The Heirarchy of Animal Rights
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t was recently announced that Taiwan will be the first country in Asia to ban the consumption and production of dog and cat meat. According to The Guardian, an updated version of the of the Animal Protection Act will impose a fine of 6,500 Euros on anyone who consumes dog and cat meat. It will also imprison and fine those who are involved in the slaughter of these animals. The ban has been praised by animal rights activists groups, such as The Human Society of the United States and PETA. Although it has been commended by animal rights activists, the ban is hypocritical and promotes a sinister hierarchy amongst animals.
The ban is being implemented under the pretense of preventing animal cruelty. However, it disregards the 56 billion other animals being slaughtered on extremely higher scale. Farm animals make up about 97 percent of animal death across the world. They are subjected to horrible, never ending abuse from when they’re born to when they’re killed. For example, broiler chickens are constantly supplied with growth hormones so they can grow as big and as quickly as possible in order to meet the public’s demand. Chickens’ feet give away and break because they can’t sustain their own weight. Furthermore, they are enclosed with hundreds of other chickens in small, dark and unhygienic barns. These chickens spend spend their days confined to living in their own feces, sometimes not even having as much as an inch of space for themselves. They suffer from a variety of diseases, such as heart attacks and cancer due to their horrendous living conditions. Chicken abuse, which happens globally, has received little media coverage and outrage in comparison to the plight of dogs and cats in Asia.
According to CNN, the ban in Taiwan sends a strong message to South Korea and China. Jill Robinson, the CEO of the Animals in Asia foundation, commended the ban and said that China is also moving in this direction. “The public is becoming increasingly sympathetic with the plight of dogs, recognizing the criminality behind the industry,” she said. When one refers to animal cruelty in China, the first thing that usually pops up is usually the annual Yulin festival. It’s a festival where ten thousand dogs are killed, cooked and sold. The festival has been a target of outrage, with animal rights activists and celebrities calling out its barbaric practices. However, the torture that dogs endure can’t compare in the slightest to what’s inflicted upon farm animals. What’s different about this festival and driving past a local slaughterhouse is that dog and cat lives are viewed as superior to other animals. This brings us back to the concept of an animal hierarchy. “The enormous benefits that dogs bring to society and the comfort they give to the families they belong to,” Robinson said. In other words, another strong implication of humans ranking animals and placing certain lives over others.
In reality, who are we to determine which animals deserve to live and which animals don’t? Are we supposed measure how much an animal’s life is worth based on how much they contribute to society? Regardless of the way we choose, is it morally correct to determine an independent organism’s right to live based off of how much we benefit? Whichever way humanity has chosen to navigate this warped system, it’s clear which animals that we’ve chosen to benefit out of the confusion.
Taiwan’s ban was intended to counter animal cruelty. In reality, is a hypocritical establishment which condemns the deaths of certain animals while the ignoring, and in a way condoning, the horrific abuse endured by farm animals on a significantly larger scale. If the aim is to end animal, not only dog abuse, then the first constructive step would be to counter the socially constructed hierarchy which plagues billions of farm animals globally.