I have a photo of free range chickens on my computer. Every adult I have shown it to at school has laughed as if it's some kind of joke or I'm weird or a stupid greenie to believe that chickens shouldn't be tortured whilst being reared for meat of kept as egg producers. I find this odd and rather unsettling. All of the people involved are church going people. Is this relevant to animal rights ethics or not? [For the record, I am irreligious.]
What do you think of this - should people in a modern educated society realise that such cruelty is unnecessary. Or is it okay to ignore cruelty to animals because it makes it cheaper and easier to have the food we want??? Maybe you don't think animals do suffer or should have rights?
Thus we start to delve into the realms of fact versus opinion.
Another interesting issue is the one about which animals it's alright to eat or not. Who decides? Why some and not others?
People in some African, Asian, Central and South American countries eat endangered primates.
Some people in Scandinavian and Asian countries eat marine mammals like whales.
In South America guinea pigs are eaten.
In some countries horses are eaten - like in France.
Here we eat cows which are considered sacred in other countries.
In some Asian countries people farm and eat dogs, cats, etc.
I have met people in NZ who think it's cool to catch as many fish as they can. I have met people who fish in marine reserves. So why do we humans have such diverse, contradictory yet strongly held views about what is wrong and right when it comes to animals? HEck! Some of us even ate each other until relatively recently.
Why do we hold such different views on things and believe in them so strongly? hmmm....
We humans are strange creatures.
