My Own Private Idaho: Bad Strategy & Policy By Industry Groups Harm All

Bob Van De Boom of VDB Organics Farms, with Murray Grays

Animals, as a very general classification of living entities, are not on par with rocks, twigs, or an iPhone.  We develop special relationships with individual animals that become part of our extended families.  My pet cats, I have two, each have very unique personalities and mannerisms that make them different from ‘cats’ in the general sense.  However, what of animals that are ‘not wild’ and are ‘not domesticated’ in the sense of benefitting from a special and personal relationship with humans… particularly of farm animals?  A farmer with 100 head of cattle is unlikely to know each and every one of them.

But what do we do about animals that serve some purpose other than companionship?  Animal welfare, which is different from ‘animal rights’ positions, aims to recognize that animals deserve respect, that they are not on par with some technological gadget or a pile of rocks.  Our history has, for the most part, been marked by an increasing awareness and recognition that animals deserve some form of moral consideration.  By moral consideration, we tend to shun those that mistreat, or cause unnecessary suffering, in animals.  Thus torturing and neglecting an animal is contrary to our sensibilities regarding how we should treat animals.