Thanks a lot for this post. I think it’s really great to inform this debate with new data and a clever framework, as you’ve done—it’s a useful contribution, and I hope similar experiments get conducted in other contexts.
Not directly related to this article, but I have a few broad thoughts on this general topic:
When I began working in animal advocacy, I was definitely on the abolitionist end of the spectrum. Since then, I’ve developed a much more diversified view. In general, the debate between abolitionism vs welfarism a) is very speculative, in that we have limited data to go on; and b) will profoundly affect the lives of millions or billions of animals living in extreme suffering. I think these are great reasons to have humility in either position.
Even if we never abolish animal exploitation (which I dearly hope we do), welfare reforms can bring about major improvements in farmed animals’ lives. For example, Saulius’s comment here briefly shows how much suffering can be reduced by corporate campaigns on broiler chickens. I’m doing similar work at the moment, and I’ve arrived at similar findings to those of Saulius.
I’ve also enjoyed these two sources on this topic, which caused major updates in my thinking:
Thanks a lot for this post. I think it’s really great to inform this debate with new data and a clever framework, as you’ve done—it’s a useful contribution, and I hope similar experiments get conducted in other contexts.
Not directly related to this article, but I have a few broad thoughts on this general topic:
When I began working in animal advocacy, I was definitely on the abolitionist end of the spectrum. Since then, I’ve developed a much more diversified view. In general, the debate between abolitionism vs welfarism a) is very speculative, in that we have limited data to go on; and b) will profoundly affect the lives of millions or billions of animals living in extreme suffering. I think these are great reasons to have humility in either position.
Even if we never abolish animal exploitation (which I dearly hope we do), welfare reforms can bring about major improvements in farmed animals’ lives. For example, Saulius’s comment here briefly shows how much suffering can be reduced by corporate campaigns on broiler chickens. I’m doing similar work at the moment, and I’ve arrived at similar findings to those of Saulius.
I’ve also enjoyed these two sources on this topic, which caused major updates in my thinking:
EA Forum article ‘A new framing to replace “Welfarism vs. Abolitionism”’
Academic paper ‘Transition rather than Revolution: The Gradual Road towards Animal Legal Personhood through the Legislature’