In the article concerning the two Wayne County men who stole, killed and then ate a calf, claiming they were hungry and needed a meal, and the news broadcast about the Ohio Dairy Farm that was brutally torturing animals for no reason, the question is whether or not these are exceptable acts of cruelty, considering what already goes on inside of factory farms and CAFOs. I personally believe that if you only look at these acts after analyzing what goes on within factory farms, and comparing the two, then yes, according to the standards that have been set by the industry, that neither of these acts are any worse than what is already happening. However, just because it is already happening does mean that it is necessarily moral correct. In Peter Singer and Jim Mason's article titled "The Way We Eat Why Our Food Choices Matter" they make a good point, illustrating how sometime just because we do something, does not mean that it is right, and also does not mean that it is not something that we should work to change. They discuss how in the American culture, it use to be acceptable to own slaves, and for a long time nobody saw anything wrong with it. The slaves were being seen as the property of white males, and being dehumanized, and treated like animals. Singer and Mason stated "Biases against woman and agaist people of other races have been, and in some places still are, culturally significant. If a widespread cultural practice is wrong, we should try to change it" (pg 7). Although what the two men in New York did to that poor calf was uncalled for and extremely cruel, if our culture continues to evolve, then maybe we will learn that what was once considered acceptable is no longer something that we should be participating in. The incident at the Ohion Dairy Farm is a prime example of how we no longer view animals as living breathing creatures, and now simply see them as objects that we can take advantage of and do with as we please. Humans view themselves as being above animals, and able to control them, even torture them. In "Brave New Farm" by Jim Mason and Mary Finelli they discuss everything that goes on behind closed doors in factory farms that they believe we as consumers should know about. A point that they make that I find to be interesting is that we have "reduced chickens to the equivalent of living machines" (pg 160). Is this not true? When a chicken is part of a factory farm they are there for one purpose and one purpose only. To supply humans with eggs and meat. They are not seen as living, breathing creatures with feelings and thoughts. Mason and Finelli also talk about the living conditions of chickens in which they are given about "50 square inches of floor space" (pg 160). This is the equivalent of about half of a sheet of notebook paper, and is unbelievable to think this is how they have to spend their entire lives, if you would even call that a life. To an extent humans practice severe speciesism toward "farm" animals and those that we call pets. Humans would never treat a dog the way that cows, pigs and chickens get treated within factor farms. In fact, there are laws against treating dogs and cats cruely, and they are punishable. People can even do time for mistreating a dog in a way that is considered inhumane. So why then is there a double standard? Each animal should have equal consideration in the sense that they are all living organisms capable of feeling and emotions. There are studies done in which there is proof that pigs are just as intellectual of beings as dogs are, and in some ways may be even more capable. So this brings about the question of whether or not we should re-evaluate how we treat pigs. Should we be eating dogs instead? This would be unheard of and would cause controversy of an unknown amount, but it just goes to show how we seem to suffer from moral schizophrenia when it comes to what we consider to be morally correct and incorrect.
I've included a video in which a girl is trying to teach her piglet how to sit, and is treating the pig much like most humans treat their pet dogs. Miraculously the pig learns to sit, and is able to take commands from it's "owner" showing clear evidence that pigs have the capacity to be intellectual, they have simply been reduced to nothing more than pieces of meat. Regan is a philospher who works to give animals the rights that they deserve. If Regan were to be asked what his opinion is about the Ohio Dairy farm insident then he would state that the men portrayed in the video, visciously abusing and causing unnecissary pain to those poor cows is barbaric.
The video shows cows being prodded with pitchforks, kicked, and beat, and the men doing the harm seem to be getting some kind of pleasure out of it. Regan makes the point though his animal rights position that much like humans, some animals should have rights, and the rights of the animals in the Ohio Dairy farm video were taken away. Regan makes the argument that "human and animal experiences and interests may be "comparable" or even "equal", human and animal experiences differ in degree but not in kind, and no traits that are universal among humans are exclusive to them." What Regan is trying to say is that even though they may not experience emotion to the same degree as humans do and feel pain in exactly the same way, they still experience them in their own way that are unique to them. The abuse that animals have to go through with being debeaked, being put into farrowing crates, and being exposed to diseases is sickening and maybe like Singer and Mason discuss it truely is time for us to make a change.
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