Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
one of many features that constitute the exploitative nature of such breeding. It is
easier for a manufacturer to meet the requirement for space than, say, avoiding prac-
tices that reduce the animals into overworked, living factories that “manufacture”
much more than they would have done naturally. Free-roaming laying hens are ex-
ploited if they are killed when they become “unproductive” or if the breeding facility
kills day-old unproductive male chicks while allowing their sisters to free-range (or if
it obtains its hens from hatching facilities that kill male chicks). Debeaking, a painful
procedure that is widely practiced with regard to non-free-roaming as well as free-
roaming hens (at least where I live, the free-roaming hens are routinely debeaked),
also spoils the image of “free-roaming” animals as creatures that live their lives
without painful intervention by humans motivated by financial gain. Should vegetari-
ans cooperate with an industry that, even at its moral best, employs standards that ab-
use animals?
Right or wrong, the vegan-vegetarian debate concerns a very small group of philo-
sophers. More are interested in the internal coherence of moral vegetarianism. Yet
pro-animal authors many times opt to leave vague the specific practical prescriptions
that their work implies. The reason for this openness is that given the present negli-
gible impact of pro-animal protest, it seems strategically wise not to quibble over the
precise contours of the objective. Animals gain more from those that write on their
behalf if these do not try to overzealously embarrass people who are willing to make
only partial concessions to the pro-animal cause. Vagueness may be strategically wise,
but it carries a price as one is upholding an ideal that is not fully explained. Apart
from deciding whether veganism or vegetarianism is the more persuasive opposition
to current animal-related practice, this chapter also explores the justification of the
way by which vegetarians draw the limits of their protest. I will argue that vegetari-
anism is a morally superior regulative ideal and a more effective form of protest
compared to veganism. I begin by arguing against veganism. I shall then turn to tent-
ative veganism.
VEGANISM
Pro-animal action partly depends on how one envisages ideal relations between hu-
mans and nonhumans. “Stop all coercion and violence”— such is the most extreme
pro-animal position imaginable. According to this hands-off position, usage and killing
of whatever kind are to stop. Companion animals are also out, since keeping them in-
volves limiting their movement and may detrimentally affect other wild animals.
Regulative beliefs of this kind will surely prescribe moral veganism. A less extreme
position allows pets in the regulative ideal but bans raising animals for meat, milk,
and eggs regardless of the conditions in which this is done. This too implies moral
