Life in the wild

Misc

• Field trips
• will return exams today

Kyle Johansson, "Humanitarian Assistance for Wild Animals"

Major claims in this article--

(1) - (6): wild animals have bad lives

(7) - (11): what we should do about it

We will discuss (1) - (6) today

(1) Humanitarian assistance -- does not mean rescuing koala bears from bush fires or saving raccoons and deer after a hurricane. 

"Severe suffering is pervasive in nature. It's built into natural proccesses, and thus it's the norm rather than the exception." (p. 33)

(2) Evolution isn't necessarily beneficial to individual animals -- it's beneficial to their genes 

• peacocks encumbered by their tails
• male songbirds attract predators

(3) A common reproductive strategy involves lots of offspring, lots of mortality

r-strategists--huge number of offspring, little parental investment, most offspring die young

1. examples of r-strategists that are mammals
2. huge numbers killed by predators

K-strategists -- smaller number of offspring, more parental investment, fewer die young (note that a lot do still die young)

• humans -- 2 per couple, one per partner -- replacement rate
• eagles -- each female lays 2-3 eggs per year for 20 years
• leopards--each female leopard has 2-3 cubs every 15 mo-2 years, over 10 years.  
• puffins--each female puffin has one chick every year over 30 years

(4) Predation is another cause of wild animal suffering

1. 2/3 of wild animals eat other animals
2. Prey die miserable deaths

(5) Mature wild animals also suffer due to --

• "disease, parasites, predator-induced stress, predator-caused injuries, and extreme temperatures" (p. 34)
• He doesn't discuss, but we could also add:  competition within species

• Male lions, cheetahs, leopards kill cubs
• Wolf packs--fighting for dominance, only alpha male and female mate
• Ungulates (antelopes, caribou, etc.) fight mates
• Seals, baboons

(6) On the whole ...

Some ethicists have recently speculated that "the amount of suffering in nature probably exceeds the amount of enjoyment in it. They may or may not be right about that, but at the very least we can say that most individual wild animals live bad lives." (p. 34)

(7)  Philanthropists tend to overlook wild animal suffering

• they focus on global poverty
• they focus on factory farming (Effective Altruism website)
• but "wild animals are far more numerous" (p. 36)

(8) One type of large-scale assistance is vaccinating animals

(9) But genetic intervention would be the most effective intervention

• change carnivores into herbivores
• change r-strategists into K-strategists
• alter r-strategists so offspring don't suffer as much

(10)  Objections to gene editing are weak

1. there's nothing especially good about naturalness when it conflicts with wellbeing (p. 36)
2. gene editing doesn't have to be coercive
3. studying gene editing will involve some animal experimentation

(11) For now...

• we should hold off on gene-editing
• focus on vaccination programs
• study and build support for gene editing

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Today let's discuss whether wild animals really do have bad lives

ANIMAL WELLBEING TOOLKIT

1. Browning and Birch -- sentience in animals
2. Zangwill -- we should not forget to focus on animal pleasure (in addition to pain)
3. Abbate -- sophisticated hedonism -- physiological pleasure and pain matter, but ethological pleasure especially matters (pleasure from innate behaviors)
4. Nussbaum -- a well-off animal can develop 10 capabilities -- they all matter, not just pleasure/pain
1. Life
2. Bodily health
3. Bodily integrity
4. Senses, imagination, and thought
5. Emotions
6. Practical reason -- making key choices
7. Affiliation
8. Other species
9. Play
10. Control over one's environment

LIFE IN THE WILD

 

RABBITS

Hands off vs. hands on

Animals "out there"

So far, focus has been on animals in our homes...in our backyards...in factory farms ... in labs. Now we are talking about animals "out there" in wild places like forests, prairies, oceans, etc.

1. How should we treat wildlife, generally?  (today)
2. What are the endemic --built in--problems of wildlife and what should we do about these problems?  (11/11 & 13)
3. Is hunting ok? (11/16 & 18)
4. Is captivity in zoos and aquaria ok? (11/20)

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How should we treat wildlife, generally?

What if wild animals DON'T HAVE moral standing?

