Animals as Food (factory farming)

Statistics

• About 10 billion land animals die annually in food production in the US (USDA figures)
• 218 million are killed in the US by hunters, in animal shelters, research, product testing, dissection, and fur farms -- 2% of total killed (2001 source)
• About 80 billion land animals die annually worldwide
• More numbers

Types of farming

1. Factory farming--animals raised and processed in factory-like conditions--indoors, very little space, highly automated--most animal products in the US
2. Reforms & humane farming (separate post)

Foods (below)

• Pork, ham, bacon
• Beef
• Dairy
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Turkey 

Sources

• Industry videos, websites
• Animal advocates
• Peter Singer, Animal Liberation Now and other books

---

FACTORY FARMING

Pigs (for pork, ham, bacon)

Hog farm images

New York Times, May 2020 (click for more info)

Animal welfare issues

1. crowding 
2. tail-docking -- notice that the pigs in the pictures have no tails! 
3. ammonia fumes, no straw
4. short lives (life cycle of a market pig) -- 6 months (vs. 15-20 yrs)
5. pregnancy

• artificial insemination 
• sow crates (for pregnant pigs) -- 114 days
• farrowing crates (for birthing and lactating pigs) -- 21 days
• sow impregnated again 

Gestation crates (wikipedia)

Farrowing crate -- By Alisha Vargas from Reno, NV, US - Piglets Nursing,
 CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6498410

       

---

Beef Cattle

Animal welfare issues

1. castration, branding, dehorning  
2. live on range until 8 months old, BUT then sent to feedlot for several months
3. at feedlot: fed corn diet, antibiotics, hormones to promote quick weight gain

More info:  Power Steer (Michael Pollan, NYT)

---

Dairy Cows

Animal welfare issues

1. cows impregnated once a year (artificial insemination)
2. separated from calf after a few weeks (see calf hutches here) 
3. BST (increases milk production), mastitis
4. What happens to the males? become veal, beef
5. read about sexed semen

---

Broiler Chickens (for meat)

Animal welfare issues

1. crowding (20,000 per barn) 
2. debeaking, ammonia fumes
3. collapsing under own weight
4. very short lives (5-7 weeks vs. many years)  

poultry farm images

Farm sanctuary

---

Laying Hens (for eggs)

Issues

1. crowding (each chicken has less space than a piece of typing paper) 
2. debeaking
3. male chicks immediately killed 
4. short lives

Glass Walls (PETA) -- watch 1:51 - 3:30

Wikipedia, poultry farming

Looking down into a dumpster - discarded male chicks

---

Turkey 

Issues (Peter Singer, Consider the Turkey)

1. Bred to be huge, can't support weight
2. Broad breasted, can't reproduce naturally
3. Sores
4. Crowding, fighting
5. Method of killing after avian flu

Singer article

---

Slaughter 

    

        Slaughter of pigs, cattle (USDA regulated) -

• Rough handling 
• Transported on hot, crowded trucks
• Animals shot in head with stun gun, lose consciousness (ideally)
• Hoisted upside-down, throats slit, bled
• Animals killed at a rate of 400 per hour
• Temple Grandin reforms: more auditing, curved chute
• Problem of error -- Nicholas Kristof article (NYT)

Slaughter of chickens (minimally regulated)

• thrown on trucks, long trip, no water
• shackled upside down, dragged through electrified water, throats slit

Animals as food (reforms & humane farming)

REFORMS 

California

Proposition 2 (California, 2008) each animal must have enough room to turn around 

Proposition 12 (California) - stipulates square feet, prohibits sale of products that don't comply, even if animals raised in other states, all laying hens cage-free

Gestational stalls/crates 

Gestational stalls banned (but not farrowing stalls)

• States that now prohibit: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island (wikipedia)
• But what are the big pork-producing states? 
• Smithfield farms (huge pork producers) phasing out


• see video below
• Humane Society sues; says they're misleading consumers;  more here
• Note: the video says the sows spend 23 weeks/year in group housing (so 29 in stalls).

