Blog – Page 22 – Animal Rights The Abolitionist Approach

Sentience and Personhood

May 25, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

India has officially recognized dolphins as non-human persons, whose rights to life and liberty must be respected. Dolphin parks that were being built across the country will instead be shut down.

In a statement, the government said research had clearly established cetaceans are highly intelligent and sensitive, and that dolphins “should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ and as such should have their own specific rights.”

The movement to recognize whale and dolphins as individuals with self-awareness and a set of rights gained momentum three years ago in Helsinki, Finland when scientists and ethicists drafted a Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans. “We affirm that all cetaceans as persons have the right to life, liberty and well-being,” they wrote.

Since yesterday, I have received a significant number of requests to comment on this report.

I have two responses.

First, I refer you to an essay, “Our Hypocrisy,” which I wrote for The New Scientist in June 2005:

Our Hypocrisy

Do Great apes, dolphins, parrots, and perhaps even “food” animals have certain cognitive characteristics that entitle them to be accorded greater moral consideration and legal protection?

A considerable literature has so argued in recent times. The central idea behind this enterprise is the notion that we must rethink our relationship with non-humans if we find they are intelligent, self-aware, or have emotions. To the extent that non-humans have minds like ours, runs the argument, they have similar interests, and they are entitled to greater protection because of those interests. This “similar-minds” approach has spawned an industry of cognitive ethologists eager to investigate – ironically often through various sorts of animal experiments – the extent to which they are like us.

It is astonishing that 150 years after Darwin, we are still so surprised that other animals may have some of the characteristics thought to be uniquely human. The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution. Darwin maintained that there are no uniquely human characteristics, and that there were only quantitative and not qualitative differences between human and non-human minds. He argued that non-humans can think and reason, and possess many of the same emotional attributes as humans.

What is more troubling about the similar-minds approach is its implications for moral theory. Although it appears to be progressive, to indicate that we really are evolving in our moral relationship with other species, the similar-minds approach actually reinforces the very paradigm that has resulted in our excluding non-humans from the moral community. We have historically justified our exploitation of non-humans on the ground that there is a qualitative distinction between humans and other animals: the latter may be sentient, but they are not intelligent, rational, emotional or self-conscious.

Although the similar-minds approach claims that, empirically, we may have been wrong in the past and at least some non-humans may have some of these characteristics, it does not question the underlying assumption that a characteristic other than sentience – the ability to feel pain – is necessary for moral significance.

Arbitrary lines

Any attempt to justify our exploitation of non-humans based on their lack of “human” characteristics begs the moral question by assuming that certain characteristics are special and justify differential treatment. Even if, for instance, humans are the only animals who can recognise themselves in mirrors or can communicate through symbolic language, no human is capable of flying, or breathing under water without assistance. What makes the ability to recognise oneself in a mirror or use symbolic language better in a moral sense than the ability to fly or breathe under water? The answer, of course, is that we say so and it is in our interest to say so.

Aside from self-interest, there is no reason to conclude that characteristics thought to be uniquely human have any value that allows us to use them as a non-arbitrary justification for exploiting non-humans. Moreover, even if all animals other than humans were to lack a particular characteristic beyond sentience, or to possess that characteristic to a lesser degree than humans, such a difference cannot justify human exploitation of non-humans.

Differences between humans and other animals may be relevant for other purposes. No sensible person argues that non-human animals should drive cars, vote or attend universities, but such differences have no bearing on whether we should eat non-humans or use them in experiments. We recognise this conclusion when it comes to humans. Whatever characteristic we identify as uniquely human will be seen to a lesser degree in some humans and not at all in others. Some humans will have the same deficiency that we attribute to non-humans, and although the deficiency may be relevant for some purposes, it is not relevant to whether we exploit such humans.

Consider, for instance, self-consciousness. Any sentient being must have some level of self-awareness. To be sentient means to be the sort of being who recognises that it is that being, and not some other, who is experiencing pain or distress. Even if we arbitrarily define self-consciousness in an exclusively human way as, say, being able to think about thinking, many humans, including those who are severely mentally disabled, lack that type of consciousness.

Again, this “deficiency” may be relevant for some purposes, but it has no bearing on whether we should use such humans in painful biomedical experiments or as forced organ donors. In the end, the only difference between humans and non-humans is species, and species is no more a justification for exploitation than race, sex or sexual orientation.

