Factory Farming And Virtue Ethics

In this paper, I will describe the moral issue of factory farming of animals, define the ethical position of virtue ethics, and apply virtue ethics to argue against factory farming. Factory farming of animals is a major moral issue overlooked in our society. Virtue ethics puts importance upon character and virtue instead of duty or consequences. Virtue ethics is a normative ethical system that is a relevant argument in when looking at how factory farming is morally unethical. Factory farming of animals through virtue ethics is unjust and unmoral. Factory farming of animals, otherwise known as concentrated animal feeding operations, is a “system” of raising livestock, such as pigs, poultry, or cattle, in enclosed indoors with very strict conditions …show more content…
According to this ethical system anything that is dependent upon humans (Sander- Staudt, 2009). So, this means that any animal that is not dependent upon human such as wild rabbits or birds are not our responsibility but as soon as we take them into our hands they have become our moral responsibility. With this in mind, it can be concluded that all the animals that are located on factory farms are automatically our moral responsibility (Sander-Staudt, 2009). This does not mean that one needs to turn to veganism or vegetarianism but as long as we are allowing the animals that we are raising to eat to live “happy lives” then we are living in right moral standing. We are obligated to provide adequate shelter and food so that we are avoiding pain and suffering for the animals (Sander- Staudt, 2009). One might believe that this means to practice ethics of care they need to be overly emotional for according to Daniel Engster this practice does not need to include emotion or affection. Practicing this it is not morally right in any way to raise animals in factory farms where they are violated from basic necessities that an animal