Transcript Agriculture Ethics - Animal Liberation Front

Animals in Agriculture
and Ethics
Gary Comstock, Director
Overview
1. What is ethics?
2. What is agriculture?
3. Three ways to raise hogs
4. Three ethical traditions
What is ethics?
• Evaluative study of
arguments about what
actions are right (wrong)
and which states of affairs
are good (bad).
What is ethics?
Ethical considerations
paradigmatically come into
play when an action involves
harm
or potential harm to humans.
What is ethics?
Only humans?
Animals?
Plants?
Ecosystems?
Artificial intelligences?
What is ethics?
Ethical considerations may come into
play when an action involves
harm
or potential harm to
sentient individuals.
What are ethical principles?
Ethical principles are fair
(consistent, universalizable)
principles.
Whatever is right (or wrong) in one
situation is right (or wrong) in any
relevantly similar situation.
Ethical principles
Ethical principles treat
individuals
consistently.
Whatever it would be wrong to do to Paul
in situation x . . .
Ethical principles
Ethical principles treat
individuals
consistently.
Whatever it would be wrong to do to Paul
in situation x would be wrong to do to
Pablo or Paulette in situation x .
What is agriculture?
• Productive use of plants
and animals to meet
human interests in food
and fiber.
Overview
1. What is ethics?
2. What is agriculture?
3. Three ways to raise hogs
4. Three ethical traditions for
evaluating ways to raise hogs
Overview
Three Ways to Raise Hogs
Extensive
Intensive
Hoops
Three Ethical Theories
Cartesianism
Utilitarianism
Animal Rights
Three Ways to
Raise Hogs
Extensive
Intensive
Hoops
Three Ways to Raise Hogs
Extensive: Hog Wild
Hog Wild
Advantages: Stimulating environments
Ability to pursue interests:
e.g., nest-building and rooting
Space to escape from dominant pigs
Ability to form natural social groupings
Ability to escape from predators
(including humans)
Hog Wild
Disadvantages:
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Higher mortality rate for infant pigs than in confinement
Climate extremes (hot and cold weather)
No veterinary care
Higher mortality rate for adults from starvation,
predation, and disease than in confinement
Three Ways to Raise Hogs
Intensive
confinement:
Hog tied
Hog Tied
Advantages:
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Lower infant mortality rate
Individualized diet (particularly advantageous for sows
otherwise at bottom of pecking order)
Protection from aggressors and predators
Typically excellent veterinary care
Advanced genetics means larger litters (More hogs in
existence)
Disadvantages
Intensive confinement
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Inability to pursue interests, e.g., build nests,
root, scratch, socialize, run, establish separate
eating and defecation areas
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High number of aberrant
and stereotypic behaviors
(18 per day)
Stereotypies
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Repeated behaviors that serve no obvious
purpose
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Associated with restricted movement and
decreased exteroceptive stimulation
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Bar biting, tongue rolling, dog sitting, sham
chewing, drinker pressing, tail biting, urine
drinking, polydypsia, mounting
Intensive confinement
Disadvantages:
Boredom, much less responsive
to external stimuli
Lameness from hard surfaces & lack of exercise
Few play behaviors
(0 - 50 per day)
Prone to ulcers
`
A Third Way to Raise Hogs
Hoop
Structures
Hog Hoops
Advantages:
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Stimulating environments: can choose warmer or
cooler microenvironments
Ability to pursue interests, e.g., rooting, scratching,
socializing, running
1.5 aberrant behaviors per day (18 when confined)
50-350 play behaviors per day (0-50 when confined)
Hog Hoops
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Advantages:
Larger groups--more, and more varied, social
interactions (than in confinement)
Better veterinary care (than in wild)
Lower mortality rate from starvation, predation,
disease (than in wild)
Lower mortality rate for infant pig (than in wild)
Better air quality (than in confinement)
Hog Hoops
Disadvantages:
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Slightly more difficult to provide individualized
diets than in confinement
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Potentially more exposure to elements (hot and
cold weather) than in confinement
Three Ethical Traditions
1. Cartesianism (Human dominion)
2. Utilitarianism (Animal welfare)
3. Animal Rights (Vegetarianism)
Three Ethical Traditions
1.
Cartesianism (Human dominion)
Cartesianism
Animals are not conscious
because they lack
-- language
-- reason
Rene Descartes
French philosopher
d. 1650
Without language or reason,
animals are incapable of feeling
pain or pleasure.
Cartesianism
Because hogs cannot feel pain, any
and all methods of raising and
slaughtering hogs is ethically justifiable.
- Peter Carruthers, The Animals Issue
(Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Wh-wh-what?
Three ethical traditions
2. Utilitarianism (Animal welfare)
Utilitarians believe that:
John Stuart
Mill
English
philosopher
d. 1873
the morally right action is
the action that
maximizes aggregate happiness.
Utilitarianism
Every individual affected by an action counts
equally with every other individual.
That is, interest x of
individual Paul counts
equally with interest x
of individuals Paulette,
Pablo, and Paolo.
Utilitarianism
Every individual affected by an action may have their
happiness increased or diminished by the action.
To assess an action:
1. Assign positive values to all increases in
aggregate happiness.
2. Assign negative values to all diminishments in
aggregate happiness.
3. Calculate the results.
Utilitarianism
The right action to perform is always the
action that results in the greatest overall
increase in aggregate happiness.
We are morally obligated to perform right
actions.
Utilitarians believe:
Animals are sentient.
Animals can have their welfare (“happiness”)
enhanced or diminished.
Therefore, we must take animal interests into
account in deciding how to treat them.
What is “happiness”?
