The Value of Life: From the Veterinary Office to Harambe

The value of life is a topic entangled in our morals, values, and culture. It's complex idea, viewed differently by everyone, and significant in our perspective on life and living itself. To present the issue at hand, I will take you back to a memory that I ponder frequently, a moment in time that makes me question what I stand for, who I am.

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I work at a Veterinary office, full of puppies and kittens, but also euthanasia, unsolved cases and moral questions that cannot be answered. A small Shitzu, just 10 pounds and named Allie, was sitting on the exam table. Allie had bladder stones so large that an inexperienced hand like mine could feel them through her belly. She needed surgery, she was in pain, and her owner could not afford any of the treatment. The owner pleaded that the surgery be postponed until the end of the month, once she got her paycheck. The problem was that Allie did not have a month, she was extremely dehydrated, her kidneys were failing, and her eyes sunken in. Allie had 24 hours to live without a surgery that cost money that no one seemed to have. The doctor recommended euthanasia, the result of many cases involving financial dilemmas in veterinary medicine. Allie's life was on the line due to something as simple as money.

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Perspective is important, so lets take a look into the human world, specifically in the United States. When a human's life is on the line, if a life saving surgery is needed, it happens, no matter what. A human life is considered priceless in our society. However, the life of an animal has monetary value. Should a life be worth a certain amount of money? Is a human life more valuable than an animal's life? If so, why? Who has the power to determine what lives have more value than others?

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An important case study to delve into is Harambe. (Cue the laughter, jokes, and endless memes, but seriously, this story adds to the value of life analysis) If you are unfamiliar with this example, please watch this video. An article in Huffington Post asks its readers to respond to a simple statement: An individual gorilla is more valuable than an individual human being.  Everyone disagrees, in other words, no one argues that an animal life is worth more than a child's. Yet there is still controversy.

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Conservation biologist Reed Noss argues that the value of a human life decreases proportionately with the size of the population. In other words, the value of an endangered individual is greater than an individual human.

How do you react to Noss's statement above? Whether it is religious based or personal values most, including myself, find it difficult to agree with this statement. This idea is anthropomorphism, the idea of human-centered ethics, or quite simply human-supremacy. But why do we we feel this way?

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Moving on from the Harambe example, we must also consider the comparison of animal execution and human execution. Humans are only executed if they have committed a heinous crime or if they are on the verge of death from a terminal illness. However, animals are killed for sport, for their furs, their horns, and the thrill of the kill.  An eye-opening counter on adept.org shows that the number of animals killed in a year is over 150 billion as opposed to 53.3 million humans. Both numbers are extremely painful to consider, because ideally no one should be killed, but look at the extreme difference. It conveys how the value of an animal life is so much less in our society.

Through these examples it is obvious that humans lives are worth so much more. Money determines if an animal lives, Harambe is an example of human supremacy, and execution standards blatantly display the differences in how we perceive the value of life. As a future veterinarian, everyday will involve this moral question. I wonder if I will be able to put an animal to sleep because an owner can not afford its care. Will I be able to end a life knowing that it could live if money was not a concern?

Where do you stand on this moral dilemma? Can you full-heartedly say that a human's life is worth more than an animal's in all cases? Where do you think we place value, in other words, how do we determine when a life is worth more than another?

Human-Animal Bond: The Consumption of Meat

The human animal bond is a complex relationship that has evolved with humans for thousands of years. Dogs became human's companion over 15,000 years ago and livestock production allowed the first colonists to survive and eventually prosper in the New World. On a simplistic level, we would not be who we are today as a human race without this pivitol interaction with animals. However, times have changed, and there are advanced ethical questions that need to be answered regarding this relationship. Should we even eat meat? Should animals even be kept as pets? Is the value of an animal life the same as a human?

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Each blog post will tackle one of these multi-faceted questions with the goal not to find a complete solution, but to present all sides of the issue, and allow you to draw a conclusion, all the while I offer my thoughts as well. This week, the focus is on consuming meat. Is it ethical? Is it sustainable? Should we eat continue to eat meat?

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According to National Geographic, our ancestors have been consuming meat for at least 2.5 million years, directly shaping our evolution to have smaller jaws, larger teeth, and a tolerance for a higher fat diet. It is this ecological niche that has allowed the human race to succeed. But it is important to note that today's society is different. We don't need to consume meat anymore to survive, we are no longer competing in the forest for food, and we have the capabilities to produce enough food to sustain the current population without the need to kill animals. So why do we continue to consume meat? Simply put, it is a luxury and we like the taste of it.

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We need to ask ourselves if the positive aspects from eating meat today are worth the downfalls of meat production. An article in Scientific American discusses a sharp increase in demand for meat created a rapidly expanding meat industry with mass-scale production farms. The development of factory farms has led to stressful conditions for animals that compromise their welfare. Animals are crammed into windowless sheds for their short life, and eventually killed and sent to market. Is it ethical to keep animals in such conditions for meal? Is our happiness in our diet worth the production issues? Most importantly, is the current treatment of production animals morally sound?

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If you believe that livestock systems treat animals justly, then you must consider if it is sustainable to continue to consume animal products.  From an energy perspective, it is more eco-friendly to eat plant-based diets rather than consuming meat. When raising cattle, only 10% of the energy from the grain they consume is passed on to the person when someone eats the meat from the cow. That means 90% of the energy is lost. Therefore, if humans ate from the first level of production (i.e. grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts), no energy would be lost and we would still be able to maintain a balanced diet. Not only is this better for the sustainability of the environment, but more food would be available to help impoverished nations. This video discusses the many benefits on the environment if the entire world went vegetarian.

There is research that suggests that a diet without meat is actually healthier than consuming one with meat. Eating meat increases cardiovascular stress, and according to a study highlighted in the video to the right, it could lower life expectancy by 4-5 years.

Overall, my research seems to indicate resoundingly that we should not eat meat. Not only does it subject animals to suffering and death, but it is more sustainable to switch to a vegetarian diet. Furthermore, I would be healthier and even possibly live longer as a vegetarian. But why don't I?  Personally,  I love to consume hamburgers, ribs, and grilled chicken and don't think I can get enough protein in my diet from sources that I would enjoy without meat. It is about convenience. Is it selfish of me to put my own taste preferences over the suffering of an animal, feeding more humans, and preserving the environment? Where do you stand?