-
You Can't Betray a Fish: One Reason Eating Fish May Cause Less Harm Than Eating Cows
- Journal of Animal Ethics
- University of Illinois Press
- Volume 12, Number 1, Spring 2022
- pp. 51-58
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Abstract:
In The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat?, Bohanec (2013) proposed that farmed animals raised humanely may experience betrayal when slaughtered. I argue based on personal experience that humans often betray trust relationships with farmed animals. Using published scientific literature, I find that typical farmed animals (mammals) and farmed fishes are both cognitively capable of a rudimentary experience of betrayal. However, the manner in which fishes are typically maintained does not present opportunities for human-fish trust relationships to develop. Eating farmed fishes presents fewer ethical implications than eating cows, at least in some cases.