Why animal suffering matters
1 Jul 2009
We’ve tried to make space here for the topic of animal welfare, often neglected and ignored in discussions on church. In particular Ben DeVries has written for us and led some discussions.
Ben will be back here in August writing for us again. Meantime, a heads up on Andrew Linzey’s new book, ‘Why Animal Suffering Matters’.
Here is an overview of what Andrew is trying to do in this important book:
‘How we treat animals arouses strong emotions. Many people are repulsed by photographs of cruelty to animals and respond passionately to how we make animals suffer for food, commerce, and sport. But is this, as some argue, a purely emotional issue?
Are there really no rational grounds for opposing our current treatment of animals? In Why Animal Suffering Matters, Andrew Linzey argues that when analyzed impartially the rational case for extending moral solicitude to all sentient beings is much stronger than many suppose. Indeed, Linzey shows that many of the justifications for inflicting animal suffering in fact provide grounds for protecting them.
Because animals, the argument goes, lack reason or souls or language, harming them is not an offense. Linzey suggests that just the opposite is true, that the inability of animals to give or withhold consent, their inability to represent their interests, their moral innocence, and their relative defenselessness all compel us not to harm them.
Andrew Linzey further shows that the arguments in favor of three controversial practices–hunting with dogs, fur farming, and commercial sealing–cannot withstand rational critique. He considers the economic, legal, and political issues surrounding each of these practices, appealing not to our emotions but to our reason, and shows that they are rationally unsupportable and morally repugnant.
In this superbly argued and deeply engaging book, Linzey pioneers a new theory about why animal suffering matters, maintaining that sentient animals, like infants and young children, should be accorded a special moral status.’
Tagged: animal welfare
2 comments
Trackback
Comment by Katie Streten
4.15 pm on 2 Jul 2009
I really welcome a book like this. I have been vegetarian for about 18 years now and it sprang directly out of my faith.
We have been charged with stewardship of the earth and, while I don’t believe that means we should not eat animals at all, it does mean we need to take the way we care for animals and farm far more seriously. It’s not good enough to herd chickens into a warehouse and pump them full of water until they can’t stand on their own legs because we want fat chicken at low prices.
Sometimes I feel reticent about saying exactly how I feel about this issue but for me this is a fundamental expression of my faith: that I respect the world we have been given to care for and that includes the animals that share it with us.
Comment by Ali Mathew
9.47 pm on 23 Jul 2009
I couldn’t agree more. In addition to Lindzey’s comments on the ‘controversial practices’ I think that (particularly in ’supermarket land’) we are, or have become, divorced from what buying and eating meat really means as we pick up our neatly packaged steaks. I wonder how many of us could kill and butcher a cow? I don’t think I could, and despite the protests of my little brother that ’someone else does it for you…’ I think there is a fundamental issue of integrity to be considered. In many parts of the world there is a greater degree of honesty about what eating meat means (than in the UK at any rate).
I don’t think anyone could reasonably question that animals feel fear and I agree with Linzey that there is a moral issue to be considered – animals are vulnerable, they are incapable of speaking for themselves and I hate the way we intensively farm them, not to mention the practices Linzey highlights to do with sport and other forms of ‘animal commerce’ – aside from the rational arguments, it is just plain cruel. I think he is right, that their inability to defend themselves means we have an extra moral responsibility to consider. In farming at least there does seem to be a move to ‘free range’ and ‘organic’ (though for this to be widely accepted the prices will need to come down)….but even animals bred and raised in good conditions still have to be slaughtered.
I did hear Michael Lloyd speak on this once as part of a broader talk on the nature of the kingdom of God and he raised some interesting issues to do with God’s kingdom being a place where the ‘tools of violence’ are no longer – that is within the animal kingdom itself and between humans and animals (the lion lying with the lamb……). There were some groans from the steak lovers, but it was compelling stuff.
Apart from the whole cruelty and animal suffering side of the discussion, there is the environmental perspective too – I think it is now pretty widely recognised that not eating meat is the greener option and I don’t imagine fur farming or commercial sealing do much for the environment either….
It is a complex issue and one in which I am all too aware of my own double standards – did I really need those nice leather shoes….? What about that life saving medical treatment a relative needs?
Comments are now closed.