WEBVTT 00:00:01.210 --> 00:00:05.640 Grant Barnes: Would you clarify your position on welfarism. 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:06.640 Sure. 00:00:06.640 --> 00:00:13.630 I feel like a politician: clarify my position. 00:00:13.630 --> 00:00:17.730 Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:22.350 When I recently held back-to-back live Q&A sessions on Facebook and YouTube, there were 00:00:22.350 --> 00:00:25.780 so many great questions but such limited time. 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:29.720 If you missed either of the Q&A sessions, the links to those videos are in the description 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:30.720 below. 00:00:30.720 --> 00:00:35.109 So today I wanted to provide a more comprehensive answer to an important question I received 00:00:35.109 --> 00:00:40.859 on the Facebook live stream: what is your position on animal welfare, or more specifically, 00:00:40.859 --> 00:00:41.920 welfarism. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:46.160 If you haven’t guessed by this point: I am not a welfarist. 00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:50.519 Shockingly, the title of this video is not click bait. 00:00:50.519 --> 00:00:55.399 For those not familiar, animal welfare, animal rights, and animal liberation are not synonymous 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:56.519 terms or approaches. 00:00:56.519 --> 00:01:01.010 In this video, we’re not going to get into the nuances of rights vs liberation, but I 00:01:01.010 --> 00:01:03.579 will explore that further in a separate installment. 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:06.810 For the purposes of this video, I’ll just use the term liberation. 00:01:06.810 --> 00:01:11.070 Both animal welfare and animal liberation operate on the premise that non-human animals 00:01:11.070 --> 00:01:16.450 are sentient beings capable of suffering, and thus deserving of consideration and protection. 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:20.890 The exact nature of this consideration is where the approaches diverge. 00:01:20.890 --> 00:01:24.880 Welfarism seeks to improve conditions for animals within the existing systems of our 00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:28.670 food, entertainment, research, and commercial industries, as well as provide protection 00:01:28.670 --> 00:01:32.170 for pets and wild species impacted by human activity. 00:01:32.170 --> 00:01:37.020 In regards to so-termed “food animals,” free-range, cage-free, grass-fed, and humane 00:01:37.020 --> 00:01:39.180 labels are products of welfarism. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:44.159 I address the welfarist/humane approach in many videos, and I go into great depth in 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.650 my speech “The Best We Have To Offer.” 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:48.610 See the description for links. 00:01:48.610 --> 00:01:52.649 But I felt it would be valuable to address this question in a dedicated video and in 00:01:52.649 --> 00:01:56.909 a more conversational manner than my more highly academic, comprehensive speeches. 00:01:56.909 --> 00:01:59.950 There are several issues with the welfarist approach. 00:01:59.950 --> 00:02:04.130 Welfare regulations are designed to spare animals any “unnecessary” suffering—the 00:02:04.130 --> 00:02:09.730 unspoken implication being that some suffering is necessary when it benefits humans. 00:02:09.730 --> 00:02:14.860 Animals are still relegated to property status, every aspect of their lives and deaths dictated 00:02:14.860 --> 00:02:16.120 by humans. 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:21.040 Animal liberation denies the superiority of humans to other species and vehemently rejects 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:24.030 the belief that one can kill with compassion. 00:02:24.030 --> 00:02:27.980 There has long been active debate between welfare and liberation camps. 00:02:27.980 --> 00:02:32.510 There are vegans within the welfare camp who argue that though the ultimate goal is total 00:02:32.510 --> 00:02:36.920 liberation, there is value in improving the conditions for those animals currently in 00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:39.290 our systems of exploitation. 00:02:39.290 --> 00:02:43.810 While there is certainly validity in this position, I find it vital to take an honest 00:02:43.810 --> 00:02:48.870 look at what welfare regulations actually mean for the beings they are designed to protect. 00:02:48.870 --> 00:02:51.540 This is the entire premise of my speech from Dublin Ireland. 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:56.810 I spent many hours pouring over some of the most advanced animal welfare laws in the world—the 00:02:56.810 --> 00:03:01.400 very best we have to offer—to determine the actual implication for the animals. 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:06.000 I’ll share a particularly telling example that I covered in my response during the Q&A: 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:11.340 So the EU had this whole thing of banning battery cages for laying hens. 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:16.880 And everyone was like ‘Ooh, laying hens, eggs in the EU they’re not in battery cages 00:03:16.880 --> 00:03:17.980 - we’re great!’ 00:03:17.980 --> 00:03:24.360 And that’s what the public hears, but when you actually look into the legislation, and 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:30.050 people are like “well now, layer hens are going to get 750 square centimeters each it’s 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:32.050 going to be fantastic!’ 