This is why the similar-minds approach is misguided, and will only create new speciesist hierarchies, in which we move some non-humans, such as the great apes or dolphins, into a preferred group, and continue to treat all others as things lacking morally significant interests.

If, however, we want to think seriously about the human/non-human relationship, we need to focus on one, and only one, characteristic: sentience. What is ironic is that we claim to take the suffering of non-humans seriously. As a matter of social morality, we are virtually unanimous in agreeing that it is morally wrong to inflict “unnecessary” suffering or death on non-humans. For such a prohibition to have any meaning, it must preclude inflicting suffering on non-humans merely for our pleasure, amusement or convenience.

The problem is that although we express disapproval of the unnecessary suffering of non-humans, most of their suffering and death can be justified only by our pleasure, amusement or convenience, and cannot by any stretch be plausibly characterised as “necessary”. We kill billions of animals annually for food. It is not “necessary” in any sense to eat meat or animal products. Indeed, an increasing number of healthcare professionals maintain that these foods may be detrimental to human health. Moreover, environmental scientists have pointed out the tremendous inefficiencies and costs to our planet of animal agriculture. In any event, our justification for the pain, suffering and death inflicted on these farmed non-humans is nothing more than our enjoyment of the taste of their flesh.

And it is certainly not necessary to use non-humans for sport, hunting, entertainment or product testing, and there is considerable evidence that reliance on animal models in experiments or drug testing may even be counterproductive.

In sum, when it comes to non-humans, we exhibit what can best be described as moral schizophrenia. We say one thing about how non-humans should be treated, and do quite another. We are, of course, aware that we lack a satisfactory approach to the matter of our relationship to other animals, and we have for some time now been trying to find one.

If we took seriously the principle that it was wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering on non-humans, we would stop altogether bringing domestic animals into existence for human use, and our recognition of the moral status of animals would not depend on whether a parrot can understand mathematics or a dog recognise herself in a mirror. We would take seriously what Jeremy Bentham said over 200 years ago: “The question is not, can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer?”

I discuss these ideas at greater length in my essay, “Taking Sentience Seriously,” which was published originally in 2006 and is reprinted as Chapter 3 in my book, Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation.

Second, I would emphasize that although Bentham correctly identified sentience as the only characteristic required for moral significance, he made a significant error. He believed that animals do not care that we used them, but only about how we treat and kill them. According to Bentham, animals live in the present and are not aware of what they lose when we take their lives. If we kill and eat them, “we are the better for it, and they are never the worse. They have none of those long-protracted anticipations of future misery which we have.”

Echoes of Bentham’s views persist in the thinking of certain animal advocates, such as Peter Singer, who states:

You could say it’s wrong to kill a being whenever a being is sentient or conscious. Then you would have to say it’s just as wrong to kill a chicken or mouse as it is to kill you or me. I can’t accept that idea. It may be just as wrong, but millions of chickens are killed every day. I can’t think of that as a tragedy on the same scale as millions of humans being killed. What is different about humans? Humans are forward-looking beings, and they have hopes and desires for the future. That seems a plausible answer to the question of why it’s so tragic when humans die. (Indystar.com, March 8, 2009)

[T]o avoid inflicting suffering on animals—not to mention the environmental costs of intensive animal production—we need to cut down drastically on the animal products we consume. But does that mean a vegan world? That’s one solution, but not necessarily the only one. If it is the infliction of suffering that we are concerned about, rather than killing, then I can also imagine a world in which people mostly eat plant foods, but occasionally treat themselves to the luxury of free range eggs, or possibly even meat from animals who live good lives under conditions natural for their species, and are then humanely killed on the farm. (The Vegan, Autumn 2006.)

In a recent essay, “On Killing Animals,” which was published in The Point, I argued that it is Bentham’s thinking that leads even those who claim to subscribe to an “animal rights” position to think that killing healthy dogs and cats can be regarded as morally acceptable.

This view–that an interest in continued life is contingent on humanlike self-awareness–is precisely the sort of thinking that has led to the position that, although all sentient animals have interests in not suffering that count morally, only certain animals have an interest in not being used at all or killed for human purposes.

