Ethics of Animal Slaughter: A Moral Dilemma

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Thousands of animals are killed every second after spending torturous days locked up in farm houses. For centuries meat eating has been considered a norm amongst distinct cultures. However when the question of what is moral and immoral/ethical and unethical arises, a debate whether it is okay for humans to eat animals is questioned. Some might argue that animals do not share common characteristics with humans and there for it is okay for humans to treat them as food. Others might disagree with that and argue just as Franz De Waal in his book Our Inner Ape that animals share many characteristics with humans. Not only does De Waal discuss all of these common characteristics between animals and humans in his book, but he also mentions that animals
“ Harm principle refers to a theory of crime that an action can only be banned if it causes harm to someone.”(Harm Principle Law & Legal definitions. (2006). If this is applied within a society, shouldn’t the types of harm include that of slaughtering animals? That is harm and cruelty towards thousands of animals being killed every second all around the world. Pojman, in his book The Moral Life mentions, “ Before they become someone’s dinner, most farm animals raised in the United States are forced to endure intense pain and suffering in factory farms”.(Pojman, L.P. pg.861) The vast desire for meat, milk, and eggs is satisfied though the suffering of animals in farm houses who are given no rights what so ever. Cows for example, that are raised for milk production are harshly cramped in farm houses. As stated by swell-fed world, “ Twice a day or more they are attached to milking machines. Some are injected with bovine growth hormone to boost milk production.” (Factory farms- a well fed world) The hormones injected into these farm animals have been found to harm humans health severely. According to the European Union’s Scientific Committee, “ hormone residues in the meat of growth enhanced animals can disrupt human hormone balance, causing developmental problems, interfering with the reproduction system, and even leading to the development of breast, prostate and colon cancers.” (Foundation, G. C. (n.d.). Hormones.) Meat industries in todays society are looking for the fastest ways of producing meat in the least amount of time. This leads to the health problems caused by the hormones in meat and dairy

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