Background
As a 2000 graduate of an accredited veterinary college it is of interest to consider the divergent philosophy that persists today regarding the consideration and management of pain in animals. Indeed, accredited veterinary curriculums have included a standard of care for castration in companion animals that requires pre and postoperative pain management since at least the year 2000. However, at the same time, those universities had no such standard of care for animals raised for food such as piglets, and the vast majorities still don’t.
The practice of castration in piglets is conducted typically within the first week of life primarily to prevent the development of “boar taint” (Guay et al., 2013). Boar taint is the result
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The Dilemma
Is there a compelling ethical argument that would justify a standard of care for piglet castration that precludes the application of anesthesia and analgesia in the United States?
To adequately assess the question one must consider the options and the ethical concerns of the stakeholders. While there are several options, the two alternatives put forth for consideration are whether or not pain mitigation is provided. The stakeholders considered here include the: piglet, herd, farmer/stockperson, buyer (slaughter house or “packer”), customers (retail and restaurants), consumers and the environment.
What are the options?
There are a few ways in which the procedural and post-procedural pain associated with castration can be prevented or mitigated. The use of a local anesthetic (LA) alone can mitigate procedural pain as well as post procedural pain for a few hours in pigs castrated at an early age (McGlone and Hellman, 1988). Alternatively, a general anesthetic (injectable or inhalant) in combination with an analgesic is also able to reduce the pain associated with castration (McGlone and Hellman, 1988). However, the use of inhalation anesthetics on a mass scale are as of yet impractical as some agents pose a safety risk for the operator and pig, reducing nursing and seeking behavior in piglets,
Fine’s proposal could be ethical if it could provide legitimate applications to humans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Ethical experiment advocates favor an experiment conducted on animals if: 1. there is minimal suffering for subjects and 2. human benefits are gained (Ethics Guide, 2014). It is difficult to estimate the degree of suffering that the mice in Dr. Fine’s experiment would encounter. While the anesthesia would stop the physical suffering, one cannot guess the degree of psychological suffering the mice would encounter due to the lack of their front limbs. This intentional hindering of development in no way could exclude all suffering. In addition, there are absolutely no human applications to the results of this experiment. There is no morality behind mutilating animals for virtually no applicable
that method is absolutely cruel and painful, the veterinary method is not pain free either.
People perceive dissecting fetal pigs as being cruel and unnecessary. What they don’t understand is the educational purpose behind it by providing students information to help them better understand not only the functions and structures of the fetal pig but also their own body. These fetal pigs are unharmed and dissecting causes no damage. Concerns about fetal pig dissections will always be a factor of whether or not to perform this task but, there is a reason so many countries and schools continue to educate their students through fetal pig
Initially when seeing the fetal pigs, I was completely disgusted and figured I could not even look at them in the sink, let alone look at them when they are dissected. As my group pinned down the fetal pig and tied it’s limbs out of the way, I began to get more comfortable with the fact. As the dissection progressed, through observing the mouth and the thoracic cavity on the first day and the abdominal cavity on the second day, I became less grossed out. Observing the organs was interesting and I felt like it was a useful representation of what human organs are like, since it would not be ethical to use an actual human to dissect. I learned the difficulties that surgeons have to endure when performing a surgery. I can only imagine the high-pressure
All of the incision were preformed very careful and slow. We tried not to rupture the pig, but it very difficult. The equipment that was given was handy, however, they were not comfortable in our hands. For example, the scissors were too small for our hands and the scalpel was not useful in most of the situations we encountered while dissecting. Although we did not conduct many mini experiments, we took a look at our classmates fetal pig. We watched them as they observed the fetal pig’s brain and uncovered their spinal
Through the infliction of burns, wounds, and side effects, researchers examine the animal to study the healing process, and the infliction of pain to determine its effects and remedies.
Are factory farms actually telling the truth about how workers treat the animals?In 2011, at pig factory farms, there were much more than 5.8 million extremely small gestational crates used for mating in the United States of America. (Farm Sanctuary. N.p., n.d. 1)The community should stop purchasing Smithfield Farming products because of how the pigs are mistreated. People that buy from Smithfield are risking possibly getting food poison or sick.The average person needs to be made further aware of Smithfield’s acts.Smithfield Farms harm the animals, as a result, society should rethink buying Smithfield’s products.
The next question in the abuse of animals that Singer and Mason were concerned about was the castrating of the animals without any anesthetic. Wayne explains that they are cut immediately after birth, (10 days), "Consumers drives that". He goes into details to explain the taste that is one very likeable. But still in my opinion this not reason enough for the animals to be put in such pain without anything to help numb the process in the process. However I do understand that the reason they are castrated is for the health of Americans when eating the meat, but the animals endure much pain for this process. However the question from Singer and Mason is still would there be any other way of this process, Wayne explains how up to the age of 22, how his visits to the dentist was without any pain medicine.
It is well known that suffering from pain is not only restricted to persons who are competent, but even the incompetent persons such as the elderly, the infants, persons with disabilities suffer from irremediable and agonizing pain. They should also be allowed to relief their pain in a humane manner by seeking the help of PAD (Steinbock, 2005).
Within the dairy industry, the practice of dehorning newborn calves has become standard procedure to ensure the safety of the farmer and other animals. Though this is standard procedure for many it has raised questions in regard to the practices and methods used in the industry and whether or not they can feel pain. This leads to questioning the welfare of the animals on are inflicting pain on them and the length of time this pain is inflicted. There are multiple methods that are used depending on the age of the animal. The focus of this paper will be on newborn to 3 months old using the practices of caustic paste and hot iron burning.
A study in 2013 compares the response of lambs to light touch (10N) and pain (75N) stimulation of the wound and peri-wound 1 minuet and 24h after treatment. These figures show that treated lambs have a decreased response compared to their untreated
To begin, the experimental use of animals in medical studies is unethical. These creatures are confined in isolated cages where they are deprived of necessary environmental elements. It is not uncommon that they undergo ghastly methods of experimentation; including the inhalation of toxic fumes, the burning of their skin, and the crushing of their spinal cords ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"). This information sheds light on the grim realities of animal experimentation. These creatures are living, breathing beings that do not deserve to be treated as they are nothing more than lab objects. Not only are they ripped from their natural habitats, but are forced to endure an irreversible psychological trauma . To put it in perspective, imagine a six-month-old child being taken from their parents and sent to a lab to undergo scientific experiments that could ultimately result in
For the past 20 years, there has a been an on going heated debate on whether experiments on animals for the benefit of medical and scientific research is ethical. Whether it is or isn't, most people believe that some form of cost-benefit test should be performed to determine if the action is right. The costs include: animal pain, distress and death where the benefits include the collection of new knowledge or the development of new medical therapies for humans. Looking into these different aspects of the experimentation, there is a large gap for argument between the different scientists' views. In the next few paragraphs, both sides of the argument will be expressed by the supporters.
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.
The dental recipe of grown-up pigs is, giving an aggregate of 44 teeth. The back teeth are adjusted for pounding. In the male the canine teeth structure tusks, which become ceaselessly and are honed by continually being ground against one another. A few assaults on infant piglets are non-lethal. Others might bring about the demise of the piglets and in some cases, the mother may eat the piglets. It is assessed that half of piglet fatalities are because of the mother assaulting, or accidentally smashing, the infant pre-weaned creatures.