I think that the “similar minds” approach, which serves as the foundation of the “happy” exploitation movement, which is presently dominating the animal movement, is very much misguided and should be rejected in favor of the position that sentience is sufficient to ground an obligation not to treat a being exclusively as a means to an end, however “humane” our treatment may be.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

No, They Don’t “Dig” Cage-Free Eggs

May 8, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

In addition to the connection between sexism and speciesism illustrated here:

The birds do not dig being in a cage-free facility, which is like being in one large cage.

They don’t dig the fact that they are bought from hatcheries that kill all the male chicks. The male chicks do not dig that much either.

They don’t dig being debeaked.

They don’t dig forced molting, which is still used by some egg producers (conventional and “cage-free”).

They don’t dig the terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse, often transported long distances without food and water.

They don’t dig being subjected to an absolutely horrendous death.

They don’t dig being treated as commodities by a bunch of trendy wannabe do-gooders who are desperate to pat themselves on the back for being “compassionate” as they continue to support the torture and death of sentient nonhumans for the sole reason that they like the taste of animal products.

They don’t dig the obscenity that most of the large animal organizations express “appreciation and support” to Whole Foods:

Come to think of it, there’s not much that they dig, actually.

What these poor creatures would dig is if you went vegan and stopped exploiting them.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan! If you want it.

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

A Brief Note on “Ag Gag” Laws

March 30, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

I think that the “Ag Gag” laws are not a good idea for a number of reasons related generally to the suppression and chilling of speech. But to listen to the large animal groups, one would think that the “Ag Gag” laws are a death knell for the animal movement. That’s just wrong.

We don’t need more footage from factory farms. There is already more than enough. For the most part, the objection to these laws concerns the fact that large animal groups need a steady stream of “exposés” so that they can continue to promote the idea that there are “responsible” farms and “irresponsible” farms, “abusive” treatment” and “non-abusive” treatment. The animal groups get footage of some farm employees doing something hideous; they have a big campaign; the factory farm does a mea culpa or gets a wrist slapping; the animal groups declare “victory” and proclaim that the “abusive” behavior has been stopped. Even if the farm or abattoir is sanctioned heavily, or closes, the demand is picked up by another facility. The public is reassured that the animal groups are ensuring that animals are being treated “humanely” and keeps demanding animal products.

It’s a win-win. The animal groups get praise and, more important, donations; the public is reassured and feels better about consuming animal products.

Only the animals, who continue to be tortured in the most “humane” situations, lose.

We need to get people thinking differently about animal ethics. We need to focus people away from the issue of treatment–and away from the idea that there is “abusive” treatment and “non-abusive” treatment–and toward the idea that we cannot morally justify use. Period. We need to get people to see that the moral idea that they and just about everyone else already accept–that animal suffering and death must be “necessary” and that pleasure, amusement, or convenience cannot suffice as “necessary”–leads to the conclusion that we cannot justify using animals and that our recognition that animals have moral status means that we cannot eat flesh, dairy, or eggs, even if they have a “happy” exploitation label that is praised or endorsed by one or more of the large animal groups.

I plan to write at greater length about this in the future.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

Robert Jensen and Species Equality

March 30, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

According to Professor Robert Jensen, an otherwise progressive thinker:

“[N]o one really believes the quip, “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy,” suggesting the equality of all life (or, at least, all mammalian life). To test that: If there were a rat, a pig, a dog, and a human child in the road facing an oncoming truck and you could save only one, which would you chose?”

Let’s take Jensen’s test. Even if we answer that we would save the human child, what does that tell us about the morality of eating animals and animal products, or using animals in circuses, zoos, or rodeos, or wearing animals?

Answer: nothing at all.

To see this clearly, assume that there are two humans in front of the truck–an extremely old person and a baby. Even if we would save the baby, does that mean it’s morally acceptable to eat old people, or makes shoes out of them, or use them in circuses, zoos, or rodeos, use them as forced organ donors to save the young, or otherwise treat them exclusively as resources?

No, of course not.

Assume that the two humans in front of the truck are two human babies: Jensen’s child and the child of another. Jensen would clearly save his child. Does that mean that the other child has lesser moral value and may be treated exclusively as a resource?

No, of course not.

Moreover, when we are deciding what to eat tonight, we are not in any situation that is analogous to the either/or situation that Jensen posits. If, as Jensen acknowledges, we don’t need to consume animal products, then we are under no compulsion that forces us to choose. If we eat meat, dairy, or eggs when we can choose to eat vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, and nuts, then we are participating in suffering and death simply for palate pleasure. If animals matter morally at all, imposing suffering and death on them for a reason as transparently frivolous as palate pleasure cannot be justified.