• McDonalds phasing out gestational crates  

 _________________________

HUMANE FARMING 

Pigs

• Niman ranch

 

Laying hens

• Vital Farms Eggs  (lo ranch) -- pastured raised

Multiple species

• Polyface Farm (Follow link, scroll down, watch video)
• Shorter video (best one to watch)

Slaughter

• USDA rules: pigs and cows must be sent to regulated slaughter houses
• Chickens can be killed locally
• Killing chickens at Polyface

Availability, cost, labelling

• Whole Foods

Higher and lower animals

Preview

1. Using animals as food -- RR18 food experiments
2. Finish Kagan
3. Animal ethics bracket

_________________________

Kagan recap

Unitarianism -- there's just one moral status, humans and animals both have it (Regan, Singer)

Hierarchy view -- there are many moral status, higher and lower

• common sense

Worrisome apparent implications that might make you doubt the hierarchy view

1. Superior beings (eg. wizards, Greek gods, superheroes, amazing aliens) have higher moral status than normal humans
2. Marginal cases have lower moral status than normal humans
3. Due to normal variation, different humans have many different moral statuses

Two ways Kagan can deal with these worrisome implications

1. AVOID.  Argue that the alleged implication isn't really an implication of the hierarchy view
2. LIVE WITH IT.  Argue that the implication is something you can live with; it's not actually worrisome.

We'll see what he says about the three worrisome implications.

_________________________

Practical realism -- correct principles and categories are understandable and motivating

Animal categories

• Not a continuum
• Not a hundred categories
• He says 5-6

Animal categories

1. Humans -- full persons (defined as conscious, intelligent, self-aware, moral, etc.)
2. Most intelligent, closest to personhood -- dolphins, whales, squid, great apes)
3. Highly intelligent -- like dogs, pigs, parrots
4. Midlevel -- rabbits, cows, squirrels
5. Lower -- birds, fish, reptiles
6. Lowest -- insects, spiders

Moral status depends on species, but also on whether the individual is a normal member of the species

1. Golden retriever who has taken a supervitamin and has the intelligence of a human--he's wroting poetry etc.
2. Snake that acts like a cat

_________________________

Implication 2: marginal cases have low moral status

Strategy:  avoid, live with it, or mixed?

1. They are "modal persons" -- non-persons who could have been persons
2. Practical realism -- correct principles and categories are motivating -- very low moral status for marginal cases wouldn't be motivating

   

   Kagan p. 14

_________________________

Implication 3: due to normal variation, humans will have lots of different moral statuses

Strategy: avoid, live with it, or mixed?

Kagan p. 15 

_________________________

Implication 1: superior beings would have higher moral status

Strategy: avoid, live with it, or mixed?

Kagan p. 7

_________________________

Why not ONE category for all humans and ONE for all animals?

1. Humans: high status, so deontological rules apply, like "killing is always wrong"
2. Animals: low status, so utilitarian/consquentialist rules apply, like "kill only when necessary to maximize happiness"

Kagan p. 16

_________________________

Hierarchy and advocating for animals

Kagan p. 6

Kagan p. 18

_________________________

Animal ethics bracket

https://PollEv.com/jeankazez843

Food choices

Diet terminology

1. Omnivore -- literally means "eat everything"
2. Budding conscientious omnivore--switch to a few more-humane products (what should your priorities be?)
3. Reducetarian--Meatless Mondays, "vegan before 6" 
4. Conscientious omnivore--no factory farmed animal products 
5. Pescatarian -- vegetarian with an exception for fish
6. Vegetarian--mostly plant based, diet includes dairy and eggs, no meat
7. Vegan/Vegetarian--plant based diet, no animal products

Health

Health Benefits of Vegetarian Diets  
Marion Nestle, "Are vegetarian diets ok?"

Higher and lower animals

 Shelly Kagan, How to Count Animals: More or Less

Some terminology

1. Unitarian view: every being with moral status has the same moral status
2. Hierarchy view: beings with moral status can have many different moral statuses (2, 3, 10, 20, innumerable)
3. Utilitarian ethics; the right action maximizes total good
• how to add hierarchy to Utilitarianism
  
  
  
4. Deontological ethics: ethics consist of a set of duties (e.g. duty to keep promises, duty to not harm for fun)
• how to add hierarchy to deontological ethics

  

  Sea lion shot 12 times (NYT Sept 25)

  
  
5. Practical realism: ethical principles and categories must be simple enough to be comprehensible and motivating
• will come into play in second half of article

_________________________

Kagan's hierarchy view: based on capacities of different species

• More capacities ---> higher moral status
• Fewer capacities ---> lower moral status

Which capacities count? He doesn't say. Which are plausibly relevant?

