Animal Matters

Preface:

I am a vegetarian. I am interested in this topic, because I want to tell, why it is wrong, to eat animals, or perform barbarous experiments with them.

I want to give an elaborate view on this topic, because we have to point out the truth.

I want to achieve, that all people who read my special field at least think about "animal matters". Maybe some people recognize that we have to stop the horrible killing of animals.

Many people think that it is wrong to talk about animal rights, in a world where many people do not even have basic rights. However, we should protect animals, nevertheless, from unneeded cruelty.

PETER SINGER was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946. He is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Oxford, New York University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of California at Irvine, and La Trobe University. He is the author of Animal Liberation, first published in 1975, and is widely credited with triggering the modern animal-rights movement. His Practical Ethics is one of the most widely used texts in applied.

Some other books are Animal Rights and Human Obligations (with Thomas Reagan); how are we to Live?; Rethinking Life and Death and many other books.

(http://www.petersingerlinks.com/)

HENRY SPIRA was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in June 1927; his family was Jewish.

(Ethics Into Action, Peter Singer & Henry Spira, page 1)

He was an activist for animal rights and social justice. Spira lived in New York and his first successful campaign was to limit the use of animals in medical testing. He was a leading advocate of more humane treatment of farm animals. Henry Spira died in September 12th 1998 after a long battle with cancer at the age of 71.

http://www.montelis.com/satya/letters.html

http://www.ari-online.org/pages/henry.html

Animal Welfare: (Historical)

There were no laws to protect animals before 1822. Then Britain passed one of the world's first animal welfare laws, banning cruelty to livestock. Two years later the first animal welfare organisation was formed, it became known as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)  

(Animal Matters, page 17)

How does the law protect animal welfare in Austria?

The Austrian law considers non-beings as things. They are not regarded as rechtsfähig, and they have no rights. They are the possession of human owners. As possessions they do not even have the right to defend themselves. By law helpful thirds are convicted to watch passively, if they are witnesses of an animal abuse, even though it is illegal.

The definition of those individuals comes from the views people had in the 18th century. Modern ethological attitudes held on to those naive prejudices for a long time. The Austrian law with its principles of freedom and equivalence of all individuals, at least some animals has no concept for animals. Would have to be looked at as an individual being, and count therefore as rechtsfähig. Then they are no longer the property of any owner. They are no objects, as well as in the Roman right, but rather subjects, and no means for the purposes of others, in the sense of the Kant'schen definition, but rather purposes on and for itself.

(http://www.vegan.at)

There is no unitary law that protects animals from abuse and cruel treatment!

How does the law protect animal welfare in England?

The UK government has a department that specifically looks after questions of animal welfare - this is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). No single law protects the welfare of animals but often laws created for reasons related to animal welfare.

Local authorities can also decide on regulations affecting animal welfare, and other pressures can come from the media, public opinion and the work of individuals.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity that looks after animals, campaigning to reform the law, investigating claims of abuse and prosecuting offenders. In the year 2000, inspectors investigated 126,746 animal cruelty complaints, which resulted in 2,473 convictions.

The law can protect animals only if people using it to do so. Animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA make sure they know the existing laws and work to influence public opinion. If public opinion is strong enough, then the government will respond to it.

(http://www.learn.co.uk/citizenship/onlinelessons/animals/activity2.asp)

The 600 chickens, 5 cows, 30 sheep and 30 pigs represent the number of animals the average UK citizen will eat in their lifetime.

Should we eat meat?

In average people in the Western consume 760 chickens, 29 sheep and 20 pigs in their lifetime. In the UK about four million are vegetarians which are about three percent.

(Rights for animals?, Deirdre Rochford, page 10)

There are myths that being a vegetarian is unhealthy, but it is proved that this is wrong. Research on heart disease and cancer suggests that a vegetarian diet may even be healthier.

(See page 14)

(Rights for animals?, Deirdre Rochford, page 10)

Vegetarians like me do not eat meat, poultry, game or fish. I do not even eat slaughter by-products, like gelatine, which comes from animal bones. Sometimes gelatine is used in biscuits, cakes, margarines and ice cream. People who are vegan (they do not eat anything that comes from animals) do not even eat or drink milk, cheese, or whipped cream. I do not drink milk, but I eat cheese, and for this, I have a bad conscience, because "it is not good crying out against the calf export trade if you are going to have milk." Clara Lane, writer and animal welfare campaigner.

For every 10kg, of grain fed to animals, 1kg is converted to meat. In average, the diet of a meat eater's diet uses twice as much land as the one of a vegetarian.

