Is Eating Meat Unethical

This essay discusses the ethical implications of meat eating, including the suffering of animals, the cause of unnecessary animal suffering, and the impact on human health. It also highlights the environmental impact of meat consumption.

Running head: IS EATING MEAT UNETHICAL
Is eating meat unethical
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1IS EATING MEAT UNETHICAL
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Attention getter............................................................................................................................2
3. Thesis Statement..........................................................................................................................2
4. Topic Sentence.............................................................................................................................3
4.1 Topic sentence: Ethical Arguments of Suffering of Animals................................................3
4.2 Topic sentence: Cause of unnecessary Animal Suffering.....................................................4
4.3 Topic sentence: Affect to Human Health..............................................................................6
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................7
5.1 Summary................................................................................................................................7
5.2 Memorable Statement............................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
The foremost determination of this paper is based on focusing on the topic “Is eating
meat unethical.” The essay will be having numerous unit which will be very much useful to
understand the topic in a detailed manner. The thesis statement of this paper will be very much
helpful for the readers to understand the ethical implications of meat eating. Topic sentence of
this essay will be focusing on the different points which will be useful to understand the
statement in a detailed manner (Rothgerber, 2014). Each of the topic sentences will be unique in
its contents and will be contributing to find a position about the statement.
The consumption of meat have a huge environmental impact as it is responsible for land
and water degradation. Loss of biodiversity and climatic changes are the other significant impact
of meat consumption. Meat productions also involves huge amount of resources such as water as
a result, scarcity of water is a significant impact of the meat consumption (Schaefer & Savulescu,
2014). The consumption of raw meat can have an impact on livestock farming and business also.
The following paragraphs will be useful to understand the topic in a descriptive manner.
2. Attention getter
According to the latest trends, there are lots of new dishes which are increasingly being
consumed all over the world. The culture and meat eating habits of people are different in
different communities. Special attention has to be given to the natural resources which are
utilized with the consumption of meat.
3. Thesis Statement
The killing of animals is considered to be unethical as it results in various harmful after-
effects such as unnecessary animals suffering and effect to human health.

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4. Topic Sentence
4.1 Topic sentence: Ethical Arguments of Suffering of Animals
“We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but
they do not suffer less because they have no words.” - Anna Sewell
From the quote, it could be discussed that the dumb animals are mostly tortured and
killed in order to satisfy the needs of humans. These animals cannot express their feelings
because they cannot express it with their words. They also cannot express their sufferings as
because they have no words (Jallinoja, Niva & Latvala, 2016). The suffering of animals should
be considered as a primary concern and thus this unethical task should be stopped in order to
reduce the factor of cruelty to animals.
The consumption of meat eating have a very negative impact on animals as the concept
of animal cruelty arises with the consumption of meat. There are numerous non-governmental
organization are raising their voices due to the consumption of meat. The suffering of the wild
animals is the other source of concern for the environmentalists (Buttlar, B., & Walther, E.
(2019). The consumption of meat have a direct impact on the livestock farming also, along with
that there are several ethical issues associated with eating meat such as the slaughtering of the
animals in the markets. The practice of open slaughtering may have a direct negative impact on
the kids and other sensitive citizens. Animal welfare communities are raising their concerns
about the increasing demand of meat production (Rothgerber, 2015). The suffering of the
animals are also getting the attention from the politicians at a national level, as a result animal
welfare policies are getting adopted. Animals rights are the legal implication of this concept,
every country have different animal rights which are responsible for the protection of animals
against any categories of ethical or unethical sufferings.

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The legal protests are due to the increased acid rains over the years, coral reef
degeneration and deforestation, all of these are the legal implications of eating raw meat. The
consumption of the raw meat is also impacted by the environmental factors such as floods and
forest fires, on top of that the eating practices of the raw meats have a very negative impact on
those animals, apart from this huge amount of water are required for production of meat
(Macdiarmid, Douglas & Campbell, 2016). The ethical implication of meat eating are as
followings:
 It do not allows the animals to live in natural conditions.
 Free choices are not made by animals due to the increasing eating practices.
 Animal interests are not all considered during the captivity of the animals before they are
slaughtered.
 The consumption of raw meat is also responsible for the growth of numerous health
hazards in human beings such as increased blood pressure and other heart diseases.
 Ethical vegetarians also considers meat eating as unethical.
All these factors are responsible to understand that eating meat is completely unethical.
4.2 Topic sentence: Cause of unnecessary Animal Suffering
“We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty.” –
Julia Allen Field
Animals are considered as sentient creatures whose interests and needs actually matter.
Humans should also ensure that the interests and needs of the animals should be minimally met.
Humans should not be the primary cause of the suffering of animals (Proulx & Rodtka, 2015).

