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Socialist Review Index (1993–1996) | Socialist Review 183 Contents
From Socialist Review, No. 183, February 1995.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Do animals have rights? That is the question being asked after recent demonstrations at Shoreham and Brightlingsea. I think the transportation of three day old calves for the veal trade is cruel and unnecessary. They travel hundreds of miles with no rest, food or water. On arrival at veal farms they are locked into crates with no bedding, no light, and fed on an unnatural diet of milk and proteins to keep their flesh pale. This is a practice that has been banned in England, yet farmers are allowed to transport their animals to continental Europe to suffer under conditions that are not allowed here.
I am not advocating that everyone should become a vegetarian. I think that people should have freedom of choice to eat meat. However, what I find very disturbing is the whole way the meat industry is run. Animals are kept in appalling conditions and fed on a substandard diet which means the meat that people eat is full of chemicals and of poor quality.
The recent BSE outbreak would not have happened if animals were fed a proper diet. Instead carcasses are fed to herbivores because it is cheaper and increases profits. Recent scientific studies have shown that there could be a risk of BSE being passed on to humans, and scientists believe that people may have already died from BSE.
I don’t think that animals have more rights than humans but I am totally opposed to animal testing for cosmetic purposes. Every week major cosmetic companies bring out new ‘improved’ products which are the same as the old ones with a new label or chemical added. For each one of these products animals suffer and die needlessly. If these companies were not competing against each other to be the first to bring out the ‘new improved product’ thousands of animals’ lives would be saved.
As a socialist I understand that under the present system the companies that test their products on animals are not likely to stop competing with each other and share their test results. I am not, however, against animal testing for medical purposes but again in this field there is excess. Multinational drug companies compete with each other to be the first to put a new drug on the market and are all carrying out virtually the same tests on animals. The search for a cure for Aids is a case in point. Around the world drug companies compete to be the first to find a cure, not because they are particularly concerned with ending the misery of the Aids epidemic but purely for financial gain. The first company to produce a miracle drug will reap all the profits.
Under socialism, a society based on need not profit, there would be less testing on animals. Animals would be treated in a more humane way when going to slaughter, and the food that people eat would be of a better quality.
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