(Rights for animals?, Deirdre Rochford, page 11)

Why racism and sexism are wrong:

From the mere fact that a person is black or a woman we cannot infer anything about that person's intellectual or moral capacities. This, it may be said, is why racism and sexism are wrong. The white racist claims that whites are superior to blacks, but this is untrue. [.] The opponent of sexism would say the same: a person's sex is no guide to his or her abilities, and this is why it is unjustifiable to discriminate on the basis of sex.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 3)

Principle of equality:

Concern for the well-being of children growing up in America would require that we teach them to read. Concern for the well-being of pigs may require no more than that we leave them with other pigs in a place where there is adequate food and room to run freely.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 5)

Speciesim is the exploitation of certain species based on a supposed precedence, and the disregard of human beings of the fact that animals are able to feel pain.

Similarly to racism and sexism we have to condemn speciesism. This is a prejudice or attitude against another species. Speciesism is the act of treating individuals according to the species to which they belong, rather than according to the characteristics they have, such as the ability to suffer. Most people who support the exploitation of nonhuman animals are speciesist.

Based on common physiology and behavior, it is safe to say that cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals we raise to eat also experience fear when their lives are threatened, pain when their bodies are mutilated, and boredom and frustration when caged for long periods of time. Animals show that they know to estimate their lives and freedom by their struggles against being caged, mutilated, and killed. Depriving them of life and freedom harms them in the same way like humans are harmed when someone deprived them of life and freedom.

http://www.veganoutreach.org/starterpack/speciesism.html

Racists violate the principle of equality, because they only go after the interests of their own race. Sexists violate the prinicple of equality by favoring the interests of their own sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater interests of members of other species, in other words, they allow animals to suffer.

The pattern is identical in each case. (Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 9)

Is it possible that animals suffer more than human beings?

Yes, because of their more limited form of understanding. If we take prisoners in war, we can explain to them, that they will not be eliminated, however, they get free after some time. If we capture wild animals we cannot explain that we don't want to kill them. They cannot distinguish between an attempt to overpower and an attempt to kill. As a result they are afraid from both.

Killing animals:

We must avoid speciesism so we have to allow similar beings that they have similar rights to live. [.] It is worse to kill a human being, with the ability to plan for the future and have meaningful relations with others, than to kill a mouse, which probably does not share all of these characteristics. (Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 19)

Experiments on animals:

The law demands that all new ingredients of any product must be tested to make sure that they are safe. Many of these tests have to be carried out on animals.

(Rights for animals?, Deirdre Rochford, page 14)

Many experiments cause too much pain without any benefits for human beings or any other animals. World-wide, it is estimated that over a hundred million animals are used in experiments each year.

Some animals are used for commercial purposes, to test the safety of all kinds of food, cosmetics, garden products or other things. This can only happen only because of our attitude towards the suffering of a being that is not a member of our own species.

Animals are subjected to tests to assert the toxicity of many substances.

During inhalation studies, animals are placed in sealed chambers and forced to inhale sprays, gases, and vapors. [.]

Immersion studies, in which animals are placed in vats of diluted substances, sometimes animals were drown before any test results was obtained.

In injection studies, the test substance is injected directly into the animal, either under the skin, into the muscle, or directly into an organ. These are the standard procedures. Here is one example of how they are carried out: In England, the Huntingdon Research Institute, together with the giant corporation ICI, carried out experiments in which forty monkeys were poisoned with the weed-killer paraquat. They became very ill, vomited, had difficulty in breathing, and suffered from hypothermia. They died slowly, over several days. BUT, it was already known that paraquat poisoning in humans results in slow and agonizing death.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 55)

Scientists try hard to find substitutes for animal research. More and more companies attempt to abandon animal tests - BUT not because they have suddenly started to care more about animals, but as a result of hard-fought campaigns by Animal Liberation Organizations.

Teased by the animal welfare movement, major manufactures like pharmaceuticals or household products have made significant advances toward the goal of reducing the number of animals used in toxicity testing. Other methods like cell, tissue culture and computer modelling are increasing. How much pain and suffering will be avoided is difficult to say, but million of animals have been were tortured each year and unnecessary testing still abuse their rights. Stopping this waste of animal lives should not be difficult if people really want to. Developing adequate alternatives to all tests for toxicity will take long, but it should be possible.

I want to show one experiment which is mentioned in the book "Animal Liberation" from Peter Singer on page 63.

In 1984 experimenters working for the Federal Aviation Administration, stating "animals occasionally die from heat stress encountered during shipping in the nation's transportation systems," subjected ten beagles to experimental heat. The dogs were isolated in chambers, fitted with muzzles, and exposed to 95 degrees Fahrenheit combined with high humidity. They were given neither food nor water, and were kept in these conditions for 24 (!!!) hours. It EVEN included deliberate agitated activity such as pawing at the crate walls, continuous circling, tossing of the head to shed the muzzle. [.] Some of the dogs died in the chambers. When the survivors were removed, some vomited blood and all were weak and exhausted. The experimenters refer to subsequent experiments on more than 100 beagles.