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:36.840 What actually happened is instead of battery cages—or “barren” battery cages—they 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:43.440 now live in “enriched” battery cages, which means battery cages with some furniture 00:03:43.440 --> 00:03:45.970 and maybe a little more space. 00:03:45.970 --> 00:03:53.430 So, it even says in the legislation 750 sq cm per chicken, 600 of which are usable. 00:03:53.430 --> 00:03:54.870 So really each chicken has 600. 00:03:54.870 --> 00:04:00.180 A barren battery cage chicken has 550. 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:05.540 So this groundbreaking thing that everyone freaked out about gives chickens an extra 00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:09.140 50 sq cm each. 00:04:09.140 --> 00:04:16.509 And now they have furniture to bump into and because laying hens are bred to produce eggs 00:04:16.509 --> 00:04:22.009 insanely frequently, they have very brittle bones, they are very prone to osteoporosis 00:04:22.009 --> 00:04:26.150 and fractures and now they have more stuff to bump into and so they actually have higher 00:04:26.150 --> 00:04:28.009 fracture rates. 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:33.849 And non-caged hens have twice the mortality rate of battery-caged hens. 00:04:33.849 --> 00:04:39.470 So, when we look at this, what are we really improving? 00:04:39.470 --> 00:04:45.020 What it seems that we are accomplishing with welfare is making ourselves feel better about 00:04:45.020 --> 00:04:48.350 doing the exact same thing that we’ve been doing, but now we don’t have to worry about 00:04:48.350 --> 00:04:49.350 it. 00:04:49.350 --> 00:04:54.129 That doesn’t really do much for the animals, I don’t think. 00:04:54.129 --> 00:04:59.790 This was done, like 1999 or something, when it came time so now the ban is supposed to 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.969 be in place, there were, I think it was 9 that said either we’re not going to be ready 00:05:03.969 --> 00:05:08.259 or we might not be ready or probably not going to be ready. 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:10.439 This was 12 years later. 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:18.970 They had 12 years to add 50 sq cm per chicken and some furniture, and they couldn’t do 00:05:18.970 --> 00:05:19.970 it. 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:21.330 I mean it’s astoundingly ineffective. 00:05:21.330 --> 00:05:26.530 And I think it does so much damage because what the public sees, and what people see 00:05:26.530 --> 00:05:28.120 is: “eggs are now humane.” 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:34.980 And when you look at it, the EU started eating more and more and more eggs when this happened. 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:43.560 So, it actually seems to make it worse for the animals because now the demand is even 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:44.560 higher. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.760 Humane stuff is, I think, incredibly dangerous because it gives us the ability - I mean, 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:54.550 we’re human, and we will do anything we can to not have to change a darn thing about 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:55.990 what we’re doing. 00:05:55.990 --> 00:06:03.240 If we can keep doing what we want to do and feel good about it, that’s like the holy 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.180 grail and that’s what welfarism allows us to do. 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:10.550 As far as what it does for the animals - I don’t think much, honestly. 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:15.039 This ability to continue exploiting animals without guilt is what I mean when I say that 00:06:15.039 --> 00:06:19.810 welfarism and humane treatment are worse than factory farming. 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:24.240 Here is another concrete example from Ireland, one of the most idealized countries for humane 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:26.330 treatment of farmed animals. 00:06:26.330 --> 00:06:29.949 Just prior to this portion of the speech, I’d covered how mother pigs are confined 00:06:29.949 --> 00:06:35.110 in farrowing crates throughout their pregnancy, only to have their babies taken time and again: 00:06:35.110 --> 00:06:39.270 The sooner her babies are taken, the faster she can “re-enter production.” 00:06:39.270 --> 00:06:44.479 At her “time of service,” the astounding term for forceful penetration of her vagina 00:06:44.479 --> 00:06:49.771 with an instrument full of boar semen, she may legally be chained in place, one of the 00:06:49.771 --> 00:06:53.639 number of exceptions allowing the tethered restrained of pigs. 00:06:53.639 --> 00:06:57.909 Tethering stalls as a whole, where pigs were chained in place all the time were outlawed 00:06:57.909 --> 00:07:04.270 by the EU in 1995, but as we’ll continually see with all regulations, this came with ample 00:07:04.270 --> 00:07:08.249 exceptions, loopholes, and a 10 year window for implementation. 00:07:08.249 --> 00:07:15.800 In 1998 91% of Ireland’s mother pigs were still confined to sow stalls or tethered. 