Our animals at home are captive and many suffer, but never as much as non-companion animals. Our ability to do what we do, to especially farm animals, comes from our treatment at home of our ‘patting’ animals, the ones we like to touch.
Our attitude to animals in general is a paradox. It’s curious how we humans can be close to our cats and dogs, even sometimes closer to them than our own species. We follow them around the park picking up their deposits and indeed do everything for them to make their lives happy, despite the fact they only offer companionship, (“only”!). We do all this for them even though they produce no useful products. We call them pets because we pet them, they are intimates with us. It’s this companion element (in certain tamed animals) that we put most value on. Mind you, when this element isn’t produced in sufficient (emotionally viable) quantities we have them shot … well, ‘shot’ full of lethal chemicals to ‘put them to sleep’. Excepting valid euthanasia.
When they can no longer fulfil their role as companions their relevance ends. When our companion animals are alive we give them the very best - love, food, shelter, expensive medical care, all of which may be withdrawn at the drop of a hat. When a decision to end a life is taken, by the human concerning the animal, that cut-off ‘ability’ contradicts how we say we love them. And if that’s a worry then how is it for those ‘non-companions’ animals? Those who are only valued as property, and edible property at that. These animals have no life experience at all, unless you count experiencing the daily torture of being slaves of humans.
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