René Descartes, a famous philosopher, once argued that, “animals are not sentient- they are machines, like mechanical clocks, devoid of feelings and incapable of experiencing pleasure or pain” (Vaughn). Today, unlike Descartes, most people believe that animals are intrinsically or instrumentally valuable, also, whether they have or deserve any rights. Defining what cruelty is has been very subjective. To some people. An animal is just property and they can beat it around as much as they want, to others, animals are part of their family and they would never lay a finger on them. There is legislation against animal cruelty but because there is so much subjectivity, the legislation fails to deter people from abusing their animals. For there
Amish are known for their horse-drawn buggies that they use to get around. They also use horses to help on the farm. To some of them, horses are merely a tool and once the horse gets too old and can no longer do what they need it to do, the kill it, To them that is just the way it is, they do not consider that being cruel, People outside the Amish lifestyle have tried to come in and rescue the horses so that they can continue to live, even though they cannot work anymore. Amish are also known for owning ‘Puppy Mills’. Puppy mills are breeding kennels in which dozens, or even hundreds, of dogs are allowed to live in small cages for their whole life, as long as they are given the basics, food, water, and shelter. (Puppy Mills) These mills are not illegal. Some of these Amish-owned [puppy mills treat their dogs very poorly. “The Amish say they raise dogs much as they would any other livestock, restricting the dogs to small cages and killing the parents when they are no longer productive” (Hinds). To most people this sounds horrific because they consider them to be companions, not livestock. Animal cruelty is subjective, and that is why legislation is not working to stop it, there needs to be an objective measuring system to measure an animal’s current welfare. There is debate to what standards need to measure and of what weight to put on each of the standards. The one thing that is known is: “Defendable animal welfare standards require scientific