This experiment was only carried out, because scientists want to know the effects of heat on animals. There was no practical reason to perform these researches.

Do animal experiments work?

Yes, but not always. In some cases it goes wrong. Aspirin, for example causes birth defects in rats and mice, but not in humans. Penicillin is a life saver in humans, but poisonous to guinea pigs. [.] Animals provide no guarantee that a product will be safe or effective. For this reason experiments cannot teach us anything about human beings.

There are two more examples: Arthritis drugOpren was tested on monkeys, and there were no problems to be found, but it killed 61 people before it was withdrawn. Cilert was given to children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder. It was fine for animals but it caused liver failure in 13 children. It is obvious: animals are not like humans.

(The Animal Rights Debate, Craig Donnellan, page 15)

How can these things happen?

How can people who are not sadists spend their working days driving monkeys into lifelong depression, heating dogs to death, or turning cats into drug addicts? How can taxpayers allow their money to be used to support these experiments? [.]

The answer to these questions lies in the unquestioned acceptance of speciesim. We tolerate cruelties inflicted on members of other species that would outrage us if performed on members of our own species.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 69)

Can pain to animals be justified if it causes people to be out of pain??

One goal is achieved!!!

After approving nearly 30 different amendments in April to toughen the rules on cosmetics, the European Parliament on June 11, 2002, officially [.] baned the sale of animal-tested cosmetics throughout the 15-nation European Union. The ban will eventually apply to all cosmetics tested on animals, whether produced in Europe or in foreign countries.          Observers say the ban faces some tough opposition in the near future, both from the European Commission, which had already postponed attempts at a cosmetics ban, and from the World Trade Organization, which is likely to challenge the import rules that could hurt foreign cosmetics companies.

(http://www.hsus.org/ace/14476)

What happened to your dinner when it was still an animal?

The life of most farm animals is very short. Most creatures are slaughtered for meat when they are young or when they are no longer in use.

In the US 8 billion farm animals are killed for food each year, of which 7.2 billion are broiler chickens. In the UK 19 million sheep and lamps, 14 million pigs, 3 million cattle and 600 million broiler chickens are slaughtered every year for food. Consumers put pressure on farmers to produce huge quantities at the most possible low prices.

(Rights for animals?, Deirdre Rochford, page 8)

As a result of this pressure, animals are treated like machines and not like living beings. This means the abuse of these animals is the most extensive exploitation of other species that has ever existed.

We buy our meat in neat plastic packages, it hardly bleeds. There is no reason to associate this package with a living, breathing, walking, suffering animal. The words we use conceal its origins: we eat beef, not bull, or pork, not pig. The term meat is itself deceptive. This usage still lingers an expression like "nut meat", we avoid facing the fact that what we are eating is really flesh.

BATTERY CHICKENS:

Battery chicken farming is still the most common method of raising poultry and producing eggs. (Animal Matters, page 38)

By that it is possible to keep the low price and as a consequence the products are bought in large amount at the supermarkets.

Many people are against battery chickens. Thousands of birds are filled into small cages and are made to lay many more eggs than they would naturally.

Battery production is now banned in Switzerland and Sweden. In others it is still carried out.

(Animal Matters, page 38)

PIGS:

Of all animals usually eaten in the Western world, the pig is without any doubt the most intelligent one. It is possible to rear pigs as companions to human beings and train them to respond to simple commands as much as a dog does.

Pigs in modern factory farms have nothing to do but eat, sleep, stand up, lie down, and when they are fat enough they get slaughtered. Usually they have no straw or other bedding material, because this complicates the task of cleaning. This treatment can fail and they will not put on weight, due to the fact that they are bored an unhappy.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 120)

When they are sad they bite each other's tails. This leads to fighting in the pig pen and reduces weight too. To prevent this, farmers cut off their tails.

VEAL:

Veal is the flesh of a young calf. Their flesh is paler and more tender.

The stall, in which they live, has no straw or other bedding, because veal eats it, and this is destruction for their meat. They leave their stalls only to be taken out to slaughter.

In "The Stall Street Journal" it was written: "The dual aims of veal production are firstly, to produce a calf of the greatest weight in the shortest possible time and secondly, to keep its meat as light colored as possible to fulfil the consumer's requirement. "

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 131)

The stalls are too small, and the slatted wooden floors are really uncomfortable. Besides, young calves miss their mother, they need something to suck, and the urge to suck is as strong as it is in a human baby. They drink from a plastic bucket from the first moment on in their confinement. As a result, calves suck on their stalls, although they do not usually do it.

