Breeding and Genetics: Dairy Cattle Breeding I

Humans obtain a number of products from animals. These include food, clothing, medical materials, companionship and research knowledge to name a few. A valued ethic contends that it is inappropriate for one to treat another as a means to an end. In short, it is wrong to treat another as simply a product. Historically, non-human beings have not been included as “others” and thus their treatment as products has been generally accepted. However, a growing view holds that animals are “subjects of a life” and deserving of consideration beyond their economic worth. Accordingly, the public asks increasingly for assurance of appropriate animal well-being. At the same time, polls indicate that the public majority does not wish to give up using animal products. The research community has dealt with these somewhat conflicting viewpoints by adopting animal care and use committees (ACUC). Research animals continue to provide a product (i.e., data points) for researchers, but the ACUC, not the researcher, is responsible for the animal’s life, i.e., its care, treatment and well-being. This uncoupling of the research animal’s life from the animal as a product via the ACUC has generally been successful and may serve somewhat as a model. But ultimately, animal agriculture faces the challenge of developing its own methodology for uncoupling the animal “as a subject of a life” from the animal product, and doing so without destroying the integrity and economic viability of animal agriculture. Third-party accreditation programs can help, but input from educators and possibly additional methods from industry leaders are also needed. Addressing the ethical implications of treating animals as subjects of a life, and not simply as products, meets with the longterm goal of animal scientists. Accordingly, developing an animal agriculture that is bioethically grounded should be consistent with developing a system that is sustainable.