1
Anderson
Crawford Anderson
Dr. Williams
Philosophy of Food
12 December 2014
Final Paper
Pledge[U1]
There is great controversy over the largest agricultural industry in the United States. The multi billion-dollar meat industry has many people wondering if what we are doing to these animals is okay. The corporations are working to keep consumers in the dark but more and more people are becoming educated and finding out the truth about the meat industry. I will argue that it is immoral to slaughter animals for the consumption of their meat.
The main reason slaughtering animals for their meat is wrong is the way in which they are treated. Animals born into the meat industry are treated cruelly from the second they are born. If a chick is a male he is often thrown into a bin or a garbage bag where he is left to suffocate. The workers do this because males don’t grow as fast as females. A baby calf doesn’t have it much better. They are cruelly separated from their mother where they are put into a veal crate to limit their movement and keep their muscles from developing. This is done to give the consumer a more lean and tender piece of meat. The animals that due make it pass their first few months are often put into feedlots. Feedlots can be defined as a confined area where many animals are placed to ensure consistent growth and weight. The conditions are less than desirable. Animals stand in their own feces and are nutritionally deficient. Cows for instance are fed large amounts of hormones and antibiotics to speed up their growth. Beef calves can grow from 80 pounds to 1200 pounds in 14 months.
Once an animal is big enough for slaughter they are often kicked, prodded, or beaten onto a trailer for transport. The workers show the animals no mercy and treat them like objects rather than living organisms. The trip can take days to reach the slaughterhouse and the animals are not allowed to move, eat or drink. Often times many animals will die in transit. Once they arrive the animals are hung by their hind legs on a conveyor belt which will carry them to their demise. Some slaughterhouses run the animals through an electrified waterfall before a giant saw decapitates them but many do not and the animals are fully conscious in the final seconds of their life. Cows naturally live till they are 18 to 22 years old but by slaughtering them at 14 to 16 months we are shorteningtherelives by 95%. This cruel treatment of animals could easily be avoided because human beings do not require animal meat to survive.
While many people may agree with my statement there are plenty who would argue that animals do not have rights and therefore it does not matter how they are treated. My response to this objection would be that just because animals don’t have the same intellectual capacity as humans doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. The human species considers young children not rational and thus not capable of making decisions for themselves. This doesn’t mean that we are going to corral them up and slaughter them. Another question I have for the objectifying party would be if animals don’t have rights why do people offer certain animals more rights than others? [U2]In the United States it would be appalling to eat dogs, cats, or horses but in many other countries they do. Also, we can go to a restaurant and pick out the lobster we want but we can’t point to the particular chicken we want to eat. We obviously treat certain animals like they have rights and since some have rights they must all have rights[U3]. If someone is autistic we aren’t going to eat them, we still have to treat them like a person.
The second reason I believe it is immoral to slaughter animals for their meat is the health concerns that come with consuming and handling meat. Americans are consuming too much meat. While protein is good for people, the amount of meat we are consuming is having a negative affect on our health. It is causing obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, and heart problems. The majority of the meat we consume is fed antibiotics and hormones to help them grow. These substances are now in the meat we are eating. Since cows are fed such high levels of antibiotics certain bacteria are becoming immune and that affects the human health. E. Coli for example is becoming immune to the antibiotics and if consumed by people could potentially kill them. It has been found that workers in slaughterhouses have developed respiratory and neurological conditions that are associated with handling the dead animals.Another worry is the excess of manure that comes with the meat industry. Farmers are running out of places to put it and it is now contaminating our fresh water. 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states have been contaminated with animal feces. If consuming meat is causing us health problems as well as depleting our water supply then we should reconsider why we are eating it.
Due to the cruel treatment of animals and the numerous health concerns I believe it is immoral to slaughter animals for their meat. The taste of meat is not worth cutting the animals’ life span and putting them through this treacherous life style. As it turns out this cruel practice isn’t even benefiting our health in any way. This industry is only benefiting the pockets of the corporations that run it. It is time to stop being naïve and put a stop to this awful practice.
Work Cited
Bittman, Mark. “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler.”New York Times.New York: ProQuest Historical Newspapers, 2008. 1 and 4. Print. Course Reserves, Philosophy 205, Dr. Williams, Fall 2014.
Fox, Michael A. “Vegetarianism and Treading Lightly on the Earth.” Environmental Ethics Readings in Theory and Application.United States: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, No year Given. 496-504. Print. Course Reserves, Philosophy 205, Dr. Williams, Fall 2014.
[U1]Grade: 90
[U2]?
[U3]?