Jensen simply ignores the very question that we need to examine: can we justify speciesism? If you asked a white person in 1830 whom he would save from death–another white person or a black person–the answer would be crystal clear. In fact, the white person would probably not even understand the question and would think it lunacy even to ask it. So our moral intuitions are a most unreliable guide when the very problem is that our moral intuitions are affected and infected by pervasive prejudice that we cannot seem to explain or justify rationally.

When I say “all sentient beings are equal,” what I mean is that, with respect to any sentient being, we are required to give a compelling moral reason to justify or excuse imposing suffering and death on that being. I maintain that my view here is not only not controversial, but that most people actually agree with it.

What we need to see is that pleasure, amusement, or convenience cannot suffice as “compelling moral reasons” for eating, wearing, or using animals. That necessarily leads us to rule out 99.99% of all animal use as morally unjustifiable from the outset.

Robert Jensen is a generally progressive person. He really needs to rethink his views on animal ethics. I hope he will consider that if we fed all the grain we feed to livestock directly to human beings, we could go a long way toward reducing human starvation. It takes many pounds of plant protein to produce one pound of flesh; it takes many more gallons of water to produce a pound of flesh than a pound of potatoes. Frankly, if Jensen were to think that animals have no moral value whatsoever, and he accorded moral value to humans alone, he would still be committed to a vegan diet.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

It’s Really Very Simple

March 17, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

If you are not vegan, then you are participating directly in animal exploitation.

It really is that simple.

If animals matter morally, then there is one and only one rational response: go vegan.

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

My Participation in “The Conversation”

February 18, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

There is an interesting project called The Conversation: In Search of the New Normal. The project is described in part:

The Conversation explores visions of our future and questions of the good. If you rolled an audio documentary, dinner party, and digital humanities project into a giant media-burrito, this is what you’d get:

From April to December of 2012, Aengus Anderson traveled America and recorded long, unstructured conversations with a cross-section of thinkers and doers, from transhumanists to neoprimitivists, urban farmers to musicians. The resulting conversations were wildly diverse but unified by a few themes: critiques of the present, hopes for the future, and discussions of what each thinker considered “the good.” The results may not yield any existential answers, but you’ll hear thoughtful and often provocative discussions emerging from a cacophony of ideas.

Within each episode you will (almost always) hear genuine conversations rather than boilerplate monologues. At the same time, the project itself is a single conversation that spans episodes. This is because, unlike most interview series, Aengus told the thinkers about each others’ ideas. This gives The Conversation a self-referential quality that grows richer as the series progresses.

I was one of the people that Aengus Anderson interviewed. We discussed animal rights, nonviolence, morality as a general matter, etc.

The interview can be accessed here.

After the interview was over, Anderson and his colleague, Neil Prendergast, discussed my interview. I responded to their comments here.

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

A Note on “I Can’t” vs. “I Choose”

February 2, 2013/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

Many vegans say, “It’s not that I can’t eat animal foods; I just choose not to.” They get concerned that it’s negative to say that there is something they “can’t” do.

Although I understand this, it really does not make much sense.

Yes, of course I could choose to eat, wear, or use animal products. But as a vegan, I choose not to do so. But that is because I believe that there are moral principles and rules that constrain my behavior and obligate me not to do so. For example, as I am a moral realist, I regard the principle, “it is morally wrong to kill another sentient being in the absence of a true conflict or compulsion,” as expressing a proposition that is true. So I really can’t choose to use animal products if I accept those moral principles (and the rules that I derive from them) as true and regard them as providing reasons for my actions.

I think that the root of the problem is that some vegans want to avoid the notion that there are moral truths that require that we act in certain ways. They want veganism to represent some non-binding expression of “compassion” or whatever. But as I see it, we are required morally to be vegan. It’s not a matter of choice in the sense of saying that there is no right answer and it’s a matter of individual option to choose to be “compassionate.” There is a right answer. Animal use is wrong morally. Therefore, I “can’t” choose to do it as long as I want to adhere to those moral principles.

Therefore, when I say I choose not to eat, wear, or use animals, that means that my choice is constrained by moral principles that rule out animal use. I choose not to do it because moral principles obligate me to do so. The choice to exploit is not an option because of other things I believe. If I care about morality, I can’t make the choice to exploit nonhumans.

