“On Eating Animals”
Contrary to what omnivores often think, whether or not to eat meat isn't only a matter of taste or personal preference. Due to its many implications spreading concerns of well being for humans, animals, and the environment it is, at its center, a question of ethics. In the article, “On Eating Animals” they work to defend, honor, and clean up the processes by which farm animals are raised to eat and eventually kill. The purpose of this essay is to undermine a general belief. This essay sets out an argument that purports to show, as well as any argument in ethics can show, that eating animals is a current ongoing controversy. There are two totally opposing views on this subject and in this paper I take a neutral stance while …show more content…
In the United States, farm animals make up around 98 percent of all birds and mammals humans use, the rest being pets, victims of research and sport, or the ones held in zoos. Animal Rights: current debates and new directions, the factory farming industry has persuaded legislatures to amend criminal statutes that claimed to protect farm animals from cruelty so that they cannot be prosecuted for any farming practice that the industry itself determines as acceptable. As a result, in most of the United States, prosecutors, judges, and juries no longer have the power to determine whether or not farm animals are treated in an acceptable manner. Veterinarians have been known to report abuses against farm animals but it risks liabilities. For example, in 2011 independent journalist Will Potter wrote: "The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists." The FBI file, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, detailed activists' actions trespassing on farms to videotape abuses and suggested these actions violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Obviously, most people aren't aware of the horror and pain we inflict on billions of birds and mammals in our meat factories annually. The more people continue to eat meat, the more the practice will be considered …show more content…
While considering the ethical aspects of eating meat, I personally find myself imagining the human as part of a natural circle of life where animals kill and eat each other to survive. Genuine disgust at the cruelty has been evident in the response of donations to animal welfare groups. So it's not to say that farm animals get no sympathy in the United States, but only that Americans somehow don't recognize that cruelty is the norm, not the exception, and is incorporated into the very idea of factory farms; what makes meat cheap is the assembly line processing. Treating animals humanely begins with natural diets, open spaces for living, eliminating the use of hormones that manipulate body weight and mutilations, together with more in depth training for caretakers and inspectors, maybe surveillance cameras, and professionals who enforce laws and prosecute violators, and so on all of which would make meat more expensive. Nothing strikes me as more absurd than calling oneself an animal lover while consuming industrialized meat, though people will surely continue to lie to themselves and even offer various excuses to defend their habit. The modern animal rights movement has definitely impacted a range of concerns such as reducing the use of animals for furs and cosmetics testing, and
Contrary to what omnivores often think, whether or not to eat meat isn't only a matter of taste or personal preference. Due to its many implications spreading concerns of well being for humans, animals, and the environment it is, at its center, a question of ethics. In the article, “On Eating Animals” they work to defend, honor, and clean up the processes by which farm animals are raised to eat and eventually kill. The purpose of this essay is to undermine a general belief. This essay sets out an argument that purports to show, as well as any argument in ethics can show, that eating animals is a current ongoing controversy. There are two totally opposing views on this subject and in this paper I take a neutral stance while …show more content…
In the United States, farm animals make up around 98 percent of all birds and mammals humans use, the rest being pets, victims of research and sport, or the ones held in zoos. Animal Rights: current debates and new directions, the factory farming industry has persuaded legislatures to amend criminal statutes that claimed to protect farm animals from cruelty so that they cannot be prosecuted for any farming practice that the industry itself determines as acceptable. As a result, in most of the United States, prosecutors, judges, and juries no longer have the power to determine whether or not farm animals are treated in an acceptable manner. Veterinarians have been known to report abuses against farm animals but it risks liabilities. For example, in 2011 independent journalist Will Potter wrote: "The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists." The FBI file, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, detailed activists' actions trespassing on farms to videotape abuses and suggested these actions violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Obviously, most people aren't aware of the horror and pain we inflict on billions of birds and mammals in our meat factories annually. The more people continue to eat meat, the more the practice will be considered …show more content…
While considering the ethical aspects of eating meat, I personally find myself imagining the human as part of a natural circle of life where animals kill and eat each other to survive. Genuine disgust at the cruelty has been evident in the response of donations to animal welfare groups. So it's not to say that farm animals get no sympathy in the United States, but only that Americans somehow don't recognize that cruelty is the norm, not the exception, and is incorporated into the very idea of factory farms; what makes meat cheap is the assembly line processing. Treating animals humanely begins with natural diets, open spaces for living, eliminating the use of hormones that manipulate body weight and mutilations, together with more in depth training for caretakers and inspectors, maybe surveillance cameras, and professionals who enforce laws and prosecute violators, and so on all of which would make meat more expensive. Nothing strikes me as more absurd than calling oneself an animal lover while consuming industrialized meat, though people will surely continue to lie to themselves and even offer various excuses to defend their habit. The modern animal rights movement has definitely impacted a range of concerns such as reducing the use of animals for furs and cosmetics testing, and