Several years ago when the late Douglas Adams wrote the second book in his five story trilogy ‘Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ he had a cow like creature in it that could talk and was bred to want to be eaten. A bit of humour and it was funny watching our anti hero’s horror when the creature was suggesting bits to be eaten.
Spring forward thirty years and it appears that we have isolated genes that means we could soon engineer animals that feel no pain. Read here. Not quite the same as feeling happy about it but meaning that the conditions they are kept in, any injuries they get and the way they are terminated will all be pain free.
It makes me wonder a bit though. How many horror stories will we hear about animals hobbling on broken legs, being half eaten by foxes or dogs and being disemboweled on fences once they cannot feel pain. So, if the scientists working on this think it will stop any radicals from pursuing animal rights then they are in for a rude awakening. As pain free is not quite the same as an enjoyable life. Quality of life still is high on the agenda for people and most people are willfully oblivious to how animals are treated. Making something pain free and selling as such just makes people think. After all the methods used are already supposed to be humane and free from fear or pain. What are they hiding? I really don’t like the sound of this. It’s unnatural (Yes I know many things I like are unnatural but this is different because it is being performed on sentient life) and it is being done on our foodstuffs. Surely we could come up with better ways to reduce stress and pain with animals until we come up with a way to take sentient animals out of the food loop entirely.
My first thought when I read the title of the article was great, we could engineer something that can remove pain from terminal cancer patients. Allowing them to live their last we hours, days, weeks without pain and lucid. Hopefully, this will be one of the paths taken with this research.
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. — Epictetus (c.55-c.135)
Coming to your local Milliways
Several years ago when the late Douglas Adams wrote the second book in his five story trilogy ‘Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ he had a cow like creature in it that could talk and was bred to want to be eaten. A bit of humour and it was funny watching our anti hero’s horror when the creature was suggesting bits to be eaten.
Spring forward thirty years and it appears that we have isolated genes that means we could soon engineer animals that feel no pain. Read here. Not quite the same as feeling happy about it but meaning that the conditions they are kept in, any injuries they get and the way they are terminated will all be pain free.
It makes me wonder a bit though. How many horror stories will we hear about animals hobbling on broken legs, being half eaten by foxes or dogs and being disemboweled on fences once they cannot feel pain. So, if the scientists working on this think it will stop any radicals from pursuing animal rights then they are in for a rude awakening. As pain free is not quite the same as an enjoyable life. Quality of life still is high on the agenda for people and most people are willfully oblivious to how animals are treated. Making something pain free and selling as such just makes people think. After all the methods used are already supposed to be humane and free from fear or pain. What are they hiding? I really don’t like the sound of this. It’s unnatural (Yes I know many things I like are unnatural but this is different because it is being performed on sentient life) and it is being done on our foodstuffs. Surely we could come up with better ways to reduce stress and pain with animals until we come up with a way to take sentient animals out of the food loop entirely.
My first thought when I read the title of the article was great, we could engineer something that can remove pain from terminal cancer patients. Allowing them to live their last we hours, days, weeks without pain and lucid. Hopefully, this will be one of the paths taken with this research.