Anthropocentrism, Natural Harmony, Sentience and Animal Rights: Are We Allowed to Use Animals for Our Own Purposes?

Abstract

Taking a cue from J.W. Yates’ recent work on animal sentience published in this journal, which explores the field and categorizes it as a harmony with nature and a recognition of its values, inferring that the inclusion of animals in the sphere of objective rights is the obligatory step for a real sustainability in all human activities, this opinion paper seeks to challenge some of the claims made in the article and present an alternative perspective on sentience and animal rights. Preliminarily, I propose a semantic word-washing and the use of more precise terms instead of not well-defined ones such as "harmony" in relation to nature and "sentience" in relation to animals, and I affirm that there can be only one point of view, however rich in dialectics, which is the human one for looking at the problems of animal ethics. Below, I present the thesis that concludes that it is not possible to attribute rights to animals, but it is our right and duty to protect their well-being, which requires states to pass laws for their defence. I conclude that while it is acceptable to raise animals for priority human rights (such as food and health), it is also an obligation to properly care for and protect them.

Perceptions of Animal Welfare on Livestock: Evidence from College Agronomy Students in Costa Rica

“…The aim of understanding the relevant perspectives which could underlie the perceptions and assessments of livestock is to propose new teaching activities [61], materials, and research [62]. We currently find two general positions with different variants as follows: the first one claims that human beings are different from the other species (we may call it anthropologism instead of anthropocentrism); there are some variants of this position [63,64]. Here, we adopt, without any further analysis, that there exists the biological species, as claimed by biological taxonomists for example [65].…”

“…Some authors have described consuming animal meat as a human right [93]. The centric view can also offer another form of dissonance, seeing animals as objects rather than sentient beings [64,94]. This constitutes a scientific problem and should be addressed as such, without our opinions on animal rights or obligations intervening or interacting.…”

“…Students' assessments regarding bio-right-related questions suggest a positive stance regarding granting rights to animals, with 70% of respondents indicating that rights should be granted. Granting rights to animals is a complex issue studied in various works [64,92,[98][99][100]. However, granting rights should go hand in hand with acquiring duties [101,102], and the predominant question is: Can rights be granted without assuming duties?…”

Perceptions of Animal Welfare on Livestock: Evidence from College Agronomy Students in Costa Rica

“…Understanding what perspectives could underlie perceptions and assessments on livestock nonhuman animals is relevant aimed at proposing new teaching activities, materials, and research [58]. We find two general positions currently, with different variants: the first one claims that human beings are different from the other species (we may call it anthropologism instead of anthropocentrism); there are some variants of this position [59,60]. Here we adopt, without any further analysis, that there exist biological species, as claimed, for example, by biological taxonomists [61].…”

Behaviour Indicators of Animal Welfare in Purebred and Crossbred Yearling Beef Reared in Optimal Environmental Conditions

“…Thus, animal welfare can mean different things to different people [ 1 ]. Over the years, the concept of animal welfare has changed because of the evolution of the human-animal relationship and the consideration of animals as more conscious beings [ 2 ]. When an individual of any species is said to have good welfare, this usually means that they have high levels of pleasure, happiness, contentment, control of interactions with the environment, or opportunities to use their abilities [ 3 ].…”