Isn human use of animals a “tradition,” or “natural,” and therefore morally justified?
Every form of discrimination in the history of humankind has been defended as “traditional.” Sexism is routinely justified on the ground that it is traditional for women to be subservient to men: “A woman’s place is in the home.” Human slavery has been a tradition in most cultures at some times. The fact that some behaviour can be described as traditional has nothing to do with whether the behavior is or is not morally acceptable. In addition to relying on tradition, some characterize our use of animals as “natural” and then declare it to be morally acceptable. Again, to describe something as natural does not in itself say anything about the morality of the practice. In first place, just about every form of discrimination ever practiced has been described as natural as well as traditional. The two notions are often used interchangeably. We havejustified human slavery as representing a natural hierarchy of slave owners and slaves. We have justified sexism as represneting the natural sup
