The Value of Ethical Treatment of Animals
Cindy Abrams
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
Instructor: David Strand
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Value of Ethical Treatment of Animals It is Sunday morning and you have poured yourself a tall cold glass of milk with two easy over eggs sizzling in the pan, lightly buttered toast and hot steamy coffee with fresh cream. In your mind’s eye you picture the cow who gave milk as grazing on a grassy pasture with an idyllic life. When you think of the chicken who laid the egg you may picture it as living in a clean healthy environment free of drug use with a clean home. The reality can be very different in fact it can be quite shocking. The opposite could be happening to these animals living in pens so small they cannot do what is normal, diseased and so sick they cannot even stand up, abused to the point of unbelievable horror that you think of Hitler and concentration camps. Does the need for food justify the way farm factories mistreat these animals, and do they have rights? It is not a pretty picture how people can feel that it is right to behave inhumanely to animals. Large gentle giants with a sweet nature, cows are extremely curious and maternal. They are clever animals who have been known to go to great lengths to escape from slaughterhouses. Being very social they prefer to spend their time in strong relationships much as dog pack would. These cattle are deprived of a normal life being bred to produce milk that is more than ten times what is normal. Their babies are ripped from them at birth leaving the