Living Together with Animals

1. Living Together with Animals What are the Ethical Questions on This?

2. Animals as Objects of Use • Pets- abandonment, over-population. • Food • Clothing • Leather Goods • Medicines and Shampoos • Hunting • Entertainment • Zoos

3. Objects of Use- Pets • Abandoned • Abused • Over-population

4. Animals as Objects- Hens Packed in cages (typically less than half a square foot of floor space per bird), 6 hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration

5. Laying Hens “[T]he American laying hen passes her brief span piled together with a half-dozen other hens in a wire cage. Every natural instinct of this animal is thwarted, leading to a range of behavioral ‘vices’ that can include cannibalizing her cage mates. She rubs her body against the wire mesh until it is bleeding and featherless.10 percent or so of hens that can’t bear it and simply die.

6. Animals as Objects of Use-Pigs Real-life ‘Babes’ see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. Piglets are weaned from their mothers [2–3 weeks] after birth (compared with 13 weeks in nature).This premature weaning leaves the pigs with a lifelong craving to suck and chew- they bite tails of other pigs.

7. Pigs Approximately 200,000 pigs arrive dead at U.S. slaughterhouses each year. 12 Many of these deaths are caused by a lack of ventilation on transport trucks in hot weather. 15 Shown at left are U.S. pigs on a transport truck loaded in Oklahoma and destined for a slaughterhouse south of Mexico City—a journey that would last more than 30 hours. In transit

8. Cattle “It takes 25 minutes to turn a live steer into steak at the modern slaughterhouse where Ramon Moreno works. “The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren’t.‘They blink. They make noises,’ he said softly. ‘The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around.’ “Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. ‘They die,’ said Moreno, ‘piece by piece.’”

9. Entertainment Animals- Use • Circus elephants Standard circus industry training tools used on animals include bull hooks, whips, clubs, and electric prods. Employees report abuse of circus elephants.

10. Circus Elephants Being trained to lay down

11. Entertainment Animals-Objects Lions and tigers, are constantly on the move in their native habitats. In the circus, animals spend most of their time in cages or chains.

12. June 1, 2009 Elephant Riding Fun, But Cruel

13. Dolphins and Whales

14. Whale Hunting Contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries wish to lift the ban on stocks that they believe have recovered sufficiently to sustain limited hunting Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups contend that those stocks remain vulnerable and that whaling is immoral and should remain banned

15. Dolphin Hunt Dolphin drive hunting, also called dolphin drive fishing, is a method of huntingdolphins and occasionally other small cetaceans by driving them together with boats and then usually into a bay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the open sea or ocean with boats and nets.

16. Research Animals 112,200 monkeys used in labs in U.S. Diseases-; Psychological disorders, transplants, vaccine, drub abuse tests.

17. Animals in Research Animal tests aren’t reliable. People and animals are different and that’s why a medicine or cosmetic ingredient that is safe on animals may not be it on people or vice-versa. For example aspirin is toxic to rats and mice but not to people • Animal testing is cruel. • There are alternatives to animal testing

18. Benefits- Animals • Thanks to research using animals, diseases such as polio have been virtually wiped out. Other illnesses, such as diabetes and arthritis, are controlled through animal research. • Animals benefit from research, too! diseases, and developed vaccines—all by using animals in biomedical research.

19. Regulations for Care • Animal Care Committees • Refinement, Reduction & Replacement-Three R’s • Other Countries

20. Animals as Rights Holders • Rights conferring characteristics- intelligence, sentience- ability to feel and suffer. • What rights then do animals have? • Life • Life in natural habitat • Freedom from pain and suffering.

21. The Five Freedoms • Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutritionFreedom from discomfort, pain, injury, or disease Freedom to express normal behaviorFreedom from fear and distress • Freedom to be free

22. The Moral Question • The Mental Ladder-”We human beings do have a ladder representing our judgment as to “likeability”- those at the top are genetically like us and those we have domesticated to behave in ways we prefer.”

23. The Dismissal Position Descartes- animals are “mere” machines and do not feel.

24. Animal Welfare Position • Enormous benefits to humans and necessary to medical progress. • Humans dominant/superior. • Animals do not suffer.

25. Utilitarian Position • Ability to suffer is key. • Value increases with richness of life-ways can suffer and receive pleasure. • Raymond Frey- Quality of life of some humans lower than that of some animals.

26. Utilitarianism “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” Jeremy Bentham An Introduction to the Principles of Morals & Legislation, 1789

27. The Kantian Position • Rational criteria-intelligence, consciousness, intentions. • The way we treat animals is relevant to the way we treat humans.

28. Inherent Value & Rights • Value not tied to mental states or talents of others or use or how viewed by others. • “Rights”= “moral trump cards”-trump “collective interest.”

29. Nussbaum- Capabilities • The opportunity to unfold their powers and to flourish in their own way and to lead a life with dignity.

30. Koko- The Gorilla