Animal Farms and Ethics: A View of Rights Theory

Abstract

Many animals suffer terribly under intensive farming that existence is simply of no benefit to them. Animals have a moral right not to be raised when their other rights will inevitably be violated. This paper applied the rights theory to the question of farm animals and argues that animals have a moral right not to be killed and not to be made to suffer by agricultural practices, but have no moral right not to be used in farming at all. This paper argues that there is nothing inherently wrong with modifying animals for human ends, however, not all modifications are permissible. For example, modifying animals to be kill and modifying them to suffer is wrong. Those modifications that lead to animals possessing worthwhile lives but with insufficient opportunities for well-being are also impermissible. This paper implies a call to end to intensive farming methods which are not animal friendly, and an end to raising animals for just their meat.