Crisis For Animals in Today's World

There is arguably a crisis for animals in today’s world; habitats and ecosystems are destroyed, and animals endure some arguably dicey conditions in our industrial agribusiness complex. But what, really, is the wrong we are committing? What is the nature of our relationship with animals? Have we created a tyrannical regime over them, oppressing them and denying them their rights? Or have we simply failed in our duty as beneficiary caretakers of our Earthly companions? Tom Regan would have us believe that, due to their inherent value, animals have rights that preclude our ability to “use them to our own ends”. It’s a noble sentiment, and one which he effectively defends from ideological assault, but it is underpinned by a fundamentally anthropocentric misunderstanding of the nature of animal-human relations. In fact, the reason that animals can be used to our ends is because of our provision to them as caretakers; it’s a symbiotic relationship that has developed over time. Chickens happen to be the commonly exploited animal with which I am most familiar, and I will as such treat them as a proxy for other domesticated livestock.

I own chickens. They are my pets, but also an important source of delicious, fresh eggs. They are a means to my own ends: I desire fresh eggs, and I derive great amusement from their antics. However, the domesticated chicken has, by its own nature and without its conscious awareness, inadvertently “chosen” to use me to its own “ends”. I do not directly control where they live, lay (eggs), or wander. I simply provide a superior habitat with food, water, and shelter, and I protect them from predators. They consequentially find it advantageous to remain where I wish them to be. They even lay where I want the...

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...pace for a pig. A chimp, for example, requires space, a social unit, and “enrichment”. Enrichment is the presence of toys and puzzles for a chimp to play with. Without them, the chimp’s natural curiosity goes unsated and the chimp becomes depressed and unruly. Thus, from lowly livestock to creative primate, a natural order is all that need be provided in order to seek our ends.

Our species’ symbiotic exchange of resources with animals is a natural conclusion to our implicitly mutual efforts to meet our collective needs, animal and human. Be it the mutuality of domestication, or the hands-off natural state that zoos should maintain, animals from low to high serve and are served by humans. Yes, let the veal calf out of its stall, let the chicken out of its cage, and let the pig roll in his mud. But don’t let Regan destroy the ages-old exchange of domestication.