Eating animals is, without doubt, the human activity that impacts negatively upon the largest numbers of animals. It is estimated that about 90-95% of the animals that suffer and die due to human intervention do so because of the demand for animals as "food". From our childhood onward, we are brought up in an environment where eating animals is something "normal". For that reason, most of us never ask ourselves if there could be something wrong with it. As a result, we tend not to see that a meal that for us means a moment of pleasure, for the animals we eat means, quite simply, their lives. It is only possible to do this if we consider the interests of animals to be totally irrelevant. However, if we really think about it, we can see how difficult such an attitude is to maintain.
Are the lives of animals really worth so little?
It is sometimes claimed that only capacities such as intelligence or the ability to reason confer upon a being the right to justice, suggesting that only human beings matter. However, the fact that a being manifests a different degree or type of intelligence does not mean that it lacks it altogether. The important point is that such characteristics cannot be considered as morally relevant. One sentient being doesn't feel any more than another, just because she or he is more intelligent, or has a different kind of intelligence.
Nowadays, who would defend the killing, exploitation or abuse of human babies, or people with severe mental disabilities? In many cases, however, these human beings lack the capacity for having certain abstract thoughts, making certain mathematical calculations or having moral responsibilities towards others... If we defended the view that the possession of certain intellectual capacities is relevant in determining whether someone has any moral worth, we would also justify the exploitation and killing of such people. This comparison can help us to understand why features such as intelligence are unimportant when we evaluate the interests of another being. Only the capacity to feel suffering and joy matters for that. And non-human animals have, like us, the capacity to experience pain and pleasure. They are individuals with needs and interests that we must respect.
Sometimes, certain uses of animals are defended, provided these don't cause them suffering - such as vivisection with full anaesthesia. But this means we are denying one of the interests all animals have - that of staying alive. Whether painful or not, death always means the deprivation of all our possibilities to have positive experiences. Apart from having an interest in not suffering, we animals (remember that we humans are animals too) also have an interest in feeling satisfaction and experiencing pleasure, which implies an interest in maintaining our physical integrity and our freedom; and, more importantly, in staying alive. This is present to such an extent that only in extreme cases, such as when an unavoidable and painful death is near, can we understand that our interest in not suffering outweighs our interest in living. In fact, most of us will fight to stay alive, even if this means enormous suffering. This shows that it is meaningless to put animals' interests in not being subjected to suffering above their interest in living itself - both are obviously of great importance.
An immense amount of preventable suffering
To use animals as food means that we are viewing them as resources and thus frustrating their most basic interests. Depriving them of their lives and liberty and causing them suffering is all inherent in the raising of them for food. The following details give an idea of how this affects the lives of animals:
How animals "live"...
Any type of rearing of animals for human consumption inevitably involves some kind of limitation on their freedom. It is normal for such animals to be kept in places where they never see sunlight, or to be confined in extremely small spaces. On many farms, each hen's accommodation is equivalent to the size of an A4 sheet of paper. In these cages, birds are locked up together in groups of four or five, which does not allow them to escape attacks from other stressed birds. This is particularly common due to the stress of confinement and normally they cannot move at all (turn around, stretch their wings or even lie down). The bars of the cage floor hurt and mutilate their legs, causing wounds and deformations. Sometimes, their feet become completely trapped in the metal (this means that when brought to the slaughterhouse they have to be literally ripped out of the cages).
Cows are similarly imprisoned in narrow indoor stalls in which they do not have enough space even to turn around. Pigs suffer the same fate, or are reared in huge sheds, together with thousands of others of their kind. Other animals (such as lambs, ducks, ostriches and deer) are kept in similar conditions. Excrement accumulates under them and dead animals are sometimes not removed for days. They would die of multiple infections were it not for the enormous amount of antibiotics and chemicals administered to them in their food (which is full of hormones and waste materials, in order to fatten them as fast and economically as possible). Life is no picnic on free-range farms either. These animals may not be in cages, but are mostly confined to sheds or barns and are never really free.
In fish farms, fish are also crammed into small tanks and suffer all types of diseases, which are then treated by antibiotics.
...and how they die
Slaughter is another terrible time for animals. Many die on the way to the slaughterhouse, because of poor transport conditions. The animals are crammed together in very tiny spaces and given neither water nor food, as no profit in terms of further fattening can be expected at this point.
Slaughterhouses, in the same way as farms, are all about business, and hence they are under economic pressures. Consequently, in order to maximise profits, animals are passed through the slaughterline as quickly as possible and improperly stunned, inevitably leading to a large number of them being skinned or boiled while still alive and fully conscious.
Slaughter is exactly the same in the case of free-range animals. Free-range meat production reflects the same gross neglect and disregard for animals' interests as any other exploitation or killing of animals. Also, fish are victims of tremendously painful deaths caused in many different and terrible ways. Many die when pulled out from the depths of the sea, because of decompression - the different pressure makes their organs literally burst inside them. Others die of suffocation, once they are out of the sea. Yet others die when frozen alive in fridges, or crushed by the weight of tons of animals caught with them, and some are boiled or cut up alive.
What is more, many kilometres of nets abandoned in the sea continue to cause death to thousands of fish trapped in them. Many other animals, such as turtles and sea birds, also die, trapped in these nets.
All these examples of abuse in no way imply that, if animals were treated in more 'humane' ways, the conversion of sentient beings into food would be justified. Rather, what they exemplify is that, once one of the most fundamental interests of an animal is thwarted - when we decide to end her or his life in order to serve as a meal for humans - any other abuse should in no way surprise us.
More about an animal free diet
Once they have recognised animals as the creatures they are - sentient beings with their own interests and needs - more and more people decide to exclude animal products from their diet, choosing a vegetarian life. The force of the argument is clear; there is no justification for depriving a sentient being of her or his life and causing her or him suffering. But a vegetarian diet can also offer further benefits:
Your health will benefit from a vegetarian diet
All essential nutrients can be obtained from a plant-based diet, without the ill effects caused by animal products. The cholesterol and saturated fats in animal products accumulate inside the arteries, causing obstructions - it is widely acknowledged that many cases of coronary occlusions could be prevented by excluding animal flesh, eggs and dairy produce from the menu. The uric acid in these products contributes to decalcification, causing osteoporosis. Endless lists of ailments such as arthritis, asthma, obesity, rheumatism, arteriosclerosis and many cancers (for example, colon, breast, prostate and stomach) are directly linked to the consumption of animal products. These conditions are significantly less common among vegetarians, who in general lead healthier and longer lives. In addition, there are the dangers associated with a host of chemicals routinely administered to animals - mainly antibiotics and hormones - together with the risk of infectious diseases, such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, and its human counterpart, CJD), salmonella, E-coli or listeriosis.
The environmental consequences of eating animals
A piece of land devoted to the production of cereals can provide five times more protein than if devoted to the production of meat, up to ten times more, if we produce pulses and fifteen times, if we plant leafy vegetables. Likewise, in the conversion of grain into meat, 96% of the calories are lost. Thus, the production of meat implies an enormous waste of food, in a world where millions die of starvation. As much more land is needed to produce the same amount of food, meat eating ranks as the main cause of desertification and deforestation. Also, in order to produce one kilo of wheat, 3000 litres of water are needed, while for one kilo of meat, the number is multiplied by ten. Millions of hectares of rain forests are cut down to make way for plantations of grains and soybeans to feed farm animals, or to make pastures. This has devastating consequences for millions of animals, who, if they survive the destruction, find their habitats gone, together with their source of food. Hence, the problem is not the suffering of the ecosystems, as these are not sentient beings. What ecosystems are is the space where not just humans, but all animals, live.