Calf develops a need to ruminate, that is, to take in roughage and chew the cud. But roughage is forbidden because it contains iron and this will keep their white flesh. Digestive disorders, including stomach ulcers, and so they have chronic diarrhea. Without iron veal would die immediately, so the calf is deliberately kept in anemic, which is controlled.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 133)

Most calves are given no water. The buildings, in which calf live, are kept warm, because they should sweat. The thirsty animals eat more food than they would, when they have something to drink.

This process is an unhealthy one, but the veal producer want producing the heaviest calf in the shortest possible time, the long-term health of the animal is irrelevant, so long as it survives to be taken to the market. (Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 134)

Veal suffer from the inability to do something, there is nothing the animal can do. To reduce the restlessness of their bored calves, many veal producers leave the animals in the dark, at all time, even when they are eating. (Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 135)

Calves are unhappy and unhealthy animals. Farmer uses a medicated feed as a routine measure. In general one of ten calves do not survive fifteen weeks of confinement. Between 10 and 15 percent mortality over such a short time is really frightening.

But veal producers can tolerate this loss because the high-priced restaurants are prepared to pay well for their products.

(Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, page 135)

Calves are separated from their mothers and raised in crates which allow very little movement. These conditions are required to make veal, a paler and tender meat - and the development of strong muscles through movement would only make the flesh tougher. [.] They are kept in darkness for most of the day and are fed with a low nutrition milk substitute which keeps their meat white.

(Animal Matters, page 37)

DAIRY COWS:

They must give birth in order to begin producing milk. [.] The cow's pregnancy period is nine months long, and so giving birth every twelve months is physically demanding. The cows are also forced to give milk during seven months of their nine month pregnancy.
         In a healthy environment, cows would live up to 25 years, but on modern dairies, they are slaughtered after just 3 or 4 years and then used for ground beef.

With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day -- ten times more than they would produce in nature. The cows' bodies are under constant stress and they are at risk for numerous health problems. [.] Some dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial infection of their udders.

(http://www.factoryfarming.com/dairy.htm)

Animals in transit:

Before farm animals' brutal life is completely ended, they have to suffer one last time from the long trip beginning at the farm, where they rose up to the slaughterhouse. Cows, pigs, veal etcetera . are transported alive, so that the meat will be fresh.

Here are some of the requests from The European Convention:

Vehicles provide space, ventilation and protection from the weather.

Vehicles are clean and provided with straw

There are no unnecessary delays. Animal loads should be given priority at borders,

marshalling yards etc. (Animal Matters, page 17)

The use of animals by society:

(http://www.bret.org.uk/soc.htm)

(The Animal Rights Debate, Craig Donnellan, page 11)

Wasted Food, Wasted Land

We have no physical need to eat meat.

Livestock have huge appetites for grass and corn and wheat, as much as that nearly 80% of all agricultured land in Britain is used to support them.
It takes as much as 10 kg of vegetable protein to produce one kg of meat. The most wasteful recycling program ever devised.
We know that meat contains about 14 times more residues than vegetables.
There are pesticide traces in almost all the food we eat.

FACTS 1:

Global Warming

In 1989 the crew of a space craft watched a smoke cloud from thousands of fires spread across a million square miles of amazonia.
It was rainforest being cleared for cattle ranching. With the burning of vegetation, huge reservoirs of stored carbon dioxide are unlocked, released to float upwards and provide yet more insulation to prevent heat escaping from the earth.
    When the cattle arrive, each one belches out 60 litres of methane every day. Together, burning and belching provide the second largest contribution to the greenhouse effect.

FACTS 2:

Health and Welfare

We imprison other intelligent creatures in solitary confinement, until they go mad. We deny them the ability to fulfil their most basic instincts. We treat their living, feeling young as inanimate commodities and then we eat them.
   Pain and suffering are relative concepts we are told, in the pursuit of cheap meat do not concern yourself, we are told, about the infections that come with cheap meat. Campylobacter, salmonella, mad cow disease.

'Meat to Live' we are told, ignoring the heart disease and bowel cancer and other ailments which go hand in hand with eating meat.
   Profit has no conscience, only a balance sheet. In its name both animals and people are there to be exploited.

FACTS 3:

We have devised our children a world which contains less wonder than when we inherited it.
We have poisoned their water, polluted their air and laid most of their land waste.
We are handing them a world which to us looked certain, but is now we are on the edge of a catastrophe.
And still governments do nothing, but you can.

Simply by giving up meat, poultry, fish and slaughterhouse by-products, you'll make an immediate contribution to ending the pain, the cruelty and the destruction.
Stop the killing by becoming vegetarian, you have the choice.
You can help stop the cruelty and destruction today.
Join the Vegetarian Society. Join the fight for life.

http://www.vegetarismus.ch/video/vsuk_skripte.htm