1. capacity to fly
2. capacity to run fast
3. capacity to survive under water
4. sentience
5. capacity to cooperate
6. capacity to be self-aware
7. sense of fairness
8. capacity to empathize
9. sheer intelligence
10. capacity to make art
11. capacity to appreciate beauty
12. capacity to migrate great distances

_________________________

Troubling implications of this capacity-based hierarchy view

1. Hierarchy leads to implication X
2. X is really bizarre and unacceptable
3. So hierarchy must be rejected

Three implications Kagan discusses:

1. Superior beings might have higher moral status than us
2. Marginal cases might have lower moral status than us
3. Given normal variation, different normal people might have different moral statuses

What is Kagan's response to each implications? He has two options:

1. Hierarchy doesn't really lead to that
2. That's not really so bizarre and unacceptable

We'll see what he says in part 2 of the article

Workbook--let's discuss superior beings 

Wild sovereigns and animal denizens

 

Donaldson & Kymlicka Basics

• equal basic rights (right to life and liberty)
• different political categories
• human categories --> animal categories

Last time: citizens

1. domesticated animals: cats, dogs, goats, donkeys, horses, cows, pigs, chickens
2. see last time

_________________________

Liminal denizens 

1. Humans: tourists, foreign students, temporary workers, illegal immigrants, opt-out citizens,  like Amish
2. Animals: ducks, geese, rats, mice, squirrels, swallows, chimney swifts, feral cats, etc.
3. Animal denizens seek human settlements, depend on us, but don't share a community with us
4. Two principles that apply to human denizens (p. 14)
• KEEP OUT: legit to have borders and laws about who enters; also legit to discourage entry
• ACCOMMODATE: "sooner or later they acquire the right to stay" (p. 14)
5. Application to liminal animal denizens
• KEEP OUT: we can try to keep them out
• ACCOMMODATE: "we need to regularize their status, and to accept and accommodate to their presence" (p. 14) 

Animal liminal denizen examples

MICE 

• keep out: plug holes in walls to keep mice out, avoid open food, use humane traps and remove
  
• accommodate: "why should we begrudge them some space in the cellar, or the garage or the garden shed? " (p. 15)

 

CANADA GEESE

"we can actively discourage geese from colonizing our parks and fields, although of
course we can’t kill them or otherwise harm them" (p. 15)
• video about methods
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• accept that they live in some areas

 

FERAL CATS

• analogy with opt-out communities (the Amish)
• feral cat colony at SMU

_________________________

Foreigners in other countries ... wild animal sovereigns 

1. Foreigners in other countries  
• respect for sovereignty (e.g. the UK gentry)
• we don't "manage" people in other countries
• occasional assistance ok
2. Wild animal sovereigns 
• respect for sovereignty
• we shouldn't "manage" wildlife
• occasional assistance ok

 

Wild animal sovereign examples

STOPPING RUTTING ELK - NO!

• we would stop dogs from fighting at a dog park, because they're members of our community
• we should respect elk fighting because that's their way of life          

 

STOPPING PREDATION - NO!

• we stop our cats from killing birds, because the cats are members of our community
• shouldn't stop wild animal predation 

ONE-OFF ASSISTANCE

• Nick and Nora at White Rock Lake -- last summer one of their 3 eaglets fledged and couldn't get back to the nest...the police got involved with protecting them 

REGULAR ASSISTANCE 

• Saving the pufflings...solves a problem that humans create -- light pollution
• Habitat loss also human-caused ... solved with wildlife corridors

Helping the puffins in the Westman Islands, Iceland

EXCESSIVE ASSISTANCE 

_________________________

PREVIEW: Shelly Kagan, "For hierarchy in animal ethics"

• D&K: political categories
• Kagan: capacity categories

Animal citizens

Precis of Zoopolis (2011)

Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka

Animal rights debate

• Do animals have basic rights like a right to life and liberty?
• Longstanding debate...they are not contributing to it...they assume YES
• Assuming ALL animals have basic rights, we need to understand the DIFFERENT rights and responsibilities of different animals

Human rights vary by "political category"

1. Citizens here (Canada, US, wherever) 
2. Liminal denizens: tourists, foreign students, temporary workers, refugee claimants (all drawn here for different reasons)
3. Foreigners in other countries

They claim: animals fall into parallel "political categories"

Note: they are NOT saying....

