Jordan Brooks

Snyderman
May 1
Treatise
Inequity of Consciousness
Every single day, Americans consume over 40,000 cows [6]. Forty thousand animals, bred and
raised with the express purpose of making it onto a hamburger bun somewhere down the line. People
like to believe that these animals spend their lives in wide open meadows, grassy fields, Nirvana for a
cow. In reality, their situation looks a whole lot more like Auschwitz than Charlottes Web. For the sake
of our humanity, we cannot keep telling ourselves that this is morally acceptable, for any reason. The
long standing argument against animal sentience is quickly losing ground to science, and the global
food crisis is becoming more apparent as our population continues to grow exponentially, suggesting
that it may be time for a drastic change in our overly luxurious diet. Beyond just removing animals
from the disgustingly inhumane food processing industry, lies a more philosophical debate, one of
equality. Equality of difference, for though it may not be human, there should be no implication that it
is a lesser form of life. We humans are but another step along the infinite cosmic timeline, not the
culmination, not the peak, just another drop in the bucket. Unlike all the other drops however, working
within the bounds of a sustainable cycle, our drop has taken on the role of God, assuming itself
superior, but the true powers will make themselves known, and to them, all the little drops look exactly
the same, equal in both their singular beauty and their insignificance. This is a treatise for the equal
representation of all animals, not in government, but in our minds, based on the intrinsic value that life
itself holds.
Infiltrated by a spy, one of the people, posing as an employee in the vast underworld of largest
hen hatchery in the world. What this individual witnessed is more along the lines of a horror movie plot
than the life story of 300,000 baby chickens. Day old chicks, thrown, mutilated, neglected, and the
male chicks, useless to both the egg laying and meat industries, tossed into a grinding machine, still
very much alive [5]. In who's mind is it morally acceptable to throw a living creature into a meat
grinder, to be torn apart, excruciatingly, days after hatching into a cruel, unforgiving world. These
creatures know nothing but pain and misery for their entire life, however brief. No male chicks make it
out of the hatchery, but they may have the easy road, for the hens that survive the factory line are in for
a long torturous journey. Those destined for egg laying wind up in massive warehouses full of rows
upon rows, stacks upon stacks of battery cages [5]. The chickens are crammed into these tiny cages
with no room to walk or even spread their wings, many of them already having suffered through the
burning off of their beaks, to prevent them from pecking [5]. Apparently chickens get a little pissed,
become a little neurotic and self destructive when they are confined to cage the size of a piece of
printer paper. Who can blame them? After a couple of years of constant egg laying with absolutely no
respite, these animals are battered, broken, no longer possessing any will to live, and so they are killed,
conscious and thrashing. You see, birds are exempt from the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, so there
arent any restrictions on how they can be killed [5]. Be it scalding water, suffocation in a plastic bag,
decapitation by human hand, or the aforementioned grinder, there is no such thing as a peaceful death
for the chickens that provide food to millions of humans, unaware of these conditions [5]. It is
understandable to be ignorant of these facts, for they are hidden on purpose, to keep the public from
ever knowing the truth about what they eat. It is hard for me to believe that anyone could continue to
support this industry once they really know, and if they do, that represents a loss of humanity, an
innately evil act. Some like to make the argument that these animals are not really sentient enough to
care, that it doesn't matter if we abuse them as such, for their limited, lesser consciousness gives us
justification enough to exploit them. Science tells us that this view holds no ground, that humans are far
from the only conscious beings on this planet.
What classifies a living organism as conscious? The quality of self awareness perhaps, or maybe

