The Rise of Ethical Concern for Animals as a Major Social Phenomenon

Bernard Rollin

OAI: oai:igi-global.com:274102 • DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-4117-3.ch003

The second half of the 20th century represented a major rise in new ethical concerns, including, in the 1970s, the moral status of animals. Until then, analgesia was never used in veterinary medicine, even though many modalities were already known to control pain. This author and others wrote American law that required effective analgesics, which the US Congress mandated in 1985. The research community eventually recognized that failure to control pain in animal research subjects involved not only immoral pain to the animals but also caused invalid research results. Public concern in these areas also spread to farmed animals in intensive agriculture settings, where it was perceived that the profit motive had replaced the husbandry ethic. The increasing number of people owning companion animals also influenced their view of farm animals' moral status and others. The larger number of companion animal owners results from the alienation of human social relations, with animals' replacing the emotional value of human companionship.

Ethics & Law Social Sciences and Humanities Ethics and Social Responsibility Media and Communications