(Photo at laanimalservices.blogspot.com)

Most of us assiduously avoid thinking about how cruel we are toward the animals we eat, but Californians are being forced to confront their consciences. On November 4th, they’ll be deciding on Proposition 2, which would require calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens, and pregnant pigs be confined in ways that allow them to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely. Exceptions would be made for transportation, rodeos, fairs, 4-H programs, lawful slaughter, research and veterinary purposes. People in favor of the proposition talk about it as an issue of “rights for farm animals.” People opposed to it say it will destroy the California egg industry.

Stop. Just for a moment. Forget animal rights. Forget economics. Instead, turn to your common, moral sense. To anyone who isn’t a psychopath or a sadist, whether animals are property, or are creatures with “rights,” they ought to be permitted to “lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely” while they live out their little lives.

The Romans — even distinguished members of the Senate — thought that setting wild animals upon one another, or forcing gladiators to fight them, in front of huge crowds, was a jolly form of entertainment. Bear baiting, cockfighting, bull baiting, dog fighting, bull fighting, cat burying (the list is clearly endless) have entertained and continue to entertain many people, even today — two centuries after the first real cruelty-to-animals laws first were enacted in the West.

We human beings have always made much of our marvelous ability to use words, to reason, and to exercise moral judgment. We’ve used this for centuries to catapult ourselves as high as possible above the other animals on the planet. The Bible proclaims that man is given “dominion” over the animals, implying — well, actually it can go either way. We can be brutal toward them, if we so choose, or we can be nice. Darwin put the brakes on all of this by establishing that there’s a fluid continuum between man and beast.

Descartes’ mechanistic view of animals led him to conclude that they didn’t suffer (even vivisection wasn’t a problem for him). His view established the foundation for the modern understanding of animals that sees them as goopy machines that are governed by property laws. (Pets, of course, have always been exempted from this understanding.) This outlook, more than anything else — including money — explains how we ended up with the sorry, sorry situation of factory farms in the first place. There, meat is “produced” out of the “raw material” of animals that are never permitted to lie down, turn around or stretch out their limbs.

Many philosophers who followed Descartes attempted to refute the machine theory of animals. Kant famously argued that it was man’s duty toward himself — rather than any duty toward animals — that obliged him to avoid cruelty to animals. Rousseau, in his emphasis on “feelings,” felt sweet empathy for all beings. And today we have such philosophers as Peter Singer, who has tried to establish that humans and animals are so absolutely interconnected that we ought to chuck our traditional distinctions between the two. But no matter the philosophy. Everyone in the scientific community now agrees that animals suffer pain. And to the extent that we continue to see animals as mere machines, we leave open the door to seeing man as a mere machine as well.

Philosophers talking about “animal rights” or “human obligations” probably won’t help voters decide about Proposition 2. And considerations of history lead to confusion as well. After all, Nazis notoriously loved animals and enacted laws to protect them, all the while despising human beings.

I propose we think more practically: If animals in a factory farm can’t extend their limbs and turn around, then the CEO of the slaughterhouse to which the animals are sent should have to work in a phone booth.

Agreed, it will cost considerably more to raise animals that can lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs, and turn around freely. The cost for meat will rise, perhaps substantially. Many people will have to eat less meat and fewer eggs to get their necessary protein.

But that’s what legumes are for. The overall health of humans will improve (less fat and cholesterol), as well as that of the planet (less bovine flatulence affecting the climate). By turning from animal protein to vegetable protein, humans and animals both will be the better.

Let them turn around.