Doing the right thing because one chooses to act in accordance with a moral principle that requires the right thing is consistent with saying “I choose to x” and “I can’t choose to do not-x.” My point is that either locution is fine. To the extent, however, that the distinction reflects a rejection of moral realism, which rejection is rampant in the “movement,” that troubles me. Whenever I am asked, I always say that I choose not to exploit because of my moral beliefs, that preclude me from acting differently. I always promote the notion that this is a matter of moral truth. Otherwise, it’s just dismissed as a mere opinion or an aesthetic judgment, which is, as far as I am concerned, not the case.

In sum, it appears to me that “don’t say can’t” is an attempt to market veganism as some sort of optional “compassionate” lifestyle rather than as a moral baseline. But if animals have moral value, then veganism is the only rational response to to respect that moral value and constitutes a moral obligation and not an optional lifestyle choice.

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

The Abolitionist Approach and Farm Sanctuary Discuss “Happy Meat,” Abolition, and Welfare Reform

December 17, 2012/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

Introduction

VegNews invited me and Bruce Friedrich, formerly of PETA and now with Farm Sanctuary, to discuss “happy meat,” abolition, and welfare reform. VegNews subsequently refused to publish the debate. So we present discussion here.

The discussion proceeds as follows: I make an Opening Statement to which Bruce replies. Bruce’s Opening statement is followed by my reply. These are all exactly as we submitted them to the magazine. The only change is that Bruce preferred to use first names and, accordingly, I changed “Friedrich” to “Bruce.”

Opening Statement by Gary L. Francione

The modern animal protection movement is divided.

There are regulationists, who focus primarily on the treatment of nonhuman animals and who, as a general matter, promote and support: (1) animal welfare reform that they claim will make animal treatment more “humane,” such as “enriched” cages for hens; (2) single-issue campaigns, such as anti-fur or anti-foie-gras initiatives; and (3) “compassionate consumption” through the endorsement of “happy” animal products, such as those that satisfy the Whole Foods “Animal Compassionate” standards.

Some regulationists claim that these measures will lead incrementally to abolishing animal use at some point in the future. Some regulationists do not seek the eventual abolition of animal use; they do not see animal use as inherently wrong and their goal is only to ensure “humane” treatment.

Regulationists oppose, often vehemently, promoting veganism as a clear moral baseline. To the extent that regulationists promote veganism, they do so as a way of reducing suffering, along with “cage-free” eggs, crate-free pork, and other “happy” products. Indeed, Peter Singer, the primary academic proponent of the regulationist position, characterizes being a consistent vegan as “fanatical” and says that we can “eat ethically” if we avoid factory-farmed products but eat a “moderate quantity of organically produced, pasture raised, animal products.”

And there are abolitionists who see all animal use as wrong regardless of treatment. Abolitionists reject animal welfare reform, single-issue campaigns, and “compassionate consumption.” They promote veganism as a moral imperative and as a way of opting out of animal exploitation. Abolitionists seek to build a grassroots movement of ethical vegans.

Substantially all of the large animal organizations are regulationist.

Abolitionists reject the regulationist position because they believe that if animals matter morally at all, we cannot justify any animal use, however “humane.” But abolitionists also reject regulationism for three practical reasons.

First, animal welfare measures provide little, if any, significant protection to animal interests. That is because animals are property and it costs money to protect their interests. This ensures that the standard of animal welfare will always remain low. We have had animal welfare standards for 200 years now and we are exploiting more animals now in more horrific ways than at any time in human history.

It is not the case that welfare reform imposes significant costs that reflect social recognition of the inherent value of animals. On the contrary, many welfare reforms actually increase production efficiency. For example, according to HSUS, which, with PETA, is promoting the controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK) of poultry, CAK “results in cost savings and increased revenues by decreasing carcass downgrades, contamination, and refrigeration costs; increasing meat yields, quality, and shelf life; and improving worker conditions” and “a plant processing 1 million broilers per week with an average dressed carcass weight of 4.5 pounds and wholesale price of $0.80 per pound would increase annual revenue by $1.87 million after adopting CAK.”

