Crown Core Course
Daniel Hitchings
Section 4
TTh
Animal Welfare and
Genetic Modifications
Only recently has genetic modification
become a reality for us. Even early in
its development, there was big interest in modifying farm animals. There are many current modifications on
animals now, but most of them have many bad side effects. There are also some other modifications being
tested that are more likely to increase the animals welfare rather than decrease
it. Although current genetic modifications
on animals have had many drawbacks, future advances in the technology would
make it possible to reduce the suffering of animals by either altering the
animals' consciousness or by removing the animal from the process of getting
food entirely.
Current
advances in genetic modification have increased food production, but have had
many drawbacks on the animals themselves.
The current advances are pushing toward adding growth hormones to
animals in order to decrease the time they have to grow before they can be
killed and the meat taken. These growth
hormones have had many negative side-effects on the animals they were given
to. “They [researchers] report the
existence of several health problems in transgenic pigs due to the excessively
high levels of growth hormone. For
example, pigs expressing high levels of growth hormone tend to be lethargic,
they exhibit indications of muscle weakness, and some are susceptible to
stress. Others tend to lack coordination
in their gait, probably because their feet are rather tender” (D’Silva 263). In other cases, reproductive organs have had
many problems and gastro-intestinal tracts have been weakened. All of those side-effects have been caused by
the addition of growth hormones. There
are many alternatives to simply trying to increase the rate of growth that can
create more meat with lesser damage to the animals. The current genetic modifications have
increased production of meat, but at a great cost to the lives of the
animals. Other modifications would improve
the lives of the animals, as well as increase production.
By
reducing or removing animals' natural instincts and replacing them with
instincts that are contusive to factory farming we are able to decrease the
animals' suffering while in the farms. For
example, a chickens’ natural instinct is to be outside and in open spaces. Putting one of those chickens in a small cage
is cruel to the chicken because it goes against its instincts and is therefore
a source of suffering. Since natural
instincts have been shown to be mainly genetic, it would be possible to create
a chicken that would enjoy living in a small cage. Then keeping it in a small cage would appease
its instincts and would eliminate its suffering. This may not be possible yet, but researchers
are getting closer to being able to do this constantly. According to Rollin, “our operative concern
has always been to fit animals to us with as little friction as possible – as
discussed, this assured both success for farmers and good lives for the animals”. Although the idea of a chicken that enjoys
being kept in a cage is counter-intuitive, it is nonetheless a solution that
would benefit both the animals and the farmers.
Even though it may seem simpler to change the place
that the animal live and not the animal itself, doing so would be much more
expensive, especially in the long term.
So even though it is a more complex solution, it is a more permanent and
cost-effective one.
Other
advances in genetic manipulation may be able to remove the need for farming
animals and would therefore remove the suffering of those animals. We are beginning to understand cellular
biology enough so that we are able to control the growth of egg cells into
something that is merely alive, with not consciousness whatsoever. For example, modifying a
pig egg cell to grow only into muscle tissue. This technology gives us the ability to grow
meat, without growing a whole animal.
Because of this, “there is no reason why, when we have the available
biotechnology, the factory future should contain any animals at all” (Stableford
58). If we can completely remove the
animals from the farms, then the ethical dilemmas with treatment of animals in
the farms can no longer exist either.
The
modifications that we are trying now on animals do help increase production,
but they also come with a great cost to the animals. There are several alternative modifications
that could increase production as well as the welfare of the animals.