Скачать или смотреть Peter Singer on the best counter-arguments to animal rights

What are the best counter-arguments to animal rights, and how should we respond?

I had the renowned philosopher Peter Singer (‪@peter_singer‬) on the show (Episode 22) to discuss. And he brought up one of the strongest arguments against our work: what if animals on factory farms, despite the atrocious conditions, still live “net positive lives”? One answer is to point to the observed suffering that makes a “net positive life” unlikely. For example, 26-30% of chickens at “broiler” farms are too sick or injured to walk; many will collapse and starve to death.

But, more fundamentally, the question cannot be simply whether we give animals a “net positive life” but rather whether we give them the lives they deserve. As I argue in the episode, it’s trivially easy to give a chicken a near-perfect life at a sanctuary. They are not as hard to care for as a human child or even a dog. We therefore cannot justify depriving them of happiness any more than we could justify depriving a human child. No one would say that torturing a child was justified on the grounds that the suffering child overall still was given a “net positive life.” For that same reason, we cannot justify torturing an animal, either.

What are the counter-arguments to animal rights that give YOU pause?

Watch the full episode on my channel. And if you leave your question in the YouTube comments, I’ll answer it in a future episode.