Preference utilitarians believe that
individuals are happy to the extent that
they achieve and maintain an integrated
satisfaction of their
preferences
(desires, plans,
and projects).
Utilitarianism
Preference utilitarians believe:
It is wrong to harm an animal
unless the harm is outweighed by benefits
(to that animal, or other animals, or humans).
Preference Utilitarianism
It is prima facie wrong to kill an individual because
it robs the individual of its ability to satisfy its
preferences.
However, the harm of killing an individual may
be outweighed by benefits to other individuals.
Killing hogs is justified
The benefit of meat-eating
to humans outweighs
the harm done the animal.
Therefore:
Pork production is morally the right action because
it maximizes aggregate happiness.
-- R. G. Frey, Interests and Rights: The Case Against
Animals (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980)
Killing hogs is not justified
The benefits to humans do not
outweigh the harm to the animal.
Peter Singer
Pork production is morally the wrong
action because it does not maximize
aggregate happiness.
Princeton philosopher
Animal Liberation (NY: A New York Review Book, 1975)
Three Ethical Traditions
Animal
Rights
Hog Heaven
Animal Rights
Tom Regan
NC State University
Rights theorists reject the
utilitarian view that we are
justified in harming
innocent individuals so that
others may benefit.
The Case for Animal Rights (University of California Press, 1983)
Animal Rights
1st
Apply the principle of consistency:
Treat similar cases similarly
2nd
Consider the mental states of severely cognitively
impaired (SCI) humans: Alzheimer’s patients,
those with extremely low cognitive powers,
the irreversibly mentally diminished
Animal rights theorists argue that:
1. SCI humans have moral rights.
2. Some animals have mental capacities that are
at least as developed and complex as SCI humans.
3. Therefore, applying the principle of consistency,
some animals must also have moral rights.
Animal Rights
Pork production is morally
wrong because the harm
done to the pig violates its rights,
no matter how great the benefits to humans.
Three Ways to Raise Hogs
Three Ethical Theories
Conclusion: Which
theory is right?
Which theory is right?
Cartesianism
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Fails to acknowledge shared evolutionary
lineage of humans and animals
Fails to acknowledge behavioral and
physiological similarities of humans and animals
Therefore: Probably unsatisfactory
Which theory is right?
Utilitarianism
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Allows us to inflict pain on innocent individuals
to achieve benefits for others
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Does not protect SCI humans
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Therefore: Probably unsatisfactory?
Which theory is right?
Animal Rights
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Does not allow us to inflict pain on innocent
individuals to achieve benefits for others
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Protects marginal humans
Which theory is right?
Animal Rights
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Acknowledges shared evolutionary lineage of
humans and animals
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Acknowledges behavioral and physiological
similarities of humans and animals
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Therefore: Probably best of current alternatives?
Acknowledgements
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Prof. Gary Varner, Philosophy Dept., Texas A & M University
– “A Lecture on Animal Rights v. Animal Welfare”
 © 1998-1999 - Gary E. Varner
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http://snaefell.tamu.edu/~gary/awvar/index.html
Prof. Don Lay, Animal Science Dept., Iowa State University
– “Free range pigs” video (no producer, place, or date given)
– “European Pork Production” video (no producer, place or date
given)
– “Normal and Abnormal Behavior in Swine” video (produced by
AWIC / Purdue University, 1993)
Acknowledgements
Photo credits:
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Hog wild; sow in crate; sow biting bar;
and confinement buildings
– The Animal Welfare Institute
http://www.animalwelfare.com/farm/index.html
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Sow in farrowing crate with piglets; sow bites bar
- Copyright Compassion in World Farming Ltd. Reg. No.
2998256 (England). Registered office: Charles House,
5A Charles Street, Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
email: [email protected]
http://www.ciwf.co.uk
Acknowledgements
Photo credits:
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Porky Pig, at: http://www.oz.net/~elfent/e-toon18.html
– http://www.dragg.net/users/pennywitt/porky/porky.htm
– http://www.ltexpress.com/clipart/clippor1.html
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Flying pig, at: http://www.zi.ku.dk/zi/Behfield.html
Hog wild, and “Then calculate!” pig, at Pig Mania:
– http://www.angelfire.com/md/piggys/pig.html
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Utilitarian pigs, at: “Boss Hog”
– © 1995 The News and Observer Publishing Co.
– http://www.nando.net/sproject/hogs/hoghome.html
Acknowledgements
Photo credits:
– Hog hoops: Dr. Mark Honeyman, Coordinator,
Research and Demonstration Farms, Iowa State
University
http://www.ae.iastate.edu/hoop_structures/home.htm
Three Ways to Raise Hogs
Extensive
Intensive
Hoop Structures
Three Ethical Theories
Cartesianism
Utilitarianism
Animal Rights
Using ethical theories to assess treatment of hogs
Conclusion: Which theory is right?
Legal Notice
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I am not the author of any of the images presented in this lecture. These
images were acquired from various public and private sources using a Google
image search.
I claim fair use of these images under the Conference on Fair Use guidelines,
which state, in part:
3.1.1 An educator may display digital images for educational purposes,
including face-to-face teaching of curriculum-based courses, and research
and scholarly activities at a nonprofit educational institution.
3.2 Educators, scholars, and students may use or display digital images in
connection with lectures or presentations in their fields, including uses at
non-commercial professional development seminars, workshops, and
conferences where educators meet to discuss issues relevant to their
disciplines or present works they created for educational purposes in the
course of research, study, or teaching.
www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/confu/conclu2.html#appc
Thanks to David Resnik for use of this slide.
Invitation
www.ncsu.edu/ethics