Economic Factors in Animal Welfare

I have come to the conclusion that animal abuse is deaply enmeshed in human culture and their economy. So, how exacly does animal welfare contribute to our economy ? Letme explain.


Living in a western society, humans may not know it, but we interact with other species almost always through abusive relationships. Our attitudes and beliefs are based upon the fact that animals are there for our consumption (food), our need for companionship or our need for amusement.


1. Most people, and of course not all, eat animal flesh and use animals parts and fur for clothing.

The way we humans interact with animals indirectly is as a source of food. Of course, its all part of the life cycle, nevertheless the greatest amount of animal cruelty takes place in providing meat for our consumption for the lowest price possible. This is were the most harm is done. It costs money to care for these animals properly, and with the high competition between agribuisness corperations, it means only the cheepest survive. To the consumers, only the lowest prices are important, not the quality of life that these animals are forced upon.

2. Animal research is less comon now a days, but is still widely used across the world.

Large sectors of our economy are also dragged into these abusive relationships by unknowingly supporting animal research. Many drugs and cosmetics are tested on animals before being put out on shelves for own consumption. It was only recently that a great deal of attention was brought onto animal testing, however it is not the end. Many new products that may contain toxicity are primarily tested on animals before being approved and put on the market.

3. Zoos and circuses which we go to for amusement, are mainly institutions which animal abuse is largely based.

Again, it's all about the money and what it would cost to support these animals in a proper way. Money is being made when people go to zoos and/or circuses, but that money being made is for the producers, and of course not the animals. The conditions these animals live and work in are to no where near positive. They are forced to participate in tasks and then never rewarded greatly for the unbelievable things they accomplish.

Stated simply, our attitudes are that animals are essentially an item of property.Many people have animals as pets/companions. Of course, these are considered "part of the family" but when it becomes inconvienient to keep them, they are unfortunetly disposed of like objects.

Reasons for Cruelty

In our society today, one of our most important beliefs is that humans and other animals are in some way separated by an unbridgeable gap. We divide ourselves from other living creatures on the planet, and while many others have been influenced by religion and science, we persist on the obvious that we are unique to all other animals.

At first hand that would make sense. We live in complex societies, were there are big buildings, we drive cars, and we read books, and/or we speak different languages. But, in fact, humans are great apes themselves, genetically closer to the Apes then these animals are to monkeys. So where did the roots to this humanly based distinction come from? To this day, it still springs up from the attitudes of scientists, religious beliefs and our elevated idea of human "specialness" based all our technical advancements, and not on our emotional and psychological well being.

Attitudes of Scientists

Many non-religious beliefs originate from the attitude of scientists, who have the crucial power in shaping peoples consciousness. Apparently, many people assume that the opinions of scientists are more logical then those of an average person, when really, scientific attitudes are more often then less a result of social beliefs rather then logic.

An example of this can be scientific objectivity. If a dog is hit, as an emotional and physical reflex, the dog yells. Scientists understand this to be a physical reflex in which they can measure it, test it and form some kind of theory around it. But if this scientist ever decided to see things from a different point of view, perhaps the dogs, the scientist would realise the reason for the yelling it because the animal is in pain, which cannot be measured or tested. This unfortunately compromises their scientifical objectivity, which in turn works very well for such things as physics and chemistry, but as for understanding the behaviour of other individuals, this does not work.

So long as a scientist imagines that he is dealing with inanimate objects which "show reflexes" rather than living creatures which experience pain, he will feel free to do whatever he pleases to them, in the belief that no harm is being done.

Christian Beliefs               
There is really nothing based on animal cruelty found in the bible, but based on the christian views that humans are impenetrably separated from all other animals, humans have a soul- where as animals do not. To the Christians, "life is sacred." That is, if you are human. The churches attitudes towards this might be better yet expressed as "only human life is sacred."

There has also never been a pope or bishop who has ever spoken up to animal cruelty, let alone do anything to help prevent it.

The Apparent Complexity of humans
So it might be true to most people that the human mind is very well distinct from that of another animal. It is apparent in our everyday actions in which we have created complex societies. Given that it took us several million years to even discover fire, weapons and even shelter. This complexity of our societies today is truly dependent on a very few number of creative people.We are now accostum to the new age technology which we know today. Knowledge has been passed down from generations. For example, an engineer who designs a car engine does not need to re-invent it. You can teach an animal to basically do anything. More importantly they have the same emotional and psychological being that we, as humans have. 

The Ability for Animals to Experience Emotion 

While it is deffinetly true that humans are more advanced then other animals, it does not bear on their ability to experience pain or to suffer. The brains of other mammals are slightly different then of those of humans. They are primarily different in that the latter have much bigger cortices, explaining our ability to be better able to think.


The underlying issue here is that scientists are attempting to understand animal behaviour rather then the experiences these animals have - which cannot be understood scientifically.

Essentially, we have begun to deny the fact that animals have emotions in the first place, requiring a complete denial of reality.