First, my own background. I'm a cat lover. I work at an animal rescue. I've been taking care of cats for 20 years now and I can't imagine my life without them. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to them, and if anyone were to ever hurt them, I would want that individual to be harshly punished.
I'm not ethically opposed to raising farm animals for the purpose of eating meat, so long as they are treated humanely while they are alive. After all, the cats I care for are obligate carnivores, so I'd be a hypocrite if I were against raising other animals for meat. Unfortunately, it's hard to find stores that still sell free range meat. I'm currently looking into CSA because I've heard it's better for the environment, so I'll have to see how that pans out.
I've been following a number of animal cruelty cases over the past year that our rescue has been involved in, the details of which I may share later. It's appalling how some people feel they can abuse, torture, and neglect their animals and then treat them like they're someone else's problem. These animals depend on us for food, shelter, and safety, and the last thing we should do is betray their trust.
Yet the reason I'm asking this question is because, for the life of me, I find myself unable to articulate an objective moral or philosophical argument as to why I as an individual, or why we as a society, should care about animal cruelty as an issue.
I used to argue that there are studies that have been done showing a link between cruelty towards animals and cruelty towards humans. This is how several notorious serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, got their start. However, only a correlation has been proven, and correlation is not the same as causation. There are animal abusers who do not grow up to be serial killers, and there are serial killers who never abused animals growing up. Perhaps the same psychological cause is behind both behaviors in households where abuse takes place, but I haven't been able to find sufficient evidence on this.
I could argue that animals are living, breathing, thinking beings, who provide us with companionship and warmth. They have the same feelings we do. They feel pain like we do. They give us so much and ask for so little in return. However, this is an emotional appeal, not an objective argument, and not everyone is going to feel the same way.
I could say that our domestic animals co-evolved with us as human civilization grew up. Our very survival came to depend on them. The livestock animals provide us with food and clothing. The animals we consider pets serve as companions, guards, hunters, and pest control. We made them who they are, and now they can't survive without us, therefore it's our responsibility as a species to make sure we take good care of them. But again, this is subjective.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Why should anyone care about animal cruelty? What does it matter if a livestock animal is trapped in a tiny cell, wading in its own filth its entire life? It's just going to die anyway. It's out of sight and out of mind, so why should I care? And what does it matter if a cat or dog is beaten, neglected, or starved? It's just a stupid pet. It's not the same as treating a human the same way, and it doesn't contribute to human suffering if you torture an animal.
So could someone with more experience than I come up with a well-reasoned, objective argument as to why animal cruelty is wrong?
I'm not ethically opposed to raising farm animals for the purpose of eating meat, so long as they are treated humanely while they are alive. After all, the cats I care for are obligate carnivores, so I'd be a hypocrite if I were against raising other animals for meat. Unfortunately, it's hard to find stores that still sell free range meat. I'm currently looking into CSA because I've heard it's better for the environment, so I'll have to see how that pans out.
I've been following a number of animal cruelty cases over the past year that our rescue has been involved in, the details of which I may share later. It's appalling how some people feel they can abuse, torture, and neglect their animals and then treat them like they're someone else's problem. These animals depend on us for food, shelter, and safety, and the last thing we should do is betray their trust.
Yet the reason I'm asking this question is because, for the life of me, I find myself unable to articulate an objective moral or philosophical argument as to why I as an individual, or why we as a society, should care about animal cruelty as an issue.
I used to argue that there are studies that have been done showing a link between cruelty towards animals and cruelty towards humans. This is how several notorious serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, got their start. However, only a correlation has been proven, and correlation is not the same as causation. There are animal abusers who do not grow up to be serial killers, and there are serial killers who never abused animals growing up. Perhaps the same psychological cause is behind both behaviors in households where abuse takes place, but I haven't been able to find sufficient evidence on this.
I could argue that animals are living, breathing, thinking beings, who provide us with companionship and warmth. They have the same feelings we do. They feel pain like we do. They give us so much and ask for so little in return. However, this is an emotional appeal, not an objective argument, and not everyone is going to feel the same way.
I could say that our domestic animals co-evolved with us as human civilization grew up. Our very survival came to depend on them. The livestock animals provide us with food and clothing. The animals we consider pets serve as companions, guards, hunters, and pest control. We made them who they are, and now they can't survive without us, therefore it's our responsibility as a species to make sure we take good care of them. But again, this is subjective.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Why should anyone care about animal cruelty? What does it matter if a livestock animal is trapped in a tiny cell, wading in its own filth its entire life? It's just going to die anyway. It's out of sight and out of mind, so why should I care? And what does it matter if a cat or dog is beaten, neglected, or starved? It's just a stupid pet. It's not the same as treating a human the same way, and it doesn't contribute to human suffering if you torture an animal.
So could someone with more experience than I come up with a well-reasoned, objective argument as to why animal cruelty is wrong?
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1vjD6Vd
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