| Stakeholder | Primary Stance | Key Argument | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Pragmatic welfare | Rights would end animal agriculture; welfare maintains public trust. | | Veterinarians | Welfare-centric | Duty to reduce suffering within existing systems. | | Philosophers (Rights) | Abolitionist | Welfare is a “humaner slaughter” fallacy. | | Consumers | Split: “Humane washing” vs. vegan | Willing to pay for welfare labels, but price-sensitive. | | Judiciary (recent) | Incremental rights | Granting personhood in habeas cases, not full rights. |
Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham, Peter Singer). Bentham’s famous question— “Can they suffer?” —is the moral baseline. If an animal can experience pain and pleasure, then those experiences must be factored into moral calculations. | Stakeholder | Primary Stance | Key Argument
(ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering). | | Consumers | Split: “Humane washing” vs
asks us to be kind stewards. Animal rights asks us to be liberators. The tension between the two drives progress. | Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham, Peter Singer)