Ecological holism (Aldo Leopold, wildlife managers)

1. What has moral significance is the whole ecosystem
2. Individual animals have no moral standing
3. We should help/hunt depending on what's beneficial for the whole ecosystem

Example: helping/hunting at  Hagerman Wildlife Refuge 

• hunting seasons (wild boar, white-tailed deer)
• crops planted for migratory birds

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Suppose you think that wild animals DO have moral standing.  Should we be...

1. Hands off approaches to wildlife
2. Hands on approaches to wildlife (interventionist)

Hands off 

Donaldson & Kymlicka: analogy with people in foreign countries

• No hunting (based on animal rights, not category)
• If we caused problems, we should help  
• If problems are endemic, we should respect their "sovereignty"
• D&K don't rule out one-off rescues; still pretty hands off

Example: should we build bridges to help the wildebeests crossing the Mara river?

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Hands on approaches

Martha Nussbaum, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility

PART 1: What's wrong with hands off?

• Hands off intuition involves "romantic dream" (p. 224) about wilderness as better because free of humanity, urban life, industrialization 

"Oh those animals, so far below us, how alive, how robust they are! If only for a brief five-day safari we could share (from a safe distance) their world of violence and scarcity. Of course, we would never dream of living that life, but we feel a frisson by brief contact, a d we feel more alive. (Many people on eco-safari think and talk in exactly this way.) (p. 236)

Watching the wildebeeests

 

• Actual problems of wild animals...
• starvation
• weather extremes
• fires
• predators
• high infant mortality

• The wild doesn't even exist -- every part of nature impacted by humans to some degree

"However large the tracts of land may be, all land in our world is thoroughly under human control. Thus 'wild animals' in Africa live on animal refuges maintained by the governments of various nations, who control admission to them, defend them from poachers (only sometimes successfully), and support the lives of animals int hem through a range of strategies (including spraying for tsetse tsetse flies and many other matters).  There would be no rhinos or elephants left in the world if humans did not intervene" (p. 228)

• Lights in cities affect bird migration
• garbage in oceans and commercial fishing affect sea life
• climate change affects many species
• habitat loss affects all species

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PART 2: How to intervene (examples)

Kyrgyzstan, Ala Archa Park

1. Zone 1 -- humans may enter for hiking and picnicking
2. Zone 2 -- wild animals, no humans
3. Zone 3 -- only breeding animals

New Zealand bird sanctuary

• birds evolved without mid-sized mammals, so are defenseless
• settlers introduced rabbits, squirrels, mice, rabbits
• sanctuary has netting to keep the mammals out, but give birds freedom

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PART 3:  What is the ultimate goal? When have we acheived justice for animals?

• rejects the hedonistic Utilitarian's focus on happiness and misery, pleasure and pain
• all animals should have the opportunity to develop all of their fundamental capabilities
• What are the central capabilities (Justice for Animals p. 88, 102, 234-235)

1. Life
2. Bodily health
3. Bodily integrity
4. Senses, imagination, and thought
5. Emtions
6. Practical reason -- making key choices
7. Affiliation
8. Other species
9. Play
10. Control over one's environment

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Peter Singer: Hands off or Hands on?

Helping wild animals

MODULE 6: WILD ANIMALS

OUR QUESTIONS IN THIS MODULE

1. How are wild animals doing out there? Do they live good lives?
2. What should we do for wild animals? Should we just leave them alone? (first)
3. Is it ok to hunt wild animals? For sport? For food? For ecological reasons?
4. Is it ok to capture wild animals and put them in zoos and aquaria?

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WHAT SHOULD WE DO FOR WILD ANIMALS?

