Which reminds me: Would it be ethical to reduce animal suffering by somehow breeding suffering out of animals? Or asked differently: Is suffering a simple concept (that can be selected against) or is it just negative value with all the associated complexity? Or doesn't this apply to animals?
Obligatory hitchhikers quote.
Would it be ethical to grow meat in a vat without a brain associated with it? Personally, I think pretty clearly yes.
So breeding suffering out of animals would seem to be between growing meat in a vat and what we have now. So it would seem to be a step in the right direction.
We, and animals, almost certainly have suffering because it had survival value for us and animals in the environment in which we evolved. Being farmed for meat is not that environment. I don't think removing suffering from our farmed animals has a downside. Of course, removing it from wild animals would probably not be a good thing, but would probably correct itself relatively quickly in the failure of non-suffering animals to survive.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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