining eggs morally permissible?

Answer the question from the perspective of each of the three positions described above.

Final Questions:

  • How would an Animal Welfarist rank each of the farm animal practices described here in terms of their moral acceptability?
  • How would an Animal Rightist rank the practices?

Bibliography

These cases were all written by Professor Gary Varner (Philosophy Department), Texas A & M University . They appear in The Ag Bioethics Forum 8 (December 1996): 4, 6, 9. The cases are all based on information in Bernard Rollin's Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues (Iowa State University Press, 1995), and in Gary E. Varner, "What's Wrong with Animal By-Products?" Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 7 (1994): 7-17.