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:20.080 And when sow stalls, also known as gestation crates, were subsequently outlawed through 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:26.270 a 2001 EU decision, again with ample fine-print exceptions and only for a certain portion 00:07:26.270 --> 00:07:32.270 of their pregnancy, Ireland was one of nine member states found to be non-compliant in 00:07:32.270 --> 00:07:38.040 2013, with the European Commission stating they’d “had twelve years to ensure a smooth 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:42.180 transition to the new system and to implement the Directive.” 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:47.050 The ineffectiveness of welfare legislation is not isolated to any one country or governing 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:50.550 body, though the level of supposed protection does vary greatly. 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:54.800 For example, in the United States there are no federal laws governing the treatment of 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:56.740 animals in our food industry. 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:58.199 Absolutely none. 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:03.919 We do have an Animal Welfare Act, first passed in 1966, but like so many welfare acts around 00:08:03.919 --> 00:08:08.559 the world, it completely excludes animals raised for food, as do the majority of state 00:08:08.559 --> 00:08:10.849 anti-cruelty regulations. 00:08:10.849 --> 00:08:15.449 While animal advocates blame this lack of legal protection for the allowance of such 00:08:15.449 --> 00:08:20.370 cruel practices as intensive confinement, routine mutilation, including the removal 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:25.759 of testicles, tails, horns, beaks, or toes without any anesthetic, and the live grinding 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:30.389 up of male chicks in the egg industry, among other atrocities, welfare legislation does 00:08:30.389 --> 00:08:33.600 not by default eradicate such abuse. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:38.500 For example, it’s a worldwide standard to dispose of male chicks by tossing them into 00:08:38.500 --> 00:08:40.700 a grinder while fully conscious. 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:45.680 This isn’t a barbaric practice isolated to corrupt, abusive facilities. 00:08:45.680 --> 00:08:48.080 Grinding babies is a welfare regulation. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.850 It’s part of the “necessary suffering.” 00:08:51.850 --> 00:08:55.890 If you’re wondering why this hasn’t been exposed on the news, it has. 00:08:55.890 --> 00:09:00.590 And every time it’s people are appalled, outraged, disgusted. 00:09:00.590 --> 00:09:05.330 They wonder how any person or industry could be so barbaric. 00:09:05.330 --> 00:09:12.650 And they continue to eat eggs, not realizing they’ve just answered their own question. 00:09:12.650 --> 00:09:18.721 The European Commission estimates that the EU kills 330 million chicks every year, with 00:09:18.721 --> 00:09:21.350 global estimates at 3.2 billion. 00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:25.060 I could talk about this subject for days and still not cover everything. 00:09:25.060 --> 00:09:28.060 And I’ll certainly continue to explore its depths in future videos. 00:09:28.060 --> 00:09:33.580 But I think perhaps what may bring the most clarity regarding the efficacy of welfarism, 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:36.390 is imagining these measures being applied to ourselves: 00:09:36.390 --> 00:09:39.700 I mean it really is absurd when we step back and think about it. 00:09:39.700 --> 00:09:43.590 Do we have manuals on how to humanely rape hamans? 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:45.280 Or how to compassionately kidnap? 00:09:45.280 --> 00:09:46.380 Or ethically rob? 00:09:46.380 --> 00:09:48.130 Of course not because those are oxymorons. 00:09:48.130 --> 00:09:49.990 They cannot coexist. 00:09:49.990 --> 00:09:55.630 But when it comes to our treatment of animals, we will bend over backwards and create massive 00:09:55.630 --> 00:10:01.400 paper trails of regulations to feel good about what we are doing. 00:10:01.400 --> 00:10:05.840 We turn these living beings into data points, flowcharts, and percentages—calculate to 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:10.970 a decimal point’s certainty the exact cost of every aspect of their lives and details 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:11.970 for their deaths. 00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:17.960 We relegate the annual mass murder of over 3 billion day-old conscious, innocent babies 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:19.060 to a footnote. 00:10:19.060 --> 00:10:25.200 A footnote in a study conducted for the welfare regulations we’re so graciously creating. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:31.820 We deem them legally sentient, deserving freedom from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, injury, 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:37.140 disease, fear, distress and mental suffering, as the EU did—then use this very recognition 00:10:37.140 --> 00:10:44.220 of their capacity to feel the same emotions and sensations as we do to design—in language 00:10:44.220 --> 00:10:49.990 so disturbingly detached it’s nothing short of sociopathic—the exact manner in which 00:10:49.990 --> 00:10:55.630 we may legally violate, imprison, cut, burn, alter, and murder them. 00:10:55.630 --> 00:10:59.960 This is how profoundly illogical our thinking is when it comes to animals. 