Second, animal welfare measures make the public feel better about animal exploitation and this actually encourages continued animal use by making people think that they can discharge their moral obligations to animals without ending animal use in their own lives. What else can we expect when groups like PETA praise McDonalds as “leading the way” in animal treatment and slaughter, or give awards to slaughterhouse designers? Welfare campaigns and “happy” labeling schemes effectively create disturbing partnerships between industry and animal advocates.

Third, abolitionists reject single-issue campaigns because they inaccurately characterize some forms of exploitation as worse than others. For example, fur is no worse than leather or wool and it is wrong to suggest otherwise.

Abolitionists see animal advocacy as a zero-sum game. Every second of time and every cent of money spent on making exploitation more “humane,” or on single-issue campaigns, is less money and time spent on vegan/abolitionist education.

Assume that you have two hours tomorrow to spend on animal advocacy. You have a choice. You can distribute literature urging people to eat “cage-free” eggs, or you can distribute literature urging people not to eat eggs at all because “cage-free” eggs still involve exploitation, extreme suffering, and death. You cannot do both, and even if you could, your messages would be contradictory and hopelessly confusing.

For these reasons, abolitionists believe that we need to stop promoting the idea that there is a “right way” to exploit animals. There isn’t. We need to educate people about veganism and build a vegan movement that can advocate for and support meaningful change in the future.

Response by Bruce Friedrich:

True Abolitionism is Smarter Than That

Gary mischaracterizes the views of Peter Singer and PETA, and he is wrong when he claims that abolitionists reject welfare reforms and single-issue campaigns. Yes, abolitionists promote veganism as a moral baseline, but most of us also support both single-issue campaigns and welfare reforms.

For example, all of the abolitionist groups that do the most vegan advocacy (e.g., Mercy for Animals, Vegan Outreach, PETA, COK, the Humane League, Farm Sanctuary) support both single-issue campaigns and welfare legislation to outlaw cruel farming practices. We support them because they reduce suffering, reduce meat consumption, and bring us closer to animal liberation.

Welfare reforms reduce suffering

It’s hard to imagine anything worse than spending your life crammed into a gestation crate; while we’re working for total veganism in society, it’s meaningful to pigs in crates to move them to group housing, where they can move around and interact with other pigs. If you were a pregnant pig in a crate, you would want that.

Similarly, annually 9 billion chickens are dumped from crates, electrocuted, and have their throats slit—all while they’re still conscious. Millions are boiled alive. If these were innocent human beings with no hope of avoiding execution, human rights activists would be fighting to make their deaths as painless as possible—as proved by the fact that this precise battle has been waged by the anti-death penalty movement with regard to especially cruel execution methods.

Welfare reforms reduce meat consumption and move us toward animal liberation

As another example, EU countries that independently banned battery cages saw a decline in egg consumption relative to EU countries that didn’t. And a study in the Journal of Agricultural Economics documented the fact that the media coverage that accompanies animal welfare campaigns focused on specific confinement systems leads to a reduction in consumption of all animal products. There isn’t a counter-example of which I’m aware.

Whose side are you on?

Gary suggests that welfare improvements add to the bottom line of the regulated industries, an argument thoroughly refuted by the millions of dollars animal agriculture spends fighting them. As just one example, the pork and egg industries spent $10 million trying to defeat California’s Proposition 2 (which criminalized battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates), which Gary (very unfortunately, in my view) joined the meat and egg industries in opposing.

Conclusion

The fact that welfare reforms lessen suffering for animals whose only alternatives are more suffering or less should be enough to earn them the support of thinking abolitionists. Add to that the empirical proof that they reduce meat consumption and change society, and you can understand why the vast majority of abolitionist animal groups and individuals support efforts to outlaw the worst abuses.

For more, please watch Nick Cooney’s presentation, “Welfare Reform and Vegan Advocacy: The Facts,” and read Vegan Outreach’s essay, “Welfare and Liberation.” Both are easily available through your favorite search engine.

Opening Statement by Bruce Friedrich

Incremental Progress: Good for Animals and for Animal Liberation

At Farm Sanctuary, we share our lives with farm animals and we know them as individuals. We would no more eat a chicken or pig than we would eat a dog or a cat. Each is an individual with the same range of emotions and needs of any dog or cat. “They are individuals in their own right,” as Jane Goodall has noted.

So of course we work to eliminate the worst abuses of farm animals. These reforms lessen suffering, decrease meat consumption, and help us on our path toward animal liberation.

