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Trance24's avatar

"Is Genetically Engineering Animals To Not Feel Pain Really the Solution to Factory Farming?"?

Asked by Trance24 (3311points) March 3rd, 2010

I was reading this article about genetically engendering animals in farm factories to feel less pain. Making them more willing to submit themselves to horrible treatment, only because now they can not feel the pain. Does this seem only a mask to cover the real issue with farm factories and the slaughter houses. This is not just preaching animal rights either this has to do with climate change, our environmental foot print, and our constantly increasing consumerism. To fully answer this question I highly recommend reading the article.

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17 Answers

lilikoi's avatar

Factory farming is not sustainable – eventually we will not be able to engineer our way around the truth.

absalom's avatar

That doesn’t fix anything. It makes it worse, and numbing an animal’s sense of pain is just a means of numbing our sense of guilt.

lilikoi's avatar

It’s a topical band-aid solution that does not address the root of the problem, is what it is.

Captain_Fantasy's avatar

Ironic how the intent of this solution is to make us feel better.

Bluefreedom's avatar

I’d say that ‘genetically engineering animals not to feel pain’ is a lousy attempt to cover up for what it seems to really be – cruelty to animals. I could be wrong but that’s my opinion on the matter.

Arisztid's avatar

Actually, the article says much worse than that:

Prof. Zhou-Feng Chen and his colleagues here at Washington University have engineered mice so that they lack the gene for a peptide associated with the anterior cingulate gyrus…these mice are normally sensitive to heat and mechanical pain, but they do not avoid situations where they experience such pain.

They are not being genetically engineered to not feel pain. They are being genetically engineered to not fight back to the pain they feel.

I think “reprehensible” is too mild of a word.

VohuManah's avatar

Now all we need is some soma so everyone is happy; we can distribute drugs to the poor so they no longer care about their poverty. We wouldn’t actually want to address the underlying problem, would we?

Arisztid's avatar

@VohuManah I can easily see the government doing something like that.

njnyjobs's avatar

It took an autistic person to realize that when stunning is done correctly, the animal feels no pain and it becomes instantly unconscious. That person is Dr. Temple Grandin

In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on thier animals during handling.

She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

ninjacolin's avatar

personally, i’m in favor of pork chop plants. i would like to grow one in my window.
i would also like a steak vine growing up the side of my house.

why wouldn’t i want this?

Trance24's avatar

@ninjacolin Perhaps because you eating habits are one of the leading causes in the worlds climate changes, that are causing all sorts of problems. Your beloved steaks will not be there forever the way we use unsustainable methods in food production.

ninjacolin's avatar

that’s why genetically engineering pork chops so that i can water them in my window would resolve that issue.

lillycoyote's avatar

Maybe someday, we can have our cake and eat it too, whatever that means…We no longer enslave animals for food purposes

HTDC's avatar

You know what would be awesome? Genetically engineering HUMANS to feel less pain. Now I can see a usefulness to that.

mattbrowne's avatar

Making them not to feel pain is highly unethical. They might hurt themselves without realizing it. Pain is a beneficial phenomenon. Try eating something after a visit to your dentist. Hours later you might realize that some part of your tongue is gone. Enjoyed your meal?

tranquilsea's avatar

That is a really stupid idea! People who are born with dulled or no sense of pain die young because they really hurt themselves and keep on going because they can’t feel anything. I can’t imagine that factory farm animals would fair much better.

Pain is your body’s way of saying “STOP!”

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