Smarter, but what of other causes

OPINION: It is difficult to view Mike King's recent expose about pig farming in isolation.

Sure it is no fun for pigs to spend their lives boxed cheek by jowl with hundreds of others in a similar state but it does make for cheap pork. The problem with King's campaign is that if you take the moral high ground it is only a matter of time before another equally worthy cause comes calling. Much has been said about pigs and where they rank in the animal IQ stakes. Common wisdom says pigs are smarter than many others that end up on our plates, and therefore it is a greater wrong to treat them poorly. Their suffering is more keenly felt than that of the battery hen. Or is it? A bush philosopher might argue that it is OK to kill animals provided they are treated well, their death is sudden and that the life taken is replaced. Take a farmer killing a sheep for example. If the animal's life is replaced by another of identical value i.e. different sheep raised in identical conditions, then philosophically the kill has been balanced by another life of equal measure.

Indeed the second sheep exists because the farmer has arranged for it to be born. That's what farmers do. Breed, kill, replace. The bush philosopher would argue that sheep, as far as we know, have no concept of themselves existing over time. They know nothing of their past and therefore do not "look forward" to a future in the same way we humans do. This capacity is reserved for us and some of the higher order primates. But what about pigs? Although they might be smarter than some animals do they have the ability to plan, look ahead, or recall a past? It is unlikely. This being the case those offended by sow crates should be equally disgusted by the treatment of battery hens. Dangerous territory indeed. Although some consumers can choose to buy free range pork, eggs and chicken the argument against intensive farming and its effects on livestock is nimble enough to jump species, forcing us to look a lot closer to home.

Should you feel concerned because your latest appliance or business shirt is made in an Asian sweat shop? In many cases, workers toiling to make cheap consumer goods for western markets are treated little better than cattle. Without the umbrella of a trade union movement, workers, many of them children, are at the mercy of unscrupulous employers. Forced to work, live and eat at factories in China, India and Thailand the reality for these people is that they have little choice over their lives, not unlike a battery hen. Life would be made most inconvenient if we forced ourselves to consult our moral compass every time we made a purchase.

Perhaps getting upset about pigs and their brethren is a luxury most of us can't afford.

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