• Clare Palmer, "Animal Ethics" 
• Surveys many ideas we've encountered, but with a focus on wild animals

SUPPOSE A CAT IS HUNGRY

• the cat could be in one of these four categories

CAPACITY VIEW

• four cats have the same inner capacities; they're all hungry
• the differences don't matter (why are they vulnerable, who made them vulnerable?) 
• example: Peter Singer, Utilitarianism; Tom Regan

CONTEXT VIEW

• four cats have the same inner capacities; they're all hungry
• BUT the contexts are different
• A, B, C: we have special obligations, based on our past role 
• obligations to not harm
• obligations to help
• D: no obligations
• example: Palmer, D&K

TODAY: CONTEXT VIEW

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CONTEXT VIEW, APPLIED TO VARIOUS CASES

Type A: dog you have adopted, tethered outside in winter

Type C: wild animal made vulnerable by human captivity

Type C: polar bears unable to hunt on ice due to human-caused climate change

Type D: mute swans on Lake Ontario, problems not due to humans

Type D: Hungry white-tailed deer in winter, problems not caused by humans

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CONTEXT VIEW SAYS

• A, B, C situations: problems are partly human-caused, so we have obligations
• D situation: problems not human-caused, so no obligation to help

TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF "NO OBLIGATION TO HELP"

1. In type D situations, it's not obligatory to help, but also not wrong -- optional
2. In type D situations, it's not obligatory to help, and in fact it's wrong -- against intervention

IS INTERVENTION OPTIONAL OR WRONG?

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TYPE D: WILDEBEESTS CROSSING MARA RIVER (TANZANIA)

• they migrate to mating grounds and birthing grounds
• some fall to their deaths or drown or are killed by lions

wildebeests crossing the Mara river in Tanzania
Wildebeest safari website

BUILDING A BRIDGE TO HELP THESE ANIMALS... OPTIONAL OR WRONG?

WILDLIFE BRIDGE

Washington State
a wildlife bridge in a type C situation

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ANOTHER TYPE D

Leopard infanticide in the Okavanga Delta, Botswana

1. PBS: Big Cats
2. Xudum is the mother, Musweu is the male intruder
3. Film-makers are Brad and Tristan

SCARING INTRUDER AWAY: OPTIONAL OR WRONG?

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WHY BE AN ANTI-INTERVENTIONIST?

• wildness is inherently good
• whatever is natural is good
• other species are like sovereign nations--their ways are owed respect (D&K)

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Next author: Martha Nussbaum

1. Makes a case against this anti-interventionist position
2. She's PRO intervention

Review for Exam 2

 Groups -- please come up with some topics/questions using the workbook

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Author names -- the exam will jog your memory by supplying article/book titles or concepts along with author names.  

Choice -- 5 questions, you will answer 4 -- there's a bit of choice within questions as well.

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Cover enough but not too much, plan ahead. For example:

• Factory farming & Humane farming

Explaining arguments 

1. Make sure your explanation includes key premises -- James Rachels' argument for vegetarianism 
2. Make sure your explanation doesn't omit crucial ideas -- Bruckner roadkill argument

Making objections

• Key thing is to show thoughtfulness, not to make a devastating objection -- Bruckner objections

Defining terms

• Any unfamiliar terms should be defined--e.g. marginal casees, superior beings, ethological pleasures, etc.

Giving examples

• To make yourself clear, it's always good to give examples.  For example (!), say you're saying that D&K think animal citizens have a responsibility to do non-exploitative work.  What's an example of non-exploitative work?

Animal Research

Review Monday, study guide at tab

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How to take a position on animal research

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Tom Regan's position: no animal research

• "In the case of animals used in science the rights view is categorically abolitionist. Lab animals are not our tasters, we are not their kings." (Regan, "The Case for Animal Rights" p. 9)

Peter Singer's position: rarely ethical

• Tipu Aziz -- 100 monkeys used to test deep brain stimulation that helped 40,000 Parkinson's patients (ALN p. 21)
• but also right to do this research on comparable humans

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Mylan Engel's position: stop all animal research, but proceeds from commonsense ethics

"The Commonsense Case Against Animal Experimentation"

• Note: paper seems to take a position on all animal experimentation but he focusses on the first--
• drug testing
• vaccine testing
• basic anatomy and physiology
• causes and progression of diseases 
• develop surgical procedures
• psychology research
• etc.
• Starts from obvious ethics, makees non-obvious factual claims

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Engel's factual claims about animal research

Drug testing background:  testing covid vaccines on monkeys

The Extrapolation problem

• Dogs and chocolate
• LD50 test -- stands for "lethal dose 50%" -- the amount of a substance that causes death in 50% when given to a set of animals