1. human and animal citizens should have the same rights
2. human liminal denizens and animal liminal denizens should have the same rights
3. human foreigners and wild sovereigns should have the same rights

_________________________

Animal citizens (next part of article is about the wild sovereigns and liminal denizens)

1. Why think of domesticated animals as citizens?
2. Are all the cows, pigs, and chickens going to be citizens too? 
3. What is involved in animal citizenship?

p. 5

Socialization

• Animals have to be trained to live with each other and humans in a mixed community

Public spaces -- outdoor

 Mixed communities that already exist

• cats of Istanbul -- KEDI trailer

Public spaces -- indoor

Cat cafe field trips

Animal cafes (South Korea)

_________________________

Animal citizens should work, but not be exploited

• contribute manure YES
• goats or sheep
  mowing lawn YES
  

Open Space

• sheep for wool if shorn humanely   YES
• keeping chickens for eggs MAYBE
• using animals as guide dogs (video clip) NO

Donkey farm field trip

_________________________

Exam 1

• Worth just 15% ... many great answers
• If you want to do better next time: 
• make better use of study guide and blog posts
• do the readings... don't just find the thing the RR calls for and skip the rest of the reading
• There's an exam key at the top of the Canvas home page

Do animals have moral standing?

1. 
   

Peter Carruthers, "Against the Moral Standing of Animals" (2011)

1. Part 1 (sec 1-3):  contractualist argument ... animals have no moral standing
2. Part 2 (sec 4-5): why is animal cruelty still wrong?

Thought experiments

1. Kids set a cat on fire for fun in a public place (p. 11)
2. Astrid the Astronaut and her pet cat (p. 12)
3. Astrid the Astronaut and her dead servant (p. 13)
4. Lazy Jane the doctor 

Why is cruelty and indifference wrong?

1. Because of what is shows about you and your character (compare Indian animal ethics)
2. Your cruelty will lead you to harm humans (compare Kant)
3. Contractors would agree that cruelty is wrong

_________________________

Preview of Monday's reading -- to make more time for field trips 

Sue Donaldson & Will Kymlicka, Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights 

• they are Canadian
• they wrote this book in 2011
• we're reading their precis of the book -- a short summary
• "zoopolis" means (literally) animal city
• animalism, but a different kind of animalism than we've seen before

Individualistic animalism--our obligations to animals depend on each individual animal's "intrinsic moral standing" (D&K p. 1).

1. Peter Singer--sentience, interests
2. Tom Regan--being a subject of a life, rights

Political animalilsm

1. Intrinsic moral standing does matter
2. but so does "political status" 
3. both matter for both humans and animals

---

What do they mean by political status?

Passport control at DFW international terminal

Picture people who get off a plane

They all have  the same basic rights based on "intrinsic moral standing" (p. 1) – enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

1. right to life
2. right to liberty
3. we can't torture or enslave any of them

But they have different rights based on "relationship to a particular political community" (p. 2)

1. Citizens of the US
• right to enter the US
• right to work here
• right to have their interests represented by government
• right to vote
• right to have access to public spaces (can go there, signs are in your language)
• right to emergency health care
• 
  
2. In-betweens/Denizens: "tourists, foreign students, refugee claimants, business visitors or temporary workers" (p. 2). 
• have all the basic rights based on "intrinsic moral standing" 
• don't have all of the rights of citizens, but do have some
• 
  
3. Foreign Nationals--citizens of other countries, back in home country
• have set of rights established in other nation

_________________________

D&K say animals are in parallel political categories 

1. Animal Citizens -- domesticated animals living with us-- for example pets
2. Animal Denizens  -- animals drawn to us but not living with us--squirrels, rats, mice, raccoons, ducks, geese, chimney swifts, swallows
3. Animal wild sovereigns --  live independently in wilderness (inside our borders or outside)

_________________________

Next time: arguments, details, what it means to be an animal citizen