Factory Farming Animals is Immoral

Thanks Con. Now onto my final rebuttals and concluding remarks. If you remember correctly, you will know that earlier my opponent claimed that mother pigs don't suffer from being confined in gestation crates, since they know of no better life outside their cage. However, I viewed his claim as absurd and provided a thought experiment to show why. In Con's response back to me he said that my thought experiment was weak, and had disanalogous factors. I will now quote some of the things he said in reply to my thought experiment and respond to them. "Emily has a special relationship with her father where she expects emotional nurturance, yet her father beats her every day, or at least frequently, a thing that didn’t happen to my porkers, who endure only a few procedures capable of inducing pain during the whole of their much shorter life." -Con This is irrelevant. The only thing I was trying to prove in my thought experiment was that a sentient being can still suffer even if they know of no better life of their own. The fact that Emily might have expected emotional nurturance from her father, or that pigs only endure a few procedures capable of inducing pain, is neither here nor there. I wasn't talking about those things. Again, I was only trying to show that you can suffer from a bad life, even if you know of no better one outside your own. It's not that complicated. "And despite the effort to isolate her, Emily is probably aware of the outside world—a knowledge very difficult to keep from a human child." -Con The fact that it might be difficult to hide the outside world from someone is again neither here nor there. It's a hypothetical situation. In my thought experiment Emily was not aware of the outside world. I didn't say she is probably aware of it or might be aware of it, I quite plainly said she is not. You don’t need to add unnecessary extra details to my thought experiment. Con states that I shouldn't speculate about whether the pigs on Bradley's farm showed distress when introduced into their cage, since Singer doesn't say anything about that. However, I think it's quite fair to say that the pigs do stress out when they are first put into these crates. As I have stated earlier, many experts think gestation crates provide very poor animal welfare. At the University of Wageningen, in the Netherlands, G. Cronin obtained a Ph.D. for a study of the behavior of confined sows. Here is his description of how they behave when first put in a stall with a tether: The sows threw themselves violently backwards, straining against the tether. Sows thrashed their heads about as they twisted and turned in their struggle to free themselves. Often loud screams were emitted and occasionally individuals crashed bodily against the side boards of the tether stalls. This is sometimes resulted in sows collapsing to the floor. [1] The British Farm Animal Welfare Council is also a critic of these confinement systems: Both stall and tether systems fail to meet certain welfare criteria to which we attach particular importance. As a result of their design the animals housed in them are prevented from exercising and from displaying most natural behavior patterns; in the wide range of systems seen by members there was little scope to reduce the continuing stress which can be caused by confinement in these systems…. We recommend... that the Government should introduce legislation as a matter of urgency to prevent all further installations of units of these designs. [2] In this video you can see how these mother pigs are made to suffer by being in these cages I have been talking about:Later on in his paper Con informs us that pork producers like Smithfield are eliminating the use of gestation crates on their farms, and that United Egg Producers have published standards for the treatment of laying hens. However, it’s still the case that most of pigs raised for meat are kept in gestation crates. Only three states in the U.S. make gestation crates illegal. Con also states that egg produces have published standards for the treatment for egg laying hens. However, it's unclear about what this "standard" is. How exactly are these hens being treated better? What are their living conditions like? Are the birds debeaked with a hot blade? Are they thrown into small cages when it's time to transport them to the slaughterhouse? What about the actual slaughter itself? All these questions remain unanswered, and the public is again left ignorant of how their food was produced. In this debate I pointed out the many cruel practices that factory farms subject animals to, and then argued why such practices are immoral. However, Con only challenged my claim that gestation crates were immoral, and did not even try to defend and morally justify the other practices. For that reason, as I sated earlier, his case against me is incomplete. Lets take a quick run threw of all these practices that have yet to challenged by Con.CowsCows raised for beef have pain inflicted on them by being castrated, dehorned, and branded with a hot iron. Like I stated earlier, this is done without painkillers. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment.PigletsBaby piglets who don't grow quickly enough are killed by being slammed head first onto the ground. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment.ChickensDebeaked and put into dirty sheds chickens live by the thousands. Some of these birds have heart attacks and collapse to the ground due to their massive weight. Once the birds hit market weight they are thrown into small cages and sent to the slaughterhouse where they are then killed in extremely pain ways. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment.Turkeys These birds are handled violently and the females are forcefully held down by workers who artificial inseminate them. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment.Dairy CowsThese female cows are kept pregnant through artificial insemination. Once they give birth, their calf is taken away from them which causes stress and sadness both for the mother and her baby. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment. VealOnce he is taken away from his mother, the male calf is tide up to a small box where he is unable to turn around and move freely. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment.Egg Laying Hens At the hatchery male chicks who are of no use to the egg industry are killed in painful and cruel ways. The chicks that are female are debeaked and crammed into small cages for their whole life. Con has not yet tried to morally justify this treatment. As we can see, much of these practices have not been responed to by Con. The only claim of mine he objected to was the fact that mother pigs suffer in gestation crates. That’s it. Moreover, his claim that they don’t suffer in those crates is false. So even then he fails. Conclusion My BOP of this debate was to demonstrate that factory farming animals is immoral. I explained the practices and treatment that these animals have to go through, and then I put forth an ethical argument against treating animals like that. My argument against this kind of farming was sound, and I defended each premise of it successfully. The job of my opponent was to demonstrate that the treatment of these animals is not immoral, and that my ethical argument against this type of farming is bad. However, his arguments against me were unsuccessful, and he failed to debunk my ethical argument. Not only that, but he failed to defend and morally justify most of the practices that factory farms use to produce food. His case against me is bad on many levels. We therefore ought to reject his arguments, and accept that I fulfilled my BOB that factory farming animals is immoral. Source:Animal Liberation by Peter Singer: pp. 127-128.