Week 5 - Final Paper

Running Head: ANIMAL ETHICS

ANIMAL ETHICS

Animal Ethics

Name

Institution

Animal ethics

Research question: Is it ethically acceptable to raise animals for food on factory farms?

Introduction

In the past few years, industrial agriculture has been adopted to produce food at a low cost while overlooking aspects of food safety and animal welfare. In industrial animal production, animals are confined in cages where they are fed and provided with the required medication. These animals do not do anything naturally and most of them do not even get to feel the warmth of the sun until during their transportation to the slaughterhouse. Factory farms maximize output while minimizing cost (Mummery & Rodan, 2017). There has been an ongoing debate on whether raising animals on factory farms is ethical or not. This paper will explore articles that argue on each side of this matter to assess the quality of the argument of each.

Article against raising animals in factory farms

While searching for articles against the raising of animals for food in factory farms, I came across this article from a website called The New Indian Express. The article argues that raising animals in factory farms is a source of income that does not question health and hygiene and should therefore be done away with. The key premises contained in the given reason include:

Premise 1: Raising animals in factory farms is a major contributor to the climate crisis that is being experienced in India today.

Premise 2: Factory farming is the leading cause of animal abuse and suffering as it turns animals into machines to generate animal products.

Conclusion: Raising animals in factory farms is bad for both the climate and the animals raised in those farms. It is a practice that is only focused on generating profits while ignoring important aspects of hygiene and health. There are lots of greenhouse gases generated from this practice that are harmful to the environment (Krishna, 2020).

Evaluation of the quality of argument against the raising of animals for food in factory farms

The argument that the author presents in this article contains strong points that support the conclusion. According to the first premise, raising animals for food in factory farms is harmful to the environment. The second premise also argues that raising animals for food in factory farms is a violation of the wellbeing of animals. The author has provided a lot of evidence to support the premises. For example, the fact that these animals are forced to live in their own waste and are separated from their mothers at an early age show that this practice violates their welfare. Also, evidence on the increase in greenhouse gases shows that this practice is harmful to the climate.

There are however concerns about the support given on this argument. The author does not indicate the source of the supporting information or statistics included in the article. This makes us doubt the credibility of this information. The fact the article is from a web site reduces its credibility. The author does not also consider a counter-argument on this issue. Although we cannot establish the credibility of the information provided in that article, the information strongly supports the premises and the conclusion of the article.

Article supporting the raising of animals for food in factory farms

In the process of searching for articles supporting the raising of animals for food in factory farms, I came across an article from a website known as The Corvallis Advocate. In this article, the author argues that although a bad image has been painted about raising animals in factory farms, there are real benefits of raising animals in these facilities. The following are the premises given for this argument:

Premise 1: Factory farms are a sustainable source of food that enables the production of food for less labor and cost.

Premise 2: Factory farms consider efficiency in space and time and this ensures that animal health and wellbeing are catered for.

Premise 3: The cases of animal abuse are far less than what is reported in the news (1%).

Premise 4: Laws are governing the way animals are supposed to be handled in these factory farms and this enhances the welfare of animals.

Conclusion: Raising animals on factory farms is a practice that considers the welfare of animals and provides a sustainable source of food and therefore should be embraced (Young, 2020).

Evaluation of the quality of the argument supporting the raising of animals in factory farms

This article makes strong points which try to answer almost all the questions that can be raised about raising animals for food on factory farms. The author provides strong support for these premises. For example, the article argues that factory farms have been there for a long time and that they have always been reliable sources of food. The information provided supports the premises listed and builds on the conclusion of the author.

However, while the author has considered counter-arguments in this issue, for example, the question of ethics, they have left out important ones like the effect of this practice on the climate. There are also no sources of information given to show that what the author says is true. Further information is to be obtained from this website and this does not make it any better. We cannot tell if the information and the statistics provided in this article are true. The article itself is not a credible source of information. It is generally challenging to establish the credibility of information in the source. This article, therefore, does to convince us that raising animals in factory farms is a good idea that should be embraced as a source of sustainable food.

References

Krishna, N. (2020). Factory Farming of Animals and Climate Change. Retrieved from https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2020/nov/07/factory-farming-of-animals-and-climate-change-2220463.html

Mummery, J., & Rodan, D. (2017). Mediation for affect: Coming to care about factory-farmed animals. Media International Australia, 165(1), 37-50. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1329878X17726454

Young, K. (2020). Leaving Factory Farms in the Past. OSU Experts Talk CAFOs. Retrieved from https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2020/leaving-factory-farms-in-the-past-osu-experts-talk-cafos/