Document type : article published in Viandes et Produits carnés
Author : Pierre Feillet
Preview: [...] II. Critiques of meat production and consumption [...]
A violation of the rights of animals
It is a long time since Descartes asserted that animals were highly sophisticated machines, lacking reason or thought and reacting automatically to any external stimulus, and since Malebranche claimed that there was no reason to concern ourselves over the suffering of animals since a machine cannot suffer. Since then, the relationship between humans and animals has undergone profound change. Nowadays, the nature of such relationships has been discussed in a substantial body of literature and debate, and very lively controversies have sometimes arisen on questions important to farmers, meat-eaters, and anybody prepared to speak up against animal abuse: do animals have sentience?, awareness? Are they inferior to human beings? Do they have rights that would argue against all forms of livestock farming? Do they have the right not to be consumed? Since we cannot address all of these questions here, we will discuss just one of them: do animals really have rights?
Is it not paradoxical to link the concept of human rights to duties, while claiming that animals can have rights without commensurate obligations? Could we not say that what some people refer to as animal rights are really the duties of humans towards animals? Rather than animal rights, is it not the moral responsibility of humans towards animals that we should focus on? Here, it is interesting to observe that, with the exception of Article 2, which states that "every animal that is a member of a species whose sentience is recognised by science has the right that this sentience should be respected," the 2018 Declaration of Animal Rights mentions only human duties towards animals, including: ensuring the welfare of animals, prohibiting any act of cruelty or unjustified killing.
The legal system has recognised that animals are capable of feeling emotions, suffering and pleasure. On this basis, it has set out the conditions required in farming, transport and slaughter tto respect this sentience. All these conditions are intended to allow animals to express their natural behaviours in terms of comfort, rest, interactions with other animals, play and exploration, in order to restrict stress and keep them in good health, in short, to take care of their welfare, which the Anses defines as "the positive mental and physical state of an animal associated with the satisfaction of its physiological and behavioural needs, along with its expectations." Unfortunately, these rules are not always respected and it is healthy for campaigners to 'name and shame' wrong-doers, even though some of their actions are questionable.
If these rules are followed, farm productivity and product quality (meat, milk) are improved by the reduction in the animals' stress levels. Paying attention to the experiences and feelings of animals is a way to respect consumer demand for high quality products. Farmers have taken this on board.