• "Why should anyone care how much of X proves lethal to 50 percent of rat subjects? This idiosyncratic information has no relevance to human health and well being It is no more useful than knowing whether the number of blades of grass in your front yard is odd or even." (Engel p. 220)
• example of a use -- testing the strength of batches of botox using LD50 on mice

• drug testing failures

• Learning from research vs. luck
• Covid vaccine safe and effective in monkeys ... safe and effective in humans ... just luck
• Aziz brain stimulation method safe and effective in monkeys...safe and effective in humans ... just luck

If we stopped animal research, are there alternatives?

• Grow human tissue in vitro, use it to study diseases and drugs
• Use synthetic substitutes
• replacement for LD50 for botox testing
• eytex instead of Draize test

• Use computer models
• Test on human volunteers, using microdosing

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Larry Carbone 

• lab vet -- author of The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals   
• "The Utility of Basic Animal Research" -- we do gain useful information from animal research
• Veterinarians extrapolate from one species to another all the time
• evolutionary biology supports extrapolation
• Biomedical research is probabilistic--doesn't provide certainty
• There are also failures of extrapolation from other types of research--in vitro, computer models, epidemiology, using human volunteers, etc.

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If Carbone and Singer are right about the utility of SOME animal research, we still have to ask the hard ethical questions

1. Morally, are we entitled to use animals for human gain?
2. If we are not entitled, should we stop doing animal research?

Using animals for research

Animal wellbeing -- relevant when we get to wild animal module, zoos, aquaria

What is it for an animal to have wellbeing or lack wellbeing?

1. Simple hedonism -- pleasure & pain  (Peter Singer)
2. Sophisticated hedonism -- pleasure & pain, but ethological pleasure prioritized; deprivation vs. infliction (Cheryl Abbate)
3. Capabilities approach -- fulfillment of various basic capabilities (Martha Nussbaum 11/9)
4. Liberty & wild dignity -- to be discussed (Lori Gruen 11/20)

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Using animals for research

1. What's going on in animal labs
2. How animal research is regulated in the US
3. When, if ever, is animal research justified?

Singer, ALN ch. 2 "Tools for Research....no it's not all about saving human lives"

• chapter is 70 pages long (print edition)
• worldwide, roughly 200 million animals killed for research annually
• psychology experiments
• product and drug testing (next time)
• medical experiments (another source)
• regulations
• justification

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Psychopathology experiments--must induce mental illness in the animals, so the misery is the point

• "monkey models of mental illness" (Steve Suomi) -- PETA whistleblower video -- what was the point?
• maternal deprivation (Harlow & Suomi) -- 1950s show about Harlow (6:00 - )
• abuse (Harlow & Suomi), quote on p. 10-11 
• depression  (Harlow & Suomi) -- the well of despair
• learned helplessness experiments (Seligman) -- shuttleboxes
• PTSD experiments -- a schedule of stresses 

Singer's objections (among others):

1. these experiments told us things we had already learned by observing kids in orphanages (John Bowlby)
2. Endless permutations and repetitions

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Medical research through the eyes of its defenders

• Tour of an animal lab--Dr. John Young
• transparency strategy--don't let PETA be the only one to tells the publlc what's going on in animal labs -- like state fair showing farrowing stalls
• Americans for Medical Progress

Product and drug testing -- next time

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Regulations

Animal cruelty laws

• US map
• Texas animal cruelty law

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The Animal Welfare Act: overview  -- Enacted 1966, Amended 1970, 1976, 1985, 1990, 2002

• Lab animals: applies, but not to mice, rats, birds, cold-blooded animals 
• Farm animals: doesn't apply except during transportation; doesn't apply to rodeos
• Zoos and aquariums: applies to warm-blooded animals, doesn't apply to birds
• marine mammals (p. 196, p. 213) 
• You can file a complaint
• Pets: applies to those in pet stores and during transport

Provisions for lab animals (highlights)

