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I think its unfortunate that opposition to torturing animals is often lumped in with opposition to merely killing animals.
by nimble 13y ago
I think its unfortunate that opposition to torturing animals is often lumped in with opposition to merely killing animals.
- asciimo 13y agoIf we have the right to kill, why don't we have the right to torture?
- epochwolf 13y agoThe very act of torture requires a level of emotional depravity that merely killing does not.
- asciimo 13y agoYou presuppose that torture is always willful. In the context of human-scale meat production, it seems unavoidable. Yet we accept this, as it is necessary for consumer demands. The employees of factory farm facilities may very well suffer "emotional depravity;" not as a prerequisite for their duties, but as a result. The nature of torture aside, taking the life of a sentient being is the ultimate violation of its rights. I don't see how any act less than killing can be considered morally worse than killing.
- epochwolf 13y agoAnimals are not sentient. Higher animals have some form of emotion and a great capacity to suffer but as far as we can tell today, they do not have self-aware and self-reasoning intelligence.
- nimble 13y agoSentience doesn't mean what you think it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience
- epochwolf 13y agoOkay, I used the wrong word. My point remains unchanged. Animals, in their various are not capable of enough intelligence or self-reasoning to be considered thinking beings requiring equal protection with people. It is not morally wrong for a human to hunt animals, farm animals, use animals for labor, or keep animals as pets. This does not make it right for a human to deliberately cause harm to an animal for pleasure or entertainment. I also would consider trophy hunting to be immoral if one leaves the body to rot.
- nimble 13y agoI agree with you. My point was: you used the wrong word. :)
- contextual 13y agoPsychology Today: A Universal Declaration on Animal Sentience http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201306/universal-declaration-animal-sentience-no-pretending http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201306/u...
- nimble 13y ago> The nature of torture aside, taking the life of a sentient being is the ultimate violation of its rights. I don't see how any act less than killing can be considered morally worse than killing. Why?
- MartinCron 13y agoThat's easy. They are different things that inflict a different amount of suffering and distress on a creature capable of feeling suffering and distress.
- HNaTTY 13y agoBecause there is a purpose to killing, but the only purpose for torture in this case is the maximization of profit.
- crisnoble 13y agoThe companies condoning the torture are publicly traded companies which are legally obligated to maximize profits. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that this is happening on a massive scale. They only ways we can stop it are to create new regulations (the ones there today are ignored and the government is not staffed to enforce them) or for the public to stop buying from companies who torture animals. Both scenarios seem pretty unlikely to me, so I am not sure what to do.
- MartinCron 13y agoI agree entirely. I was particularly taken by an interview I heard (NPR probably, was years ago) about a rancher who raises high-end free-range veal. He said that these cows have exactly one bad day in their lives, as they spend their entire lives with their mothers in grassy pastures.