AN ARGUMENT FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS BASED ON THEIR CAPACITY TO EXPERIENCE
Jonathan Balcombe is an ethologist and author who formerly was with the Human Society. He explains in an introductory section of this 2010 book, “My chief aim in this book is to close the gap between human beings and animals---by helping us understand the animal experience, and by elevating animals from their lowly status… Just thirty years ago it was scientific heresy to ascribe such emotions as delight, boredom, or joy to a nonhuman. It was unheard of to say that fishes feel pain, never mind that they have culture, and it would have been a joke to entertain the idea that animals might actually have some moral awareness… researchers around the world have found that there is more thought and feeling in animals than humans have ever imagined. By showing that animals think and feel richly, that they are highly sentient and sometimes even virtuous, I hope to convince you that we cannot continue to treat animals cruelly or carelessly…
“With all that we have learned about animals, we can no longer plead ignorance. Science is now revealing that animals are more aware and sophisticate then we thought, proving that the popular portrayals and perceptions of wile nature are biased and impoverished… I close with my view of how we should turn our relationship with animals in a kinder direction. A new humanity is in order---one that demands a new ethic of mutual tolerance and respect for the other creatures doing their best to share the planet with us… one of the lessons to be learned from climate change, biodiversity loss, urban sprawl, ethnic conflicts, and economic downturns is that when we abuse or neglect fauna and flora, we also harm ourselves in the process.” (Pg. 4-5)
He observes, “The evolution of sentience---the capacity for pain and pleasure---was a crucial turning point in biological history, affecting all animals. Before sentience, living organisms had no moral consequence, for two reasons. First, an organism without feelings cannot suffer. Second, eons had to pass before there would be any highly involved minds to reflect on moral matters such as the rightness or wrongness of an action. But for a sentient creature, things can be perceived to be going well or poorly… Morality didn’t originate with humans… but acute moral awareness is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. It is also one of our heaviest burdens.” (Pg. 13)
He notes, “The problem in our relationship with animals is that our treatment of them hasn’t evolved to keep up with our knowledge. While we have banned bearbaiting and passed some animal welfare laws, animals’ position relative to a sphere of moral consequence remains unchanged: they are outside it. As long as we provide a reason that our harming them is ‘necessary’---for example, to eat them, to make garments from them, to use them in tests for human safety, and so on---then we may do so, even though we do not accept using humans in these ways… I will not try to convince you that animals are merely other manifestations of humans… But, as Charles Darwin famously said, these are degrees of difference, not kind. And how those differences translate into how humans treat animals is well worth our careful consideration.” (Pg. 14)
He suggests, “As we learn more about fishes and their mental capacities and sentience, we are beginning to revise our previous dismissive attitude toward them… As researchers at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science point out, because individuals suffer and not species, the ramification of fishes’ capacity to feel pain and to suffer are great, given the enormous numbers of fishes humans exploit and kill.” (Pg. 42)
He states, “The important thing for humans to recognize is that animals do indeed have feelings, and that to the animals these are every bit as important as our own feelings are to us. As we awaken to animals’ emotional sensitivity, we’ll become more attuned and, I hope, more sympathetic, toward their emotional vulnerabilities and needs.” (Pg. 60)
He summarizes, “Over thirty years of studying, living with, and thinking about animals has taught me that nonhuman beings with whom we chare the planet are no less sensitive than we are, and that their emotionality, intelligence, and awareness make them fully worthy of our deepest concern and consideration. These creatures are not merely alive, but they have lives of their own that matter to them. When we see animals for what they are---autonomous, sentient beings with interests---we must realize that they were not put here for us.” (Pg. 77-78)
He argues, “When a dog shows deference for a kitten, or when a rat forgoes food to relive the pain of another, I think what we’re seeing is the natural behavior of a socially adept animal. Caring about others is what keeps societies efficiently humming along. Pain is bad, no matter who is feeling it, and if it takes a bit of self-sacrifice to help another, that’s the natural thing to do.” (Pg. 134)
He states, “We may think that animals evolve to reach greater functional complexity higher intelligence and larger size, but there are many cases that counter that notion. Environment plays an important role in deciding which functions are important to have… the blind cave-dwelling fish is less complex yet more highly evolved. This example illustrates one of the central fallacies of the progressivist bias: the assumption that more evolved forms are inherently more complex… while there are trends through time because greater sophistication may confer advantages in the survival sweepstakes, evolution itself is (as it were) as blind as a cave-dwelling fish.” (Pg. 165-166)
He states, “The practice of vivisection subscribes to a view that growing numbers of humans question on ethical grounds. It is the view that we are morally entitled to inflict severe harm on other sentient animals in the pursuit of our own interests… which we conveniently designate are more compelling than theirs. It is, in short, the idea that we have the right to do something because we have the power to do it. One of the plainest moral objections to this might-makes-right attitude is that it is vulnerable to the ‘intelligent alien’ scenario: If the might-makes-right justification were valid, then we must concede that there would be nothing immoral about a ‘superior’ race of aliens arriving to enslave, kill, and eat us.” (Pg. 177)
He concludes, “As we’ve seen, fishes and other vertebrate animals have inner lives. As individuals with sensations, perceptions, emotions, and awareness, they experience life. Having the capacity to remember past events, and to anticipate future ones, animals’ lives are not merely a series of now-moments… As active participants in dynamic communities teeming with other life forms, animals benefit by being on the ball, and learning from their experiences. Many live in rich social networks, where individuals benefit by forming friendships and by cooperating with others. These capacities endow animals with interests of their own. They are not just living things; they are BEINGS WITH LIVES. And that makes all the difference in the world. When we make compassionate personal choices according to how they affect another, we are practicing Second Nature… Second Nature sees animals living rich sensory lives with hardships and rewards---like our lives… Extending our empathy and concern toward all who experience the ups and downs of life is neither strange nor radical. It is, after all, Second Nature.” (Pg. 203-204)
This book will be of great interest to those interested in animal rights and animal welfare, and well as consciousness studies of animals.