• Most animals used are not covered (mice, rats, birds, cold-blooded animals)
• Proper food and housing
• Enrichment for primates, exercise for dogs
• Pain relief, but can be withheld when scientifically necessary
• Same animal can't be subjected to multiple surgical procedures, except when scientifically necessary
• IACUC (institutional animal care and use committees) -- including a vet, nonfamily of primary researcher
• Iacuc must approve proposals
• IACUC not like human subject review panel--no requirement of consent or benefit to subjects
• Inspections

Critique -- 

• no judgment ever made about whether the harm to animals is balanced by benefit to humans (the balance question)
• regulates HOW experiments are done, not WHETHER theyr'e done
• the UK and European Union do consider balance and therefore prohibit cosmetic testing/research

SMU research compliance

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Peter Singer -- is research on animals ever justified?

1. Shouldn't say "never"
2. Should experiment on animals if you wouldn't experiment on comparable humans -- no speciesism
3. Example of experiment that may be justifiable -- Tipu Aziz, Parkinson's research

The way forward

• Somewhat skeptical that loss of animal research would make a huge difference to human health
• Skeptical of claim that human lifespan would be only 42 if it weren't for animal research

Outdoor cats, bringing back pets

 Last time: should we have pets at all?

Today: how we treat our pets ... especially cats

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Ethical cat care

1. Is it ok to confine a cat indoors? (Cheryl Abbate)
2. Is it ok to spay/neuter a cat?
3. Is it ok to give a cat a longevity drug so they live for 30 years? (Hess)
4. Is it ok to clone your cat? (Hess)
5. Is it ok to dress you pet up for Halloween or artistic photography? (pictures in Hess)

Other questions

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Cheryl Abbate, "A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being"

Standard "humane" view: cats should be kept indoors for their own safety and the safety of wildlife

Abbate's view: cat guardians have a duty to allow cats outdoors during the day, if the environment is suitable (should consider traffic, predators)

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Preliminaries

Roaming options for cats

1. Indoor only
2. Indoor plus free-roaming (during day, away from roads)
3. Community cats -- cats are free to come and go, but may have favorite places and people
4. Feral cats -- they avoid humans 

Duties of pet guardians (p. 455)

• We have a prima facie duty to promote the wellbeing of our pets
• Prima facie duty -- a duty that is overridable, not absolute

Harm  (p. 443-444)

• we can harm through deprivation -- the animal is denied something that would have been pleasurable -- e.g. the dog who never goes for a walk or never interacts with other dogs
• we can harm through infliction -- the animal actually suffers -- the dog demands a walk, sees other dogs through window

Animal wellbeing

• Animals have wellbeing to the extent that they have a positive balance of pleasure over pain AND their pleasures are diverse and include ethological pleasures (p. 442)
• Physiological pleasures: eating, drinking, sleeping
• Ethological pleasures: innate, adaptive, done regardless of external reward, and especially pleasurable

"Second, there are ethological pleasures, which refer to the pleasures of performing certain skilled and controlled behavior. Examples include the pleasures of foraging (for foraging animals), hunting (for predators), and rooting (for pigs). These pleasures involve active engagement, cognitive challenge, and control....Observations of animal behavior inform us that ethological pleasures are more pleasurable than bodily pleasures." (p. 450)

 "This all suggests that engagement, challenge, choice, and control are self-rewarding for most animals .... On the other hand, a lack of active engagement is identified as a primary cause of boredom, depression, and anxiety in animals .... Because the performances of certain natural behavior patterns are evidently especially pleasurable and are thus themselves necessary for well-being, promoting feline well-being requires more than just giving cats“the environmental endpoints” of their natural behaviors, i.e., their physiological needs; it requires that we moreover enable them to experience ethological pleasures..." (p. 450-451)

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Abbate's main claim

• cat guardians have a prima facie duty to give their cats time outdoors

Some key premises used to support

• Hunting and territorial behavior are ethological pleasures for cats
• The indoor cat has lower wellbeing
• The indoor cat is harmed by deprivation, not necessarily infliction
• The indoor cat may have a longer life, but has a worse life

What about the wildlife killed by cats?

• Housecats are not great hunters
• The animals they kill are weaker, were going to die anyway
• Cat food has a higher kill-rate per calorie

Is it part of her argument that your primary loyalty should be to your cat?