The Golden Rule: Considering the Animals’ Point of View

There is a significant difference between battery cages and cage-free conditions for hens, and between gestation crates and group housing for sows. While it’s true that animals in cage-free and group housing conditions are still horribly abused, moving toward these incrementally less bad systems significantly decreases suffering for the animals involved.

Put yourself in the animals’ places: Gestation crates measure 2 by 7 feet. Lifelong immobility causes pigs’ muscles and bones to waste away, so that walking becomes excruciating, and even standing up becomes painful. Because the animals are rubbing against the bars and lying in their own excrement all day and night, they suffer painful ammonia burns on their skin, and their lungs become raw from breathing the putrid air. They are constantly starving because they are fed about half of what they would normally consume.

Were these human beings with no hope of escape, human rights activists would demand improved conditions, even if we couldn’t get them released. Simply read the latest Amnesty International or ACLU mailing for information about humans who should not be in jail at all, and the welfare reforms these groups are demanding. If there is a political prisoner who is subject to beatings and torture, even if Amnesty can’t get her released, they still will fight for the torture to stop—even when the conditions will remain grotesquely inhumane. They want liberation, and of course they also want less abuse.

Civil and women’s rights advocates did not argue that immediate and complete equality were the only things worth fighting for. They combined powerful rhetoric, which spelled out their broad vision for change, with hard-fought political battles for incremental improvements: an end to slavery and then segregation, the right to participate in elections, an end to direct enslavement, an end to discrimination in hiring practices and pay, and so forth—all within the context of a deeply unjust system. They welcomed each reform as a step towards the ultimate goal.

Steps on the Path to Liberation

Once society recognizes that farm animals have interests that matter, the consistency principle can kick in, and we can make the point that if farm animals have interests, society ought to rethink killing and eating them. Thus, reform efforts lead to less meat consumption. And of course, the countries with the best animal welfare laws have the most animal rights activists and vegans, and the countries with the least have none.

As Vegan Outreach co-founder Matt Ball explains: “The evidence indicates that reforms draw the attention of nonvegetarians to the issue, persuading many to reconsider their ethics and actions. Animal groups then use their victories to gain visibility and push for further reforms. In this way, welfare measures tend to be a slippery slope toward abolition, not away from it.”

Conclusion

You will never find Farm Sanctuary supporting animal product consumption. The vast majority of our advocacy efforts are focused on promoting veganism, including our Compassionate Communities Campaign, our Web site, all of our events, and every newsletter. Farm Sanctuary is a rights organization, and we will never compromise that position.

And I’ve personally written articles for the Huffington Post that make the unequivocal point that “humane meat” is a contradiction in terms. I debated the issue on college campuses across the country and wrote five pages on the topic for Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals.

Because we are a rights organization, we also support eliminating the worst farm animal abuses. It’s in the best interest of animals who are suffering. It’s in the best interest of our shorter term goal of reducing meat consumption. And it’s in the best interest of animal liberation.

Response by Gary L. Francione

I do not doubt Bruce Friedrich’s sincerity but we do have fundamentally different ways of thinking about animal ethics.

Promoting “Happy” Exploitation

Bruce states that Farm Sanctuary does not support “humane” animal products. I disagree. For example, Farm Sanctuary, along with others, signed a public statement expressing “appreciation and support for the pioneering initiative being taken by Whole Foods Market in setting Farm Animal Compassionate Standards.” (See http://bit.ly/eli95N). Such statements clearly promote “happy” exploitation as a good thing.

Animal rights groups should never be in the business of promoting or praising industry standards for exploitation. Animal rights advocates should be clear in opposing all exploitation and in promoting a clear message: that we cannot morally justify any animal use. They should be focused on one goal: decreasing demand. They should never promote “compassionate” consumption, which only perpetuates demand and makes people feel better about eating animal products.

Bruce talks about Amnesty International fighting torture. He neglects to mention that Amnesty International does not give awards or approving labels to exploiters who torture less. Neither should animal rights organizations.

Consistent Veganism as a “cultural fad”

Bruce sees veganism as a way of reducing suffering and not as a moral imperative. Indeed, he characterizes being a consistent vegan as involving “personal purity” and as representing a “narcissistic cultural fad.” (See http://bit.ly/T6OD7h) I disagree.

