A long time ago on an island far, far away, a man by the name of Jeremy Bentham, with his beloved cat by his side (presumably), which he lovingly named, “The Reverend Sir John Langbourne,” wrote about the implications of his utilitarian views. Namely that, because his utilitarianism placed central importance on the minimization of suffering and the maximization of pleasure, and because non-human animals like the venerable Reverend can suffer, that animals deserve substantial ethical consideration.
According to Bentham, just because they can’t reason doesn’t mean that they can’t suffer. Nowadays, thanks to the work of researchers, we’re starting to understand that not only can many non-human animal species suffer, but many of them can also reason to an astonishing degree.
We all know that dolphins, orcas, many species of bird, primates, and elephants are highly intelligent, being able to learn, demonstrating complex social and emotional lives, and having the ability to solve difficult problems. Research is now strongly suggesting that animals which we may have thought are “dumb”, may possess similar cognitive capacities, even the ones that we eat.
Chickens have demonstrated a remarkable ability to tailor their communications to specific contexts. For example, roosters will signal that there is a threat if they are in the presence of females but not in the presence of rival males. This suggests that they think about the social repercussions before they act. They also vary the pitch and frequency of the vocalizations depending on the size and proximity of the predator. Research also suggests that they are able to anticipate desirable or undesirable future events.
The intelligence of pigs has also been well documented. They have been observed to use tools such as sticks and hard surfaces and play basic video games. Their success at the mirror test indicates that they are very much self-aware.
Cows do well in navigating maze tests, doing better than dogs, pigs, and sheep, demonstrating sophisticated spatial cognition. Not only do cows play – which is an indicator of curiosity, joy, and social cognition – they also show signs of excitement and pleasure when they learn and succeed during tests administered by researchers.
If you thought fish were essentially just mindless meat torpedoes, I have bad news. Behind those completely dead eyes is an intelligence that uses tools such as rocky surfaces to break the shells of clams and other bivalves. Their social abilities go beyond simply grouping together in schools. They can also watch others fight to learn how much of a threat they are, they can remember individual rivals that they either beat or lost to, and are very picky about what cleaner fish they allow to groom them depending on several factors including whether they have observed them to be good cleaners.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the degree of non-human animal intelligence and research is still lacking. As more studies are performed, we will learn more about how much we have underestimated our fellow earthlings.
We know all of this, and still we eat their meat and treat them like garbage.
There’s just something in our clearly superior minds (not sarcasm) that doesn’t care enough to change. We know how much pain and suffering we create for animals and yet, as a society we have mostly found it acceptable. I don’t just refuse to stop contributing to the pain and suffering of these highly intelligent and emotional creatures, I contribute about as much as a single human can to the demand. All of my meals have plenty of meat in them – if there’s no meat then it’s barely even food, I say.
I suspect that many find themselves in a similar position. In the back of our minds, we know that animals are treated inhumanely for our pleasure and yet, we just ignore it.
The aim here is not to chastise – moral progress is slow and often takes generations, much like the slow historical progress of human rights. It can hardly be said that it’s completely incomprehensible how our ancestors could hold such vicious views – their views were the norm at the time.
Much like we are now beginning to feel that there is something wrong with how we treat animals, perhaps some of our ancestors also had a feeling that what they were doing was wrong, but they simply didn’t have the motivation to change because it was their status-quo. It was up to successive generations – young ones often build on or rebel against the teachings of their parents.
Like a professor once said to his ethics class, animal rights are the next big step in moral progress, and one day future humans will look back at us, much like we look back at past slave owners and say, “how could they do this?”
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. He is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com