The problems of animal welfare and the importance of vegan education

Abstract

Conventional wisdom on the matter of animal ethics in most Western countries is that although animals have some moral value, they have less moral value than humans, and, therefore, it is acceptable to use animals for our purposes as long as we treat them ‘humanely’ and do not inflict ‘unnecessary’ suffering on them. This position is known as the animal welfare approach to animal ethics; it is the position that is most often promoted by large animal advocacy organisations in the US and Europe. Some of these organisations claim to promote animal welfare reform not as an end in itself, but as a means to the eventual abolition of animal use or, at least, the significant reduction of animal use. I have referred to this position as ‘new welfarism’. In any event, traditional welfarists and new welfarists all share in common the notion that nonhumans have less moral value than humans and that the primary concern is to ensure that animals have a reasonably pleasant life and a relatively painless death.