Comment by munchler
Agreed, but the logical conclusion of that line of thought is veganism, which, ironically, would mean the extinction of farmed chickens entirely. (And I think most ethical vegans would be OK with that.)
Agreed, but the logical conclusion of that line of thought is veganism, which, ironically, would mean the extinction of farmed chickens entirely. (And I think most ethical vegans would be OK with that.)
Yes, I think the subjective value of life for chickens in a factory farm is negative, so the most ethical outcome would be to stop breeding them, at which point they would presumably go extinct.
I’m not a vegan myself, but I have several vegans in my life, and I believe this is a common viewpoint in the vegan community.
Chickens predate factory farming. Why would they stop existing without factory farming?
In the future I’m describing (“empathy and respect for sentient beings”), people would stop eating chickens, so they would no longer be bred.
Also, modern chickens are much larger than their ancestors from even 50 years ago as a result of the efficiencies of factory farming, so I would question the premise of your question.
I don't think so. You could simply mandate more space per chicken, access to natural light and other improvements. It would make chicken and eggs more expensive. But I am ok with that.
There is a whole continuum between massive intensive factory farming and boutique organic farms.
This is an interesting comment! There are a few implications tucked together here that made me think.
Forgive me if I'm missing your intent(s) but the way I'm reading your comment it seems to be implying "the logical conclusion of that line of thinking is a worse situation so the logic is wrong or should be ignored".
Which implies that not being extinct is the most important thing even if life is completely suffering.
(It also implies a false dichotomy where the only two options are the horrible suffering of modern factory farming or extinction, with no options in between.)
I have an earnest question about your opinion, without casting any judgement or gotchas about any real world complicated situations:
In a hypothetical world where horrible factory farming is the only possible life for these chickens (the ONLY alternative is extinction) do you think it is worse to keep the system going than letting them go extinct? I think that's the intent in your comment and, if so, would you mind sharing a bit more about why you think that?