In order to keep the production of manure somewhat under control, the Dutch government is considering the option of livestock rights. Dairy farmers would have to buy livestock rights and the number of rights they could buy would depend on the amount of land available to them. This would keep dairy farming at least a little bit land-related, which is good all round: for the market, for the environment, for the climate…
I am all in favour. An animal has a right to a bit of land. And not just land; an animal has many more rights. Sadly, livestock rights are not the same as animal rights in the sense in which we have human rights.
I am even more enthusiastic about the idea of exchanging livestock rights for full animal rights. Humans have the right to freedom of expression. Animals have that right too. OK, they may have a virtual patch of ground, but they cannot express themselves. Cows evolved on grassy plains. Everything about a cow is geared to grazing: its teeth, its complicated system of stomachs, its herd behaviour, the way it looks after its calf, and so on. A cow expresses itself by grazing, a chicken by scratching around in the soil, and a pig by rootling. But in today’s livestock farming, we have scientifically proven that freedom of expression for animals is too expensive and not climate-friendly, and certainly won’t help us feed the growing world population.
And so we subvert evolution and ignore natural systems. We humans, and especially we scientists, know better.
Animals cannot stand up for their rights. We have to do that for them. No overfed factory-farmed chickens, pigs and cows for me, thank you. Those are crimes against animals, and therefore indirectly against humanity too.