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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (106259)	6/18/2005 11:03:34 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Factory farming is a pretty new phenomenon. There really is no historical precedent for it before the nineteenth century, and it really didn't take hold until mid-twentieth century. It doesn't represent in any way the traditional relationships man had with animals, even when they ended up becoming meat in the end. They still had the typical lives of animals, enjoying some freedom, the ability to nurture their own young, sunshine and fresh air, etc. So if you want to look at this from the point of view of beliefs (which I don't believe is logical), factory farming is a new belief. Certainly it is justifiable that people ought to be able to justify new beliefs with some underlying rationale for it, yes? The damage from factory farming is immense, if you only want to consider the environmental and public health detriments, and not consider whether it is moral to treat animals this way. So it is possible to make a LOGICAL argument against it without any beliefs getting in the way. I don't recall Oral or anyone else offering any justification or defense of factory farming, except sort of a libertarian one--factory farms exist, and people have a right to make money is about the extent of it that I can recall, although I could be wrong. All western societies have codified extensive animal welfare laws for pets, and the European ones are going further, with specific rules on how farm animals can be treated, specifically that they are sentient animals and must be treated with dignity and not be stressed or frightened or live in close confinement. You can assert that this position arises from belief, but isn't living by principled and compassionate beliefs an essential tenet of civilized living?