Eating animals.

Eating animals

Potential wrongs

Eating animals poses two moral problems.

• Is it wrong in principle to raise and kill animals so that human beings can eat meat and fish?
• Does it stop being wrong if the processes involved are carried out humanely?

Eating animals is also criticised on health and ecological grounds, but this article only deals with wrongs to the animals involved.

Violated rights

If you accept that animals have rights, raising and killing animals for food is morally wrong.

An animal raised for food is being used by others rather than being respected for itself. In philosopher's terms it is being treated as a means to human ends and not as an end in itself.

This is a clear violation of the animal's rights.

No matter how humanely an animal is treated in the process, raising and killing it for food remains morally wrong.

But: This is using 'rights' in a rather technical philosophical sense. When people talk about animal rights colloquially, they are usually talking about animal interests.

Violated interests

Even the most humane forms of rearing and killing animals for food always violates the animal's most basic interest - to continue living.

Modern agriculture often violates other key animal interests as well - for example:

• to live in natural (or at least, decent) conditions
• to make free choices
• to be free from fear and pain
• to live healthy lives without needing medical intervention
• to eat a natural diet
• to enjoy the normal social/family/community life of its species

Human interests versus animal interests

Many human beings don't believe animals have rights, but do think that animals have important interests that should not be violated.

But some of these people enjoy eating meat and fish, and so face a conflict between animal and human interests: the trivial human interest in eating meat versus the basic animal interest in staying alive.

The human interest is classed as trivial because human beings don't need to eat meat in order to live.

The animal interest in staying alive is classed as basic, because if the animal is killed then all its other interests are frustrated as well.

• Ethical question: Should the trivial human interest in eating meat be satisfied at the expense of the animal interest in staying alive?