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The wisdom of western convention about animal ethics is that the assassination of animals
cannot be considered as a problem but the major problem is based on making the animals to
suffer.
Based on recent surveys, it has been seen that nearly 58 billion animals are killed and
eaten by humans in a single year. Humans mainly eat animals in order to satisfy their needs of
taste factor. The farming of industrial livestock would fall short of the minimal standard. Most of
the dairy, meat and eggs are produced in such kind of ways that that would completely ignore the
welfare of animals (Tanner, 2015). The treatment of animals within industrial farms is
considered as the worst crime. Too many of the animals that are raised for the purpose of
slaughter are mainly forced into terrible conditions. The cruel conditions that are imposed on
animals for the slaughtering are common in the farms. It has also been seen that 99% of animals
such as cattle, pig and others are raised in factory farms for the purpose of slaughter. As per the
reports of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it has been seen that the retail price
of meat is comparatively low (Sollund, 2017). These kind of practices are made to be possible
with the impact of inhumane practices such as consumption of meat.
The importance of animal lives is generally considered as a less issue. The mistreatment
of animals is often regarded as a problem and is not considered to be important. It is rarely
associated with the health of humans. However, on the other hand, the mistreatment of animals is
also considered harmful for their health factor (Sykes, 2014). This is mainly due to the extensive
misuse of antibiotics in many of the factory farms of U.S. In a major effort to control diseases
that are spread from animals, many factory farms are in the habit of giving antibiotics to the
animals. These in turn lead to superbugs that remain resistant to many traditional kind of

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treatments (Hsiao, 2017). The reinforced viruses and several issues prevalent within factory
farms cannot be terminated as the primary problem for animals.
4.3 Topic sentence: Affect to Human Health
At the level of production, the industrial livestock based farming primarily depends on
the use of antibiotics that accelerate the gaining of weights and control of infection. In the United
States, the 80% of antibiotics are mainly consumed by the livestock industry. This factor mainly
contributes to the growing number of health problems based on resistance to antibiotics (Baynes
et al., 2016). Based on latest researches, it has been estimated that more than 24,000 people die
in the U.S due to the problem of resistant bacteria. This figure continues to rise in the recent
times and is thus becoming hard to exaggerate the threats based on the emerging crisis.
High consumption of meat such as processed meat and red meat leads to poor outcomes
of health of individuals. The different health issues are such as stroke, various cancers, diabetes
and heart disease (Hao et al., 2014). These different diseases majorly represent a vast portion of
the burden of global disease. The reduction of consumption of meat could be able to offer
considerable form of benefits to public health. The different risks to health issues of humans are
vastly increased with the amount of meat that is consumed (Nowak et al., 2014). It has also been
seen that people who consume high amount of meat double the chances of their dying from
chronic liver diseases.
In the present scenario, the average intake of meat for a single individual residing in a
high-income country is nearly 200-250g in a single day. This figure is considered to be a little
higher than the 80-90g of meat recommended by United Nations (Pimentel & Burgess, 2014).
The government of the United Nations have thus discovered the fact that switching the dietary
habits to plant-based would be able to save nearly 8 million lives in a single year and on a

7IS EATING MEAT UNETHICAL
worldwide basis (Mie et al., 2017). This would eventually lead to healthcare savings and also
avoid damages to the climatic changes that would be valued at $1.5 trillion.
5. Conclusion
The essay helps in concluding the degeneration of the coral reef and the increased acid
rains due to the loss of ecological balance are the most important negative impact of eating meat.
The captivity of the animals is also a violation of the rights which is the most important ethical
implication of the meat eating. The essay is also very much useful in understanding the adverse
living conditions of the animals, at the same time the practice of meat eating ate increasingly in
the governmental organizations such as the USDA. The problems faced by the animals which are
being slaughtered have been also highlighted in this paper. The average intake of meat can be
also concluded from this essay which is helpful to understand the trees which are saved due to
the killing of the animals. The adverse impact on the environmental conditions can be also
concluded from this paper.
5.1 Summary
The essay summaries the causes on the unnecessary animal slaughtering and its impact
on the health of human beings. From the above three topic sentences, it can be summarized that
eating meat is completely unethical as there are numerous direct and indirect impact of meat
eating such as the cruelty which are being faced by the animals before and after the slaughtering
process and the indirect impacts such as the violation of the animal rights.
5.2 Memorable Statement
Thus, the essay can be very much useful to understand all the reasons behind stating that
eating meat is completely unethical.

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