SWA 8

Question 2.
      In his essay Matthew Scully said "If reason and morality are what separate human beings apart from animals, then reason and morality must always guide us in how we treat them, or else its all just a caprice, unbridled appetite with the pretense of piety". This one sentence has a lot of sub-surfaced meaning. What Scully is trying to explicate is one simple, yet crucial idea that helps defend the rights of animals who are the victims of factory farming. He is saying that human beings are the top of the food chain, we are at the pinnacle because we have what no other species has, reason and morality. The gifts of morality and reason are things we must fully utilize or it will be a wasted gift, and wasting them would put us back on the level of every other animal. Thus, when we are presented with an issue as appalling as factory farming we must not turn away and ignore the subject, but we should turn to our resources of reason and morality and ask ourselves, "is this gruesome reality something that should go on?". Therefore anyone with  well developed morality and reason would agree  with Scully, and myself, would say that something as wretched as this must be fixed.

Question 3.
       Scully has a simple and meaningful stance on animal rights. He clearly says that animals are not equal to humans, which anyone would agree with. He goes on to say that, though they are not the same as humans, they do deserve to be free of horrific establishments like factory farms. He does think it is humane to kill these animals for food, but the killing should be pain free. Not just pain free at the time of death, but the animals should live a pain free life and not be cooped up in a cage with scarce feeding, all while living in ones on excrement. Animals should not have the rights of humans, claims Scully, but they should not be subjected to a life like they face in factory farms.