The End of Factory Farming

Rory Cockshaw

doi:10.52214/vib.v7i.8696

Abstract

The End of Factory Farming

Highlights

The UK-based campaign group Scrap Factory Farming has launched a legal challenge against industrial animal agriculture; the challenge is in the process of judicial review
A concentrated animal feeding organizations” (CAFOs) is a subset of animal feeding operations that has a highly concentrated animal population
The bioethical questions raised by CAFOs include whether it is acceptable to kill the animals, and if so, under what circumstances, whether the animals have rights, and what animal welfare standards should apply

Summary

Animal Ethics

Two central paradigms characterize animal ethics: welfarism and animal rights. These roughly correspond to the classical frameworks of utilitarianism and deontology. Rampant abuse is documented.[3] Acts of cruelty are routine: pigs often have teeth pulled and tails docked because they often go mad in their conditions and attempt to cannibalize each other; chickens have their beaks clipped to avoid them pecking at each other, causing immense pain; cows and bulls have their horns burned off to avoid them damaging others (as this damages the final meat product, too); male chicks that hatch in the egg industry are ground up in a macerator, un-anaesthetized, in the first 24 hours of their life as they will not go on to lay eggs These practices vary widely among factory farms and among jurisdictions. The welfare of animals cannot be properly respected because all CAFOs fundamentally see animals as mere products-inthe-making instead of the complex, sentient, and emotional individuals science has repeatedly shown them to be.[4]

Climate Ethics

Workers’ Rights

Unjust Distribution

Findings

CONCLUSION