Page 86 - The Welfare of Cattle

ChaPter 8

the Meaning of animal Welfare
and Its application to Cattle

Bernard E. Rollin
Colorado State University

Before embarking upon a discussion of cattle welfare, there are certain presuppositional notions
that must be clarified. In particular, we may note the widespread belief that animal welfare is strictly
a matter of science, i.e., is a concept that is fully empirical. Throughout the 20th century the notion
that science is independent of value judgments in general, and ethical judgments in particular, has
been so dominant that I have characterized it as a fundamental principle of “scientific ideology,” or
“The Common Sense of Science,” for it is to science what ordinary common sense is to ordinary
experience. Graphic evidence of this ubiquitous belief can be found in the introductions to scientific
textbooks, particularly in the field of biology.
But the most vivid example of this belief comes from a statement made by the Director of
NIH during a 1990 visit to Michigan State University. There are at least two requirements that any
person being considered for the Directorship of NIH must satisfy. First, he or she must be a highly
accomplished and respected scientist. Second, given the controversial nature of the position, he
or she must be extremely astute politically to navigate the minefields surrounding the funding of
research, particularly in the biomedical area. In the course of a lecture delivered to premedical stu-
dents, students asked the Director to discuss the major ethical issues occasioned by biotechnology
and genetic engineering. Astoundingly, in his response, the Director opined that “although scientific
advances are always controversial, science should never be hindered by ethical considerations.”
(When I quote that statement to my freshman students and ask them who in the 20th century is
likely to have made it, they invariably reply “Hitler.”)
Indirect evidence of the denial of ethics in science was presented to me when I was in the process
of drafting what eventually became the 1985 laws governing the use of animals in biomedical
research. Attempting to understand and engage the ethical position regnant in the research
community regarding the use of animals, I searched extensively for articles, papers, and editorials
discussing the ethics of animal use in scientific journals. I found nothing, save one offhanded com-
ment in a British scientific journal affirming that animal use in scientific research does not represent
an ethical question, but is rather a scientific necessity—as if it could not be both!
In the face of this ideology, it is not difficult to understand why the concept of animal welfare
is viewed as devoid of valuational import by scientists, as well as by those in the business of food
animal production, particularly those who deploy CAFOs—Confined Animal Feeding Operations
(known in the vernacular as “factory farms.”) For example, during the 2.5 years that I served as a
member of the Pew Commission, the first systematic study ever done on the effects of industrial-
ized confinement agriculture on animal welfare, the environment, agricultural sustainability, small

63