ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present arguments against the permissibility of killing happy animals. Presumably, happy animals would be killed for food long before the end of their natural lifespan. According to one plausible account, the wrongness of killing is proportionate to the strength of “time-relative interests” in continuing to live that are thwarted by killing. One possible justification is that eating meat provides a comparable benefit to human meat-eaters. However, it is not at all clear that the benefits of meat-eating are morally comparable to the harm of depriving animals of future welfare. In modern societies with plentiful access to nutritious plant-based food, most meat-eating does not support basic human interests in survival, health or adequate food supply. Defenders of benign carnivorism might object that the animals owe their existence to the practice, and we should take this fact into consideration.
