Factory Farming Animals is Immoral

Dookieman is undoubtedly a sincere exponent for good relations between humankind and the world of animal life we are embedded in. The human being was first, in our planet's long history of creating new species, to seek conscious control of animals through domestication, and the first to consider the ethical consequences of doing so. That my opponent recoils in horror when confronted with the frank realities involved should be admired. Yet throughout this debate, my opponent has strayed from the path of reason as well as from acknowledging limitations on the scope of debate that the DDO format imposes.His rebuttal and summary appeals to pathos: we're reminded again of an abused human child I've already shown is weak analogy to a farm animal, and ability to feel pain is conflated with desires for freedom I've shown the animals cannot harbor without having experienced freedom. He tells us that animals are sentient, without defining this term or attempting to prove this assertion, in an effort to convince us that farm animals are essentially human beings in furry guise. I never claimed that habituation means inability to sense pain when injured. Nor have I said it creates "good mood." My opponent assumes I have done so, however, asking us to watch YouTube footage of suffering pigs for good measure.Then comes the roster of the animals, as if we'll see a revolt akin to George Orwell's Animal Farm, in a cycle of accusations unsupported by references, expecting me to undertake a tedious, point by point refutation which DDO simply doesn't allow for. Perhaps all my opponent's statements are true, yet it's much easier to make unsupported claims than it is to rebut them, and I am not obligated to respond to every one of his individual cases.In farming, the counterintuitive often holds true. My round 2 showed that the leading cause of stress in pigs is not what the farmer does to them, but a genetic disorder, Porcine Stress Syndrome. While Greg Cronin, a researcher my opponent does cite, was wrestling with screaming sows, he was also doing an experiment in Australia which demonstrated lower survival for piglets and their mothers in an open nesting condition with straw [1]. The YouTube video, by the Humane Society, becomes part of my opponent's arguments by extension. Yet if its allegations of lack of individual veterinary care, also not given citation support, really hold, then why are vaccinations and heat lamp treatments for newborn piglets found in a leading national handbook for farm animal veterinarians? [2]It looks like my opponent is taking the Rawlsian position of initial ignorance and asking us if we would be willing to roll a die that determined whether we were born as pig or human. My contention is that this comparison is wrong. No human would prefer a farm sow's life. But we should compare domestic pig to wild pig instead: In the wild, sows become objects of predation by lions and suffer untreated diseases, situations they don't face on the farm. Food is often scarce in the wild. It's hard to find a place on earth where animals don't suffer.Except perhaps a pig kept as a household pet. My opponent's impossible position on factory farming simply doesn't reflect the variables operating in the real world. The radical economic changes required for implementing an animal liberation agenda are unlikely. I have already generously conceded that farming practice should improve and that new laws should pass from time to time. Yet what is moral must always be what is realistic; the morality of an ideal and fictitious world can never be imposed. Therefore, my opponent's arguments should be rejected in favor of a conclusion that factory farming lies beneath the ethical umbrellas of the society we currently live in.[1] Cronin, G. The effects of farrowing nest size and width on sow and piglet behaviour and piglet survival. Appl. Animal Behavior Sci. 60, 331-345. pdf summary and preview, http://www.animalwelfare.net.au...[2] Barbara Straw, Jeff Zimmerman et. al., Diseases of Swine, 9th ed., 2006, Wiley-Blackwell, p. 1006.