The relativity of ethical issues in animal agriculture related to different cultures and production conditions

Initiatives to incorporate European animal welfare standards in international trade agreements raise issues of ethical relativism: (1) in the Fulani pastoral system the harsh environmental conditions result in a strong mutual dependency of pastoralists and their animals. Thus, animal ethics is vital to ensure the survival of the pastoral family, framed as ethic of securing survival; (2) the magnitude of human intervention, investigated in the Indian smallholder crop-livestock production system keeping oxen for work, determines the farmer's responsibility for adequate handling of animals. The apt anticruelty ethic prohibits deliberate cruelty to animals and neglect; (3) in intensive animal agriculture, such as intensive poultry and pig production in Thailand, the traditional ethical concept is no longer applicable and a new ethic encoded in law that respects the animals' natures is needed; (4) local moralities, as illustrated with the case of the llama system in the Andean highlands, deserve adequate attention independent of the production system. Therefore, the issue of animal welfare should be regarded relative in the global context and a dialogue between the cultures is encouraged to advance ethical concerns in animal agriculture. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.