On "The Wild"

Twice in the past 24 hours (once here and once on Stephanie's blog, in the comments)I have come across the following statement: "[insert animal here] are safe from predators, get fed regularly, and are better off on farms than if they were in 'the wild.'" The problem with that statement is it's not as if farmers are searching "the wild" for cows, pigs, chicken and fish, plucking them from their homes, and plopping them on a farm to live out their (shortened) lives prior to slaughter. The choice isn't the wild or the farm.

The animals on farms are created for the sole purpose of human consumption. They are created to be slaughtered. And their lives of exploitation, torment, torture and slaughter cannot be compared to an animal's life in the wild.

The next argument is usually something along the lines of: But animals in the wild might starve to death, and get injured, maimed or killed by predators! Yes, that's true. And animal rights isn't focused on what happens in the world outside of us that we aren't directly profiting from and that isn't happening because of us (that last one is nearly impossible, as you can trace many problems other animals experience back to something human animals have done to them or their habitat or their food). And before any hunter can blurt out "Have you ever seen a deer die of starvation in the woods? It's not pretty. We hunters are helping the deer," remember that hunters aren't in the woods looking for exhausted, starving, sickly deer to put out of their misery. They are looking for healthy, large ones.

Finally, people who object to our moral stance jump species and say we should object to the lion killing the gazelle. I don't know if these people are serious or not, but though we are not unique in the animal world in demonstrating morality, we vegans and animal rights advocates do not concern ourselves with the moral codes of other species. Besides, we have choices. We can choose not to kill and eat someone we do not need to eat in order to survive. Whether lions can do that or not is not something I think about. I do not pass judgment on other species, whose motives I cannot comprehend. I can, however, question the motives of a human who has no need to kill a sentient being or have someone kill for him, yet does so anyway.

Comments

[Neva]

Exactly on hunting--they kill the healthiest, showiest members of the species that they can.

Also on farms the animals are not protected from their primary predator, humans, a predator who takes longer to kill the terrified animals (once you count in transport, etc) than any predator "in the wild."

[Kristen]

Well said Mary!

[Adam Kochanowicz]

This is also a good comment on why "treatment" is not the entirety of the issue.

Compared to the occasional bruise from playing or broken bone from soccer games, a boy may be "safer" being confined in a kidnapper's basement with regular meals, exercise, and sunlight, say from a window.

[kelly g.]

I also like Luella's point:

How can we make ourselves their predators and then turn around and say, "Well, it's better than falling victim to predators."?

[John]

Mary, I really need for you to sit in on some of the countless debates I have with a few co-workers. As I can't always find the right expressions/phrases to use like you do in attempting to get the point across in which you do so well!

Oh...that was a nice analogy Adam!

[All Means Justifiable]

And another point: why do we judge the species we exploit (innocent cows, for example) on deeds of other specie (lions)?

[Paul]

Thank you Mary for treating few quite common arguments. First time I read your blog. I read this from the Animal Rights Blog first time.

About the farming as protection from predation, considered to be predation by few commentators here, I have to point out that predation is completely different relation to animals than producing, which is what we do with chickens and cows etc. That is, we produce food. That's not at all the same as hunting these animals. So, in this way, the animals are actually protected from all the predation. Only worry is, that as was pointed out (by the kidnapper example), this protection is way worse than predation itself.

Anyway, this is fine article, a bit short though. You inspired me to add to the discussion you started, so I wrote a little article where I try to add some new insight to this question. In case it might interest you, you can find it in my blog (ptiensuu.blogspot.com).

Keep on with the good work!

[Paul]

Hi. Don't mean to advertise, but just as a practical thing, if you or someone else happen to pay interest to the article I wrote following to this, here is the direct link to that text: http://ptiensuu.blogspot.com/2009/08/protection-and-wilderness.html. So that you don't have to read loads of other stuff, plenty of it written in Finnish, in order to find the right text (it's no longer even my newest post).

[Beaelliott]

I've done some poking around at livestock growers and animal industries, and I've seen examples of daily records and "inventory" sheets. All of them include a column for "casualties". So high are they that they are factored in as anticipated and expected losses. If the numbers get "too" high... they know to check for an irregularity. In spite of all the stories some wish to tell about wolves and lions, death inside a "protected" animal confinement facility is quite the norm.

But the most amusing thing I've heard lately is from the United Egg people - they are justifying 6 and 8 hens to a cage because... Well, chickens are social and they enjoy the close contact with others!

"We also want to protect them from their natural predators like fox, hawks, coyotes, and even stray cats and dogs; and we want to make sure they are protected from the weather … snow and ice in the winter, searing heat in the summer and thunderstorms and hail almost any time of the year.
To provide our hens that optimum protection, we have built modern, sanitary cage housing systems that the leading animal welfare and behavior scientists credit with reducing the diseases and mortality of hens, and nearly eliminating food borne diseases. This housing system allows for small groups of hens to be housed together, which is important because chickens tend to be social creatures."

This is what the egg folks are telling kids along with cartoons; one with an eagle attacking a chicken with the caption indicating "this wouldn't happen if we were in our cage". There are more - each as ridiculous and insulting as the next... I'm certain any bright child can see right through this ludicrous presentation:
http://www.uepcertified.com/media/news/how-we-protect-the-health-and-welfare-of-our-hens-kid-friendly.pdf

[Olivia]

We are all made with the inborn desire to be free, aren't we?

Free to think for ourselves, do for ourselves, to choose our own friends, activities, purpose, habitation -- even thoughts! Free to express our highest selfhood -- to be who we were meant to be: the individual, unique expression of LOVE, of LIFE, of TRUTH.

To deny freedom to nonhuman animals (and I'm including birds and fish and insects in the generic term "animals") is actually to deny ourselves the freedom to be our best selves.

The thousands of years humans have spent enslaving and exploiting others (fellow humans and nonhumans) are like a veil covering our true selfhood.

Those loveless, lifeless, truthless attempts at removing the freedoms of others are forms of darkness. Darkness obscures the light
for a time (physical light being a symbol of spiritual light).

But there's hope: light always wins out! It always destroys darkness in every individual's thought, just as gently and inevitably as the sun makes its appearance every morning.

The darkness of night has no source, no power, no ability to "do" anything. It's simply the seeming, temporary absence of light.

I take comfort in the fact that the mental darkness that makes temporarily unenlightened people BELIEVE they desire to exploit animals and benefit from that exploitation is gradually being supplanted by the light: an intelligent, compassionate understanding of everyone's native right to be free!