“Animals are my friends. And I dont eat my friends”
(George Bernard Shaw)
1 Introduction
A range of considerations have always contributed to humanity’s relationship with non-human animals. But advances in science and technology have raised new questions of a philosophical nature and that challenge traditional views
A version of this Piece, was originally presented to a local philosophy group as a starting point for a discussion of some of those questions. [1.1]
2 Environmental Issues
The devastating impact of meat production on the planet is not merely an environmental issue but a moral problem. Livestock farming produces up to 15% of human-produced Greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide and Methane because of changes to land use and emissions [2.1] . The resulting increase in average global temperatures leads to rising sea levels and higher incidences of flooding, droughts and wild fires which are already driving vulnerable populations from their homes.
In 2022 The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) published a report on Climate change, Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability [2.2]. “Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people are living in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change, so it is essential that all available steps are taken to address climate change”.
There are many factors contributing to climate change and no silver bullet is going to fix the problem, but the report is clear that the steps to be taken must include changes to diet.
George Monbiot suggests that this is more than a problem of millions of refugees but a challenge to civilization itself, “Whether human beings survive this century and the next, whether other lifeforms can live alongside us: above all, this depends on the way we eat. We can cut our consumption of everything else close to zero and still drive living systems to collapse, unless we change our diets”. [2.3]
The implication is that by consuming meat in the way that we do, we are literally stealing the resources required to support a living planet in the future in order to satisfy our desires today. A theft from the next generation of unprecedented magnitude and consequence. If we continue with Business As Usual, then the environment that has supported humans and civilization for thousands of years will collapse. Food production is part of the problem.
I have been following plant based diets for six years. I was initially motivated to take this step by the environmental arguments mentioned above. I soon understood that there were other issues to consider regarding meat eating [2.4].
Clearly, not everyone is able to take this step or convinced that it is necessary, so there needs to be a continuous process of listening and seeking to understand one another when discussing these things.
3 A Very Brief History
Humanity’s attitude to animals has been mixed. For example, the 17th Century philosopher, Descartes, claimed that animals were mere machines, automata, and was reported to have said that they experience neither pleasure nor pain, nor anything else. On the back of this thinking, experimenters would dissect living animals before enthusiastic audiences. [3.1]
He wrote that the mechanical understanding of animals absolved people of any guilt for killing and eating animals”. [3.2]
Not all agreed with him but the scientist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) would complain of those who objected as “a discouraging impediment to the empire of man over the inferior creatures”.
Although the purpose of these activities was not to eat the animals it indicates a way of thinking about them which can affect the way they are viewed in other contexts. Not until the 1870s was official action taken to limit these laboratory practices.
Alongside this thinking there have always been those who recognised that animals were more than mere machines or that they were not just here to be eaten. Apparently the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (570-495 BC) was a vegetarian, as recorded by Eudoxus who wrote that “Pythagoras was distinguished by such purity and so avoided killing and killers that he not only abstained from animal foods, but even kept his distance from cooks and hunters”. [3.3]
The Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), recognised that animals have feelings when he wrote, “The question is not, Can they reason? or Can they talk? but Can they suffer?” [3.4]
However, despite this concern, it is interesting to see that Bentham is no friend of veganism. The principle of Utilitarianism is that “the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct”. As a result Bentham is happy with eating animals as long as they are killed without suffering. A few lines earlier he had written, “There is very good reason why we should be allowed to eat such non-human animals as we like to eat: we are the better for it, and they are never the worse”. An objection might be that we are often not the better for it, the animal is not free, it has not chosen to be killed, and Bentham has not considered the impact on the environment, or that by multiplying the number of animals for food, meat-eating Utilitarians would increase the amount of suffering in the world.
4 The situation today – Similarities are Important
Science has also moved on. It is now understood that animals are sentient, that is they are able to perceive, to feel pain and pleasure, to experience emotions such as joy and fear, to form attachments and have distinct personalities. They can reason, plan and communicate in ways that we are only beginning to appreciate. [4.1]
This growing body of evidence is one of the reasons for recent government legislation. In May 2023, the UK Animal Sentience Act came into force recognising that animals can feel emotions, joy, pain and fear. [4.2]
It covered the expected vertebrates, but also included creatures such as cephalopods (octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) and decapods (crabs, lobsters and crayfish).
The inclusion of an octopus may seem surprising, but octopuses have nine brains, including one central brain and eight mini brains in their arms, along with their blue blood and three hearts. Octopuses have as many neurons as a dog, can solve puzzles, use tools and recognise people.
What this means is that we must consider the sentience of animals while they are being confined or grazed and reared for food and clothing and other uses.
5 Industrial Farming
Even with the usual view of livestock farming there are questions that can be asked about a right to freedom and a natural life.
However, the situation becomes more problematic when looking closely at some of the usual practices that take place in the production of meat and dairy.
Dairy cows are sentient, social animals with feelings and emotions, bonding to their young, but calves are usually separated from their mothers within forty eight hours [5.1]. Is there a problem here?
Pigs are intelligent and social animals. In the wild, the young begin life in small groups of about eight and live for up to 20 years. In the UK approximately ten million pigs are slaughtered at six months every year. Most are reared on intensive factory farms in large groups where normal hierarchies cannot be established leading to inevitable stress and requiring certain methods of control described in the Government document, Code of Practice for the welfare of Pigs. [5.2]
Other welfare issues are found with factory farmed poultry. [5.3]
The question then has to be asked, Does the enjoyment of meat justify this treatment to intelligent and sentient animals?
