ethics surrounding animals

Question 1

non-human ethics

Answer 1

• using animals how we do usually always ends in harm
• 1998 animal testing for cosmetics illegal
• just because its normalised and it has been done doesn’t make it good
• if its dangerous for humans shouldn’t be done on animals

Question 2

intensive farming

Answer 2

• refers to factory farming of animals and mechanisation of agriculture to produce max yield of crops
• intensive farming is farming animals in tiny crates for their fur
• mink & sable farms particularly skin animals alive for clothing
  -in the food industry most animals live in crowded & filthy conditions and suffer painful procedures like branding, de-horning/beaking without anaesthetic
  ETHICS - moral right of humans to inflict such pain on animals, issue on animals right to life, meat industry contributes to human starvation as cattle consume around 15x more grain than they produce meat so may be preferable to decrease meat production

Question 3

scientific procedures (cloning)

Answer 3

• means using animals to develop drugs/medicines to treat human health conditions
• vaccines to fight HIV/AIDS comes from research on similar viruses in chickens/monkeys
• penicillin developed through research on mice
• animals used in oncology for use of hormone treatment & understanding grwoth of cancer cells
• cloning is process of producing genetically identical copies
• positives is it can be used to understand disease, test medicines
  ETHICS - moral right of humans to do research without consent on other animals, despite control of animal pain many still don’t use anaesthetic, cloning may lead to human animal hybrids

Question 4

blood sports

Answer 4

• term commonly used to refer to sports that involve animal bloodshed and that involve death of animals
• examples are hunting, fishing, bull fighting
  ETHICS - moral right to kill/maim for own amusement , negative effect on human psychology as can transfer their treatment of animals onto humans