Veganism versus Animal-Friendly Animal Husbandry - Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics - page 129

does not allow for the killing and replacement of animals, it is more in
line with the goal of vegan agriculture.
Total Utilitarianism can in principle be compatible with the goal of
animal-friendly animal husbandry, which implies that it is morally all
right to use and kill animals provided that this does not infringe on the
animal's welfare in an unacceptable way. Prior Existence Utilitarianism,
in contrast, is more in line with the goal of vegan agriculture, because
it implies, somewhat simplistically stated, that animals should not be
used or killed.
2 The illogic of the Larder
The argument that animals benefit from animal husbandry because
otherwise they would not exist at all has been dubbed the Logic of the
Larder. I will point out how this argument relates to Total Utilitarianism
and to Prior Existence Utilitarianism. While Prior Existence Utilitarianism
is incompatible with the fundamental assumptions of this argument,
Total Utilitarianism might in principle be compatible with it, but might
nevertheless refute the argument on practical grounds.
2.1 Meat eaters as real animal lovers
In 1914, Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) dubbed an argument that has been
used in his own time and long before 'the Logic of the Larder'. The
argument claims that we do animals a favour by keeping them for their
meat, eggs and milk, for if we did not keep them for these purposes, the
animals in question would not exist. Since Salt's time, and in spite of his
fierce rebuttal of it, the Logic of the Larder is common currency. Salt's
term for the argument has become widely known in the field of animal
ethics. Salt chose that name because the argument implies 'that the real
lover of animals is he whose larder is fullest of them'. 1 'Larder' is a term
for a storage room. The Logic of the Larder has been directed against
the Jewish abstinence from pork, as well as more generally against vege-
tarian and vegan diets and agriculture. Most relevantly for this topic,
the Logic of the Larder has been used to defend animal-friendly animal
husbandry. It has also been used to defend other uses of animals.
The Logic of the Larder is still defended, if only informally. 2 An
explicit utilitarian defence of the Logic of the Larder is Richard Hare's
'Why I am only a Demi-vegetarian'. Hare defends the consumption of
meat from 'happy animals', because he considers a short and happy
life more valuable for the animal than no life at all. Hare explains his