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What about human hunters

• hunting is not an ethological pleasure for humans -- not innate (p. 458)
• human hunters kill best specimens, not animals who are going to die anyway (p. 458)

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Spaying and neutering

What would/should Abbate say?

Statistics

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SMU's feral cat colony

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Hess, "What if you could give your dog a longer life?"

Loyal -- longevity treatments

Viagen -- cloning

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Costumes for pets?

Animal companions

Module 5: more uses of animals

1. Having animal companions (pets)  
2. Using animals for research 
3. Review Nov 2
4. Exam II Nov 4

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Should we keep domesticated animals as pets?

• NO
• Gary Francione & Anna Charlton, "The Case Against Pets" (Aeon)
• Francione is a professor of law at Rutgers University
• YES
• Donaldson & Kymlicka (response to Francione)
• Rowlands (contrast with Francione)

Wild animals as pets (they're not discussing)

• pet squirrels
• taming and forming a relationship with a hawk -- e.g. H is for Hawk

Domesticated animals as pets

What is domestication?

• Wikipedia definition
• two species coexist, one exerts influence on the other (doesn't have to be intentional)
• leads over time to modification of genes, appearance, behavior
• domesticated animals: not afraid of humans, socialize with humans, less aggressive, more dependent
• the grey wolf (canis lupus) --> dogs (canis lupus familiaris) 
• African wild cats (felis sylvestris lybica) --> house cats (felis sylvestris catus)

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What's the matter with having domesticated animals as pets?

1. Since animals are property under the law, the owner has many prerogatives that are harmful to animals.
2. Even if you could solve that problem, domesticated animals would sstill have impoverished lives because of their built-in limitations

• wild ancestors of cats and dogs: self-sufficient, skilled, fearful, avoid humans
• domesticated animals: docile, helpless, dependent, don't fear humans, can "read" humans, want our attention and praise, love us, can be obedient, like perpetual children

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What should we DO about domesticated animals?

1. Stop treating them as property
2. Rescue from shelters
3. Spay and neuter
4. Extinction is the ultimate goal

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CRITICS

D&K's response to Francione --

"dependency is not inherently degrading or undignified, and certainly not unnatural. What matters is how we respond to dependency, and in both the human and animal case, a central task of a citizenship perspective is precisely to uphold the dignity of those co-citizens who over the course of their lifetime exhibit various stages and degrees of dependence." (D&K p. 4)

Francione's response to D&K --

 RR quesion 2: what would Rowlands say to Francione and Charlton?

Animals at the Fair

Fair Topics (field trips)

Question for everyone. A lot of western culture and Texas culture is on display at the fair. Did you observe it as an insider or an outsider?

1. Rodeo (below)
2. Other animal events
• pig racing
• sheep dog herding
• equestrian
3. Judging of livestock
4. Animal farming practices
• the birthing barn
• cow milking
• sheep shearing
• etc.
5. Exotic animal petting zoo
• kangaroos

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RODEO

Bernard Rollin, "Rodeo and Recollection"

• Rollin--ethicist at Colorado State University, teaches future veterinarians, ranchers, cowboys
• Western ranch culture, rodeo as symbol of the west, critics seen as outsiders
• His admiration for ranchers, because they genuinely take care of animals
• How to talk ethics with cowboys? Respect, recollection (get people to realize what they already know)
• Minimal principle rodeo folks agreed on: should not harm animals for trivial reasons
• Particular rodeo events he objects to--tie down roping, should replace with break away roping; horse tripping; events that make use of animal fear

Rodeo videos

1. Rodeo events (bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding)
2. the flank strap
3. Tie down roping
4. Break away roping
5. horse tripping (outlawed in Texas and about 9 other states)

Defense 3: Freegan

Recap: sources of meat (and other animal products)