Bruce quotes Jane Goodall as claiming that animals “are individuals in their own right.” I am unclear what she means by this given that, at least as of a 2009 interview, Goodall acknowledged that she was not a vegan.

The Inefficacy of Welfare Reform

The welfare reform victories of the past decade can be summed up easily: millions spent on welfare campaigns and precious little benefit for animals. I note that Farm Sanctuary is presently supporting a national law to phase in “enriched” cages for hens. Even the conservative Compassion in World Farming recognizes that “enriched” cages do not overcome the “severe welfare problems” of conventional cages. (See http://bit.ly/XTMRZM)

Bruce mentions the gestation crate campaign. Studies cited by animal advocates showed that certain alternatives to the gestation crate actually lower production cost. Industry will adopt such measures anyway; they should not be promoted as “animal rights” measures.

There is no credible evidence that “reform efforts lead to less meat consumption.” We do, however, read every day that people are again eating animal products because they are produced with “compassion” or bear a “humane” label supported by animal organizations. And there is no factual evidence that welfare reform leads to abolition.

In sum, we did not abolish human slavery by making slavery incrementally more “humane.” We will never abolish animal slavery as long as we promote regulated exploitation. We need to shift the paradigm and recognize veganism as an unequivocal moral baseline.

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I will be inviting Bruce to do a podcast on this topic in the New Year. I sincerely hope he will accept. We have sharp differences but we endeavor to discuss them in a civil manner.

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

Addendum (January 19, 2013)

Bruce Friedrich’s recent essay on cage eggs concludes:

So far, the only national grocery store chain to have banned the sale of eggs from caged hens is Whole Foods. The only restaurant chain to promise to ban them from their supply chain is Burger King (by 2017). These companies deserve plaudits for their progress. These types of cages will also be illegal in California in 2015 and in Michigan in 2019, and legislation to ban them will be introduced in Massachusetts soon (if you live in Massachusetts, check FarmSanctuary.org for updates).

At Farm Sanctuary, we spend our lives with farm animals, and we wouldn’t eat them or their eggs under any circumstances. We recoil at the abuse of hens in all systems, including cage-free and colony cage conditions. But we also work to abolish the very worst abuses of farm animals, and it’s hard to imagine anything worse than the tiny, barren, cramped battery cages where 250 million hens currently are forced to spend their lives.

Battery cages have to go.

What a terribly confused message.

As someone on the Abolitionist Approach Facebook page commented:

Okay, so exactly what should I do first…stop supporting the killing of chickens by going vegan or or write my thank you letter to Burger King and Whole Foods for continuing to support the killing of chickens?

Exactly. I would add that a reader could also conclude that it was morally acceptable to continue to eat eggs as long as they are “happy” eggs.

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

A Thought About The Meaning of Love

November 19, 2012/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University

The Abolitionist-Regulationist Debate From Another Era: Sound Familiar?

October 20, 2012/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

During race-based slavery in the United States, there were those who said that they believed that slavery should be abolished eventually (whatever that meant) but who refused to criticize the institution of slavery openly and call for its end, and, instead, campaigned for more “humane” slavery.

And there were those who believed in abolition and would not endorse the system of slavery in any way. The former group criticized the latter group claiming that their refusal to jump on the regulationist bandwagon would only strengthen slavery.

Does this sound familiar?

This quote from William Lloyd Garrison, an 19th-century abolitionist, is instructive.

Garrison was clear: If you oppose slavery, you stop participating in the institution. Period. You emancipate your slaves. You reject slavery and you aren’t ashamed of your opposition. You don’t try to hide it. You openly and sincerely, but nonviolently, express your “persistent, uncompromising moral opposition” to slavery, which is “a system of boundless immorality.”

Similarly, if you believe that animal exploitation is wrong, the solution is not to support “happy” exploitation. The solution is to go vegan, be clear about veganism as an unequivocal moral baseline, and to engage in creative, nonviolent vegan education to convince others not to participate in a system of “boundless immorality.”

It would have been absurd in the 19th century to claim that there was no difference between those who opposed slavery and those who favored its regulation. It is absurd now to claim that there is no difference between those who propose veganism as a clear, unequivocal moral baseline and those who promote the “humane” regulation of animal exploitation and “compassionate” consumption, and who claim that being a “conscientious omnivore” is a “defensible ethical position.”

*****

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

The World is Vegan!

Gary L. Francione
Professor, Rutgers University