“Animal factories are one more sign of the extent to which our technological capacities have advanced faster than our ethics”, Peter Singer. [5.4]
It may be argued that none of this applies to grass fed free range livestock. And certainly they may experience better lives. But the lived experience of the animal is not the only thing to consider; the Animal Sentience Act has not rendered abattoirs obsolete.
As Paul McCartney said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all be vegetarian” – but we allow others to work in them on our behalf. They may be well trained and take a professional pride in their job [5.5], but the issue is that the animals have no choice. Furthermore it is often the case that this work damages the mental health of the workers. [5.6]
“Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable”. [5.7]
“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man”. (Mahatma Gandhi)
6 Logical Arguments
Another approach to justifying meat eating is to expose inconsistencies in non-meat eaters. This argument would work if the inconsistency directly validates meat eating, which is not the case. For instance, sometimes it is claimed that vegans are inconsistent because they would eat animals in extreme circumstances. This was an argument presented in a discussion of the subject in the BBC Moral Maze [6.1]. While this may be the case for someone trapped on a desert island with their pet dog, it is not relevant to the question of the ethics of meat eating. “But what does it prove? Simply that when placed in an extreme situation we are more likely to do something morally objectionable in order to survive”. [6.2]
As an aside, the appeal to logic on its own is not always helpful as this discussion is also about human responses to an emotional problem. Even in less extreme situations vegans should not feel guilty if they inadvertently, or for some other reason, eat an animal product. If one of the aims of a plant based diet is “gaining peace within yourself” then condemning yourself because an arbitrary line has been crossed is counterproductive and will often lead to giving up altogether. Likewise, vegans should not condemn meat eaters who have not been persuaded by the arguments, but rather continue the dialogue in a non-judgemental way.
7 Differences are also important
Peter Singer, professor of bioethics, defines Speciesism: “in its primary and most important form, as a prejudice or bias in favour of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species, on the basis of species alone” [7.1].
In his book, “Animal Rights Now”, he discusses how Speciesism can affect the way we treat animals in areas such as agriculture, medicine, experimentation and warfare. It is clear from many of the cases he describes that the routine application of procedures such as electric shocks or removal of teeth are enabled because those involved deny that members of other species have a right to be free from unnecessary pain or a right to any degree of a fulfilled independent life. Ultimately, Speciesism is the basis of the denial of the right to life enabling animals to be killed for food and other uses.
Points for Discussion
Should we take future generations into account when considering the impacts of food production?
To what extent do you think that animals have the capacity to feel emotions, pain and to enjoy a fulfilled life?
What rights are conferred to animals by the capacity for sentient experience?
Is it right to think that animals should fall outside of domains of justice or fairness because they are a different species?
Can we justify the different treatment of dogs and pigs?
Does anyone have a right to tell me what I can and cannot eat?
References
1.1 This discussion paper was originally presented at the Wheathampstead U3A Philosophy Group, March 2025.
The playwright and critic, George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, who disliked apostrophes, quoted at the start of this post, lived at the house, now known as “Shaw’s Corner”, 3 miles from Wheathampstead
2.1. https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/what-is-the-climate-impact-of-eating-meat-and-dairy/index.html
2.2 IPPC Assessment Report on Adaption and Vulnerability
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii, March 2022
2.3 Butchery of the Planet, George Monbiot, 2018
https://www.monbiot.com/2018/06/13/butchery-of-the-planet
2.4 An Easy Vegan Piece: Ethics
https://www.veganpieces.org/animal-welfare/ethics
3.1 Descartes and Vivisection
By Kevin R. D. Shepherd, 15th February 2015
https://kevinrdshepherdcommentaries.info/2015/02/descartes-and-vivisection_15.html
3.2 Descartes, Letter to Plempius, Feb 15 1638
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal
3.3 https://www.veganpieces.org/history/pythagoras
3.4 Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1823 edition, Chapter XVII, Section 1, Paragraph 4, Footnote
https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/bentham1780.pdf
Copyright © Jonathan Bennett 2017
(Note, the 1789 edition does not contain this quote)
The First Edition of the work was privately printed in 1780 and first published in 1789 with added notes.
‘A New Edition, corrected by the Author’, was published in 1823, and contains the footnote with the quotation.
4.1 Here’s what the science says about animal sentience, Nov 24, 2017
https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-science-says-about-animal-sentience-88047
4.2 Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/22/contents
5.1 Cafre, College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise
https://www.cafre.ac.uk/business-support/agriculture/dairy/dairying-technical-support/calf-welfare/
5.2 Code of Practice for the Welfare of Pigs, October 2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pigs-on-farm-welfare/caring-for-pigs, Paragraph 122-151
5.3 Consider the Christmas Turkey
https://www.veganpieces.org/animal-welfare/consider-the-christmas-turkey
5.4 Animal Rights : A History by Peter Singer, Emeritus Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University
https://thinkdifferentlyaboutsheep.weebly.com/animal-rights-a-history-peter-singer.html
5.5 https://www.foodtraining.org.uk/level2abattoirworker
5.6 The Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment: A Systematic Literature Review, July 2021
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15248380211030243
5.7 A Simple Question
Gary Francione, Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lincoln.
https://gary-francione.medium.com/if-you-are-not-a-vegan-i-have-a-simple-question-for-you-why-not-db228e6736e1
6.1 BBC The Moral Maze, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001whc9
6.2 How to Argue with a Meat Eater and win Every Time, 2023, Ed Winters, p207
https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ed-Winters/How-to-Argue-With-a-Meat-Eater-And-Win-Every-Time/30166402
7.1 Animal Liberation Now, Peter Singer, 2023 Edition, https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456655/animal-liberation-now-by-singer-peter/9781529925548