1. factory farms
• blog post
• also this-- new Nicholas Kristof column about slaughter of chickens -- undercover video 
• 22 killed per minute per person slaughtering -- 175 killed per minute by the whole line (increased speed proposed by Trump administration) -- these speed limits are based on human safety, not animal welfare
2. humane farms
• blog post
• how are they slaughtered? -- video of slaughter at polyface farm -- 4 killed per minute per person slaughtering
• exempt from federal regulations based on small size and on-site sales
3. rivers, oceans -- commercial fishing -- sport fishing (module 6)
4. wilderness -- hunting (module 6)
5. roads (roadkill)

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Arguments depend on source of animal products

Factory farm animal products

1. Rachels: wrong to consume
2. Budolfson: permissible to consume when (a) can't save animals and (b) harm inessential

Humane farm animal products

1. Zangwill: you should consume humanely raised animals -- being created is good for these animals, even if later killed
2. Replies
• What would Singer say?
• What would Regan/D&K say?
• Creating farm animals --> reduces habitat for wild animals --> fewer wild animals 
• Zangwill says that's ok, because farm animals are happier than wild animals ...we will discuss in Module 6

Road kill/Accidental meat

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Do people really eat roadkill?  Not in Texas. It's illegal here but legal in many states.

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Donald Bruckner, "Strict Vegetarianism is Immoral"

• Eating factory farmed meat is immoral
• Strict vegetarianism is immoral
• The moral diet = plant based plus some roadkill

Factory Harm argument (quotes on p. 2 and 3)

P1 "Factory farming causes extensive harm to animals." 

P2  "This harm is unnecessary. It is unnecessary in the sense that we humans do not need to cause it in order to gain adequate nutrition for healthy bodies and to preserve our lives." 

C1  "The practice of factory farming causes extensive, unnecessary harm to animals." 

P3   "It is wrong (knowingly) to cause, or support practices that cause, extensive, unnecessary harm to animals."

C2 "Purchasing and consuming meat from factory farms is wrong."

Note: easiest to follow argument assuming he thinks our food choices have efficacy. He discusses this issue later in article.

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What's wrong with a strict vegetarian (vegan) diet?

Problem: plant farming causes harm too

Steven Davis, "The least harm principle may require that humans consume a diet containing large hervibores, not a vegan diet" 

Bruckner

"Picking up road-killed animals does not harm any animals. Road-killed animals are already dead, so they are not harmed by picking them up as livestock are harmed by common husbandry practices. And no animals are killed in the process of picking up roadkill, as field animals are killed in the process of crop farming. So on the very standards of the Factory Harm Argument, we are obligated to collect and consume roadkill." (p. 9)

3 eaters

1. OMNIVORE (eats all foods)  -- most unnecessary harm
• causes deliberate deaths of food animals 
• PLUS causes accidental deaths of field animals
2. VEGAN (eats plants only)  -- less unnecessary harm than omnivore
• causes accidental deaths of field animals
3. FREEGAN (plants plus roadkill) - least unnecessary harm
• causes no deaths by picking up roadkill 
• PLUS causes fewer accidental deaths of field animals compared to vegan   

Conclusion: It's not just permissible to be a freegan; it's obligatory!

Objections/Questions/Comments

1. Would a freegan try to cause fewer accidental deaths of field animals by foraging in forests? Maybe.  Impact on wild animals might be an issue.
2. By taking roadkill off of roads, wouldn't that harm wild animals that eat them? Possibly they're removed before they're eaten because they're a danger to drivers.
3. What about animals accidentally shot? Bruckner would probably see them as similar to roadkill.
4. Wouldn't his reasoning lead to the idea that we should eat human roadkill? Not clear whether he would want to just say that's taboo or go along with it. 
5. Plant foods don't all have the same connection to accidental deaths of field animals. We could try to eat plant foods grown in greenhouses.  Bruckner would probably say we should, since he thinks we should cause the least possible unnecessary harm.
6. Should we just eat lab grown food if that causes the least unnecessary harm? That does seem to be where this view leads.
7. Roadkill seems worse than plant food because it's inherently bound up with death, whereas it just happens to be true that farm machinery kills field animals.  We could use Budolfson's concept of essential harm to express this idea.

Defense 2: Existence

Should you eat products produced in factory farms?

1. Rachels: no, your taste preferences are minor compared to the suffering of the animals
2. Budolfson: sometimes it's permissible, i.e. when (A) you can't prevent the suffering, AND (B)  the product is not essentially harmful

What about humane farms?

