• Why don’t farmed animals, like Cows, Pigs and Chickens get to experience days of comfort and sun like Dogs do?
• The commodification of farmed animals has been normalized by a highly industrialized system that tells us to view them as products for human consumption.
• Farmed animals are worthy of every ounce of love, care, and compassion we extend to Dogs and other companion animals, simply because they exist.
Imagine: it’s a warm sunny day, and you’re out on a walk with your family Dog. You play fetch in a grassy yard, say hi to other animals and people passing by on the sidewalk, and stop for a treat at your favorite local coffee shop before heading home, hearts full of love for each other.
This is probably a familiar scene that brings grins to many of us with companion animals.
Unfortunately, this idyllic life isn’t typically enjoyed by Cows, who are locked away in large-scale industrial farms that don’t allow them the freedom to live the lives they deserve; who have their bodies abused by humans in all ways imaginable.
Why don’t Cows — and other farmed animals, like Pigs and Chickens — get to experience days of comfort and sun like Dogs do? Why do we continue to allow them to suffer?
NUMBERS YOU SHOULD KNOW
The commodification of Cows, Pigs, and Chickens has long been normalized by a highly industrialized system that tells us to view them as mere products for human consumption.
In the Philippines, roughly 2.52 million Cows are held as cattle in farms, to be used for meat. The meat and dairy industries are heavily intertwined, with meat houses relying on dairy farms to provide them with Cows to slaughter.
Globally, around 270 million Cows are farmed for their milk. Each day, a mother Cow has her offspring snatched from her, with the babies thrown into calf ranches, defenseless and aching for their moms. Each day, she is strapped to cold machinery that squeezes milk — meant for her children — out of her udders for humans to drink and use.
Pigs and Chickens endure a similar fate. Around 8.70 million Pigs are kept as swine in the Philippines, while about 224.9 million Chickens are caged as poultry. Chickens are also typically used by sabungeros to fight each other for the sake of human entertainment and money.
As we inch closer and closer to meeting higher demands for meat and milk, these animals may be reduced to products instead of sentient beings. Each day, all over the world, these Cows, Pigs, and Chickens face immense suffering and pain that are entirely preventable.
There is a capitalist coldness to how we treat these animals, how we use them for sport and food despite the violence this treatment requires.
Yet this is the reality we have been conditioned to support.
There is a capitalist coldness to how we treat these animals, how we use them for sport and food despite the violence this treatment requires.
CLOSENESS VS. DISTANCE
When you imagine a companion animal whom you can have by your side for a huge part of your life, Dogs are probably one of the first to come to mind. It’s no surprise: We’ve been socialized to accept these domesticated animals as our “fur babies” for thousands of years.
Can you instead imagine having a Cow as your beloved companion that sleeps by your bedside? How about a Pig or a Chicken?
Maybe you think Cows, Pigs, and Chickens are cute. Maybe you think they actually can have a place in your home. But at the end of the day, you still believe that it’s okay for these animals — and not Dogs — to end up on your plate instead of in your bed.
It’s about time to examine why that is.
Since we’ve been conditioned to accept Cows, Pigs, and Chickens as mere sources for our nutrition or entertainment, there is a distance between how we view them and how we actually treat them.
We can view these animals as mascots on our milk cartons and meat packages. We can turn a blind eye to the violence they face as long as we don’t know what’s going on. Or even if we’re aware of the realities, we can still accept them as long as we’re not the ones doing the dirty jobs of putting these animals down.
A large part of this is because we don’t often live with Cows, Pigs, and Chickens as companion animals. We don’t get to understand their needs for food, living spaces, enrichment, and socialization.
We’re not privy to how loving they can be when they have a life of freedom — freedom from pain, from restraint, from the plate.
THE SENTIENCE OF FARMED ANIMALS
When we set our cruelty aside and let these animals flourish in the conditions they are meant to live in, we discover just how much personality and love they can hold for each other — and for us.
Cows spend their days grazing, resting, and bonding with others in their herd. Pigs play to establish social bonds. Meanwhile, Chickens can recognize over a hundred other Chickens, and they can do the same with human faces, too.
Unlike Dogs, these animals are capable of living lives without human interaction and intervention.
They are worthy of every ounce of love, care, and compassion we extend to Dogs and other companion animals, simply because they exist.
EXPANDING OUR COMPASSION
We can learn to love Cows, Pigs, and Chickens the way we do our companion animals, and to treat them with the compassion they deserve as sentient, intelligent, and kind beings.
Local non-government organization Animal Empathy Philippines, which advocates for the welfare of all farmed animals, discusses the concept of the moral circle. This concept “refers to the boundary around entities that are granted moral concern”.
Those at the center of one’s moral circle are deemed as most deserving of moral treatment, with consideration decreasing the further you get outside.
What would our moral circles look like if we included Cows, Pigs, and Chickens?
Expanding our moral circle to include farmed animals helps us view these beautiful creatures as deserving of the just moral consideration we impart to fellow human beings.
LOVE FOR ALL
Cows, Pigs, and Chickens need just as much love and freedom as Dogs have. If we shift our perspectives and act on our love, we can bring forth a better, kinder world that treats these animals with the care and compassion they deserve to experience.