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:02.850 It goes against all basic human understanding. 00:11:02.850 --> 00:11:07.430 Knowing better but doing wrong anyway is worse than having no knowledge. 00:11:07.430 --> 00:11:13.730 Yet we have the audacity to hold this legislative recognition of non-human sentience on high 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:18.070 as a giant step forward for the rights of animals. 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:24.000 As if systematically exploiting individuals with fully admitted knowledge and comprehension 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:30.740 of their capacity to suffer is something to commend. 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:35.660 Look what we offer ourselves as evidence of progress: one news report extolled the reduction 00:11:35.660 --> 00:11:41.180 in animals slipping and falling on their way to slaughter in one abattoir in one country. 00:11:41.180 --> 00:11:46.380 When we look at our actions from the other side, the perverse absurdity of our deluded 00:11:46.380 --> 00:11:49.140 self-congratulations is astounding. 00:11:49.140 --> 00:11:56.190 If you were in the place of these beings, how grateful would you feel if your captor 00:11:56.190 --> 00:12:00.220 laid down a bathmat on the ramp to your execution? 00:12:00.220 --> 00:12:06.140 Is this really the best we have to offer? 00:12:06.140 --> 00:12:09.060 Being the most courteous murderers? 00:12:09.060 --> 00:12:12.000 The most considerate rapists? 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.300 Pouring untold resources into these convoluted laws and regulations, all the while completely 00:12:16.300 --> 00:12:19.720 blind to the fact that there’s another option entirely. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:24.750 I hope this video has more thoroughly illustrated why I’m not a welfarist. 00:12:24.750 --> 00:12:28.590 I’d encourage you to see the links I’ve provided below as well as on the blog post 00:12:28.590 --> 00:12:31.300 for this video to do your own further research. 00:12:31.300 --> 00:12:35.350 If you really want to dive in, see my full speech from Ireland, and its respective blog 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:36.350 post. 00:12:36.350 --> 00:12:42.120 As I’ve said many, many times, in order to make informed decisions, to look ourselves 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:47.240 in the mirror and ask if we are truly living the values we purport to have, we must know 00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:48.440 the truth. 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:54.300 We must educate ourselves about what is really going on, not rely on what we’ve been taught. 00:12:54.300 --> 00:12:58.820 We must make decisions based on facts, not fantasy. 00:12:58.820 --> 00:13:03.970 This is why I am so emphatic about putting in the hours upon hours of research to get 00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:05.370 to the truth. 00:13:05.370 --> 00:13:10.200 To provide what the laws actually say, not simply offer my personal opinion. 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:14.330 I’ll leave you with the powerful words of Alex Herschaft, the founder of the Farm Animal 00:13:14.330 --> 00:13:18.260 Rights Movement and a Holocaust survivor: 00:13:18.260 --> 00:13:24.230 "I don't believe in small improvements to the living conditions of the chickens and 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:25.230 cows. 00:13:25.230 --> 00:13:28.850 Slightly increasing the sizes of the cages is like giving me a hot meal while I'm imprisoned 00:13:28.850 --> 00:13:30.100 in the ghetto. 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:34.610 It's like asking an abusive man to continue beating his wife but in a less brutal manner. 00:13:34.610 --> 00:13:40.090 The solution is for all of us to stop eating meat, eggs and dairy products." 00:13:40.090 --> 00:13:44.310 Please share this video with your friends, family, and within any discussions of animal 00:13:44.310 --> 00:13:48.940 welfare, so that others may find solid, cited information on this topic. 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:53.790 I would like to thank my $50 and above patrons and my whole Nugget Army Patreon family for 00:13:53.790 --> 00:13:58.310 making it possible for me to conduct this research, deliver speeches all over the world 00:13:58.310 --> 00:14:01.130 and create hundreds of free educational videos. 00:14:01.130 --> 00:14:04.000 If you’d like to help support Bite Size Vegan’s educational efforts, please see 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.590 the support links below or the link in the sidebar. 00:14:06.590 --> 00:14:11.340 Subscribe to the channel and enable notifications for fresh vegan content every week. 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:16.300 Now go live vegan, don’t buy the humane lie, and I’ll see you soon. 00:14:16.300 --> 00:14:20.880 Our rationalizations and justifications are of no use to those whom we exploit. 00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:27.810 For the cow, the pig, the chicken, duck, turkey, for the lamb or sheep—they don’t know 00:14:27.810 --> 00:14:30.150 the name of the company or person enslaving them. 00:14:30.150 --> 00:14:33.570 They don’t know what size the farm is or in what country. 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:38.089 They are just as robbed of their rights and their lives regardless of location.