• traditional farms around the world -- sheep all over New Zealand, the UK, Iceland
• boutique farms in the US -- products sold at places like Whole Foods
• cattle ranches in Texas -- seemingly humane at least for the duration

• Our World in Data: amount of grazing land
• Our World in Data: animals killed per year for food

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Ranch field trip -- how humane is humane?

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Nick Zangwill, "Why You Should Eat Meat" -- the Existence Argument

• Henry Salt -- discusses and rejects
• Peter Singer -- discusses in many places including ALN
• a large literature about this argument
• Zangwill's version is particularly provocative

Zangwill's conclusion 

Not only is it permissible but we SHOULD eat animals

"If you care about animals, you should eat them. It is not just that you may do so, but you should do so. In fact, you owe it to animals to eat them. It is your duty. Why? Because eating animals benefits them and has benefitted them for a long time. Breeding and eating animals is a very long-standing cultural institution that is a mutually beneficial relationship between human beings and animals. We bring animals into existence, care for them, rear them, and then kill and eat them. From this, we get food and other animal products, and they get life. Both sides benefit. I should say that by ‘animals’ here, I mean nonhuman animals. It is true that we are also animals, but we are also more than that, in a way that makes a difference."

The whole existence argument in a nutshell

"Domesticated animals exist in the numbers they do only because there is a practice of eating them. For example, the many millions of sheep in New Zealand would not begin to survive in the wild. They exist only because human beings eat them. The meat-eating practice benefits them greatly and has benefitted them greatly. So, we should eat them. Not eating them is wrong, and it lets these animals down."

MAIN STEPS

1. Some farm animals have quite good lives

"Of course, the animals we eat should have good lives, and so the worst kind of factory farming is not justified by this argument, since these animals have no quality of life. Life is not enough; it must be life with a certain quality. But some farmed animals do have good lives overall, and sheep farming in New Zealand is an example."

"the pleasure and happiness of animals also matters, and it may outweigh pain and suffering – something usually overlooked by most of those who affect to care for animals. The emphasis among the defenders of so-called ‘animal rights’ on animal pain and suffering while ignoring animal pleasure and happiness is bizarre and disturbing"

"I suspect that the pleasure and happiness of animals is overlooked because they are not of our species. This is a kind of speciesism that particularly afflicts devotees of ‘animals rights’. All lives have their ups and downs; and this is true for animals as well as human beings. Both ups and downs are important."

2. Breeding animals for our food is mutually beneficial

"It is this ongoing history of mutual benefit that generates a moral duty of human beings to eat animals."

"Indeed, if many human beings became vegetarians or vegans, it would be the greatest disaster that there has ever been for animals since the time that an asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species."

Assumes: for a sheep, the good of existing for six months outweighs the harm of being killed at 6 months.

3. The argument doesn't lead to support for breeding and killing dogs

"It is because history matters that we should not eat dogs that were originally bred to be pets or for work. The dog-human institution licenses only the behaviour that is in accordance with its historical function. Eating dogs would violate that tradition."

4. The argument doesn't lead to support for breeding and killing humans

"In 1780, Jeremy Bentham said of animals: ‘The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?’ I agree that the suffering of animals is important, but, as I have complained, so is their pleasure and happiness. And I would also like to complain that just because suffering is important does not make reasoning unimportant."

Our rationality gives us rights that animals don't possess -- though a few higher animals might be exceptions.

Also: we would exist even if we weren't bred for food, but sheep wouldn't.

5.  Climate change isn't a good reason to abstain from meat

"However, the big negative, for many people is climate, and the effects, mostly, of cattle burping and farting. Does not climate give us reason to be vegetarian or vegan? Well, since the problem mostly comes from cows, one option would be to move to eating other kinds of animals in greater numbers. Moreover, the climate damage is mostly due to very intensive factory farming, which I do not defend because the animals do not have good lives. Indeed, the evidence is that small-scale farming in which animals have good lives does not harm the environment much, and it may even benefit it."

Animal agriculture and climate change

WORKBOOK