Gotta love when we take a step closer to a prediction in a science fiction book. This step is toward animals who want to be eaten (thanks Douglas Adams).
Well, that’s not completely accurate, but it is roughly along the lines of “The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” in which the dilemma for vegetarians is solved by genetically engineering a creature who wants to be eaten or else feels pain.
In this NewScientist article: “Pain free animals could take suffering out of farming” there’s some discussion of how various findings could be used to lessen the discomfort of farmed animals. So not quite “animals that want to be eaten”, but animals that don’t so much care about pain.
I think the better solution is to step back from the ultra-packed in “factory farming” that seems to be the norm in the USA and parts of Europe and let the poor animals roam around a bit. I grew up in a rural area and I’d have to say any animals I came across appeared to have a pretty good existence:
- nice big open paddocks for the cows or long sheds for the chickens
- farmers keeping away predators and providing healthcare (sounds better than the deal most US citizens have currently)
With modern slaughtering techniques there’s an attempt to minimise the pain/discomfort at the end of the animal’s life, well, except for the barbaric Jewish and Muslim “halal” and “kosher” slaughter.
(Start religious rant)Those religious slaughter techniques are nearly as barbaric today as they were thousands of years back. Still not sure why animals have to continue to have their throats cut and bleed to death slowly today when they could just get the bolt gun to the head (as per the more humane “normal” slaughtering technique). All because some people think that their superstition needs extra suffering to appease some sky god.
(end rant)
I guess the ultimate would be growing meat in a vat though. I mean if it doesn’t have a brain or nervous system then it probably can’t really be in a state of pain as per any reasonable definition. Or perhaps we could reduce the number of farm animals via some sort of human recycling a la the movie “Soylent Green”.
Soylent green.. is PEOPLE!
After all if we’re going to say it’s ok to eat other animals, we should at least be fair about things right? 
The Newscientist article is presenting a one-sided argument. The purpose in their opinion, for having GM animals that feel no pain is to minimise the suffering caused to ‘factory farmed’ animals. Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri is quoted “I’m offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering.” I personally, find this absolutely absurd because the process that is involved in genetically modifying these animals to feel no pain is actually subjecting these animals to pain and suffering. Isn’t genetically modifying animals a form of ‘factory farming’ or in the most literal sense laboratory farming?
They suggest ‘knocking out’ pain in livestock but brain surgery is not feasible on an industrial scale. The process they are loosely referring to is one process of ‘transgenesis’ where the targeting of specific changes in individual genes or chromosomes within a single species – targeted removal of genes (knock-outs). Many gene-targeting experiments are designed to stop production of a protein by a particular gene – so the gene function is ‘knocked-out’ and a strain of ‘knock-out’ animals is produced. This relies upon ES (embryonic stem) technology. ES cells are taken from very early embryos and retain the ability to form most, if not all, of the specialised cell types of the adult. To make a mutation in a gene of interest – ‘gene targeting’ – scientists use a combination of molecular biological and tissue culture techniques to alter one of the two copies of the gene in ES cells to create a modified cell. The modified ES cell line is grown in culture, and then the cells are injected into a very early embryo so that it will contain a mixture of both unmodified cells and modified cells (chimaera). This embryo is re-implanted into a foster mother. During development, the modified ES cells may differentiate into sperm or egg cells and, if so, the DNA change could be passed onto the next generation of animals when the animal is bred. Thus a new strain of animals that carry a specific, targeted, change in their DNA can be bred.
The relative inefficiency of the techniques involved in producing GM animals raises concerns. In particular with welfare implications to the animals caused by any discomfort involved in obtaining eggs from the animals and in the high death rates of fetuses during development. Furthermore, the Newscientist article makes reference to experiments where mice receive “electric shocks” and injections of “painful, noxious chemicals” to test their response to pain. Is this not subjecting animals to pain and suffering? How is this technique of genetically modifying animals “more humane”? As suggested by Shiver.
I agree with you Nath, countries or even farming districts that don’t practice humane farming practices should evaluate their techniques to minimise harm to these animals. Genetically modifying these animals to feel no pain is clearly not the answer. The use of genetically modified animals report (2000) explains the GM techniques in more depth.
There are people with a genetic abnormality that means that they feel no pain…I think they often end up dying young because they do things that cause themselves injuries that they don’t know about or if they get something simple like appendicitis they won’t know about it. So the animals will end up being potentially inferior stock due to be misshaped from repeated fractures, or worse still, be harbouring infections that the farmers won’t know about as they’ll behave normally.
You would think that it’d be cheaper and easier to just be humane to animals, than engineer them not to care.
I wouldn’t say that chicken sheds are exactly humane. Don’t know if you spent as much time in them as I did as a kid since you were at school by then but I used to spend a lot of time playing with the chickens whilst dad did electrical work. They’d get suffocated to death by each other quite frequently as little chicks. I think our geese had a far better existence.