the ability to think, to feel emotion... There is no definitive answer, so this discussion lies both in the
concrete world, and partly within ethereal philosophy. In general, humans assume that only they
possess true consciousness, we have a distinct sense of self, can think on an existential scale, and feel
emotion. Many assume other forms of life are autonomous reacting machines, so it is not morally
objectionable to subject them to abuse, Descartes was fond of this interpretation, and it falls in line with
certain interpretations of religious scripture, anthropocentric interpretations [1]. But from the scientific
perspective of evolution, every organism stems from one point in history. Where along the line could
we place a distinction; everything before this point was an autonomous machine, but here, right here,
consciousness develops. I'd assume most would place this point at the development of humankind,
somewhere around the inception of Homo habilis, the earliest species with documented tool use. But
what evidence do we have to come to this conclusion? Why do we assume that consciousness was not
inherent to all life, present, in an un-evolved form, in the very first concepts of life? By this logic,
consciousness existed all along. It has changed drastically along the way, there is obviously a difference
between the consciousness of a field mouse and a human, but both possess inherent consciousness
nonetheless. I do not intend to debate the difference in consciousness, or level of advancement between
humans and animals, only to remove humans from their assuming pedestal of being the one and only
conscious entity. By proving that we are not unique in this aspect, I strive to make the point that other
beings are of equal inherent value. It might be hard to accept the philosophical argument just proposed,
but what about science, there is evidence that the consciousness of a certain higher species may be
equal to or more advanced than our own in certain ways.
Take the killer whale, not really a whale at all, but a species of dolphin. We have known for a
long time that dolphins are an extremely smart animal, capable of complex vocalizations, they show
capacities in understanding symbolic language, in memory, in problem-solving, in visual perspective,
and even tool use [3]. Dolphins off the coast of Australia, one specific group, learned how to use
sponges off the sea floor to dig around in the sand for fish [3]. The sponge allows the dolphins to
protect their sensitive rostrum, snout, while hunting for food in a completely new way. This method of
hunting was passed down generations, and laterally across the population in this area [3]. But the one
specific type of porpoise that I would like to examine closer is the orca. Years ago, it was extremely
difficult to study the brain of such a large animal, because typical techniques for studying smaller
brains just don't work nearly as well on an enlarged scale. With the invention of MRI technology, it
became possible to build a clear image of just what makes this animal tick, and the results are
astounding. Emotion is processed in the part of the mammalian brain called the limbic system, and the
limbic system of an orca shows significant elaboration over that of a humans [3] [1]. This paralimbic
region is inferred to have something to do with processing emotion, but also just with general thinking.
Neuroscientist Lori Marino tells us that if that part of the orca brain is doing what it should be doing,
as it does in all mammals, that is, processing emotions, it suggests [that] these animals are doing
something very sophisticated or complex while theyre processing emotions. And I think also when you
look at behavior of dolphins and whales, especially in the wild, you see a level of social cohesion that
is really unmatched in other mammals including the humans. [3] These animals are doing something
very sophisticated or complex while they are processing emotion, with behavior suggesting social
cohesion unmatched in other mammals, including humans. So they are more evolved than humans in a
directly comparable, physically measurable way. A theory surrounding this idea, although very difficult
to test, suggests that orcas may have a distributed sense of self.
We know from the mirror test that orcas belong to the small group of animals that will pass the
self awareness test, indicated by the fact that they recognize the image in the mirror as their own [3]
[1]. In the wild however, within tightly knit social groups, observed behavior suggests that there is
something about being an orca, having an orcas form of consciousness, might actually be something a
little bit different than what it would be like to be just an individual [3]. Evidence supporting this
claim comes from how they communicate amongst themselves when theyre traveling and how they

respond when one individual is detained or injured or harmed or attacked [3]. Orcas have gone beyond
the individual, evolved past the state of consciousness that we find ourselves currently in. So how do
we call ourselves the highest form of life? How can we say that humans are unique in their place, above
EVERYTHING else? We can't, and if we are not differentiated from, better than, EVERY other form of
life Earth has to offer, how can we say that there exists any lesser form of life? If there is another highly
advanced species that can be competitive on the evolutionary scale with humans, there has to be an
evolving consciousness within each and every living thing with a common ancestor. Which, back to the
very begging, is every living thing on this planet. Of course it has been changing, becoming more
advanced as time progressed, so did life on the physiological level. Humans have reached a point of
consciousness that is very advanced compared to that of most other life, but so have other creatures, on
completely different paths. I believe that Orcinus orca represents a point in evolution that is very
similarly advanced to that of Homo sapiens sapiens, both physiologically to it's environment, and in the
realm of consciousness. These two species have manifested their evolution in entirely different, entirely
equal ways. In doing so, we represent the potential of all life, where consciousness of every entity
could be heading, perhaps in very different ways than either of us, but equally advanced. To me this
says that all life is equal on an intrinsic level, just as a 2 year old human's life is equal to a 5 year old's,
is equal to a 30 year old's, is equal to a 90 year old's. It is life! Life that comes from humble beginnings,
the same town. We all just grew up on different sides of that town, in different situations, ending up in
different places as time passes us by, equally experienced, but in very different facets of existence.
Instead of exploiting and abusing our friends, who also happen to sometimes be our food... Let them
live the lives that they have evolved to live! I dont intend to deny the natural order of things, some
forms of life die to keep others alive, food, thats how it works. You just don't see a tiger abusing a deer
for its whole life before it gets eaten, or a cow maliciously stomping every bit of grass it sees. Most life
on this planet has a mutual respect for the other life that it has to interact with, sometimes this
respectful interaction involves killing and eating it, the natural, sustainable order. Do humans really
want to be the one and only species that blatantly disregards the equality of life surrounding us? How
can we go about this with as massive of a population as we have to support though, don't we have to
farm animals in this fashion to feed everyone? If we take into consideration the general inefficiencies
of farming animals for food, this view proves itself to be very skewed.
Animals shouldnt be factory farmed to feed our growing population, if they are farmed at all. If
we were to devote all the current meat producing resources we have to feeding people in fruits and
vegetables, food scarcity would be much less of a pertinent problem. I don't intend to debate the fact
that we already produce enough food for all the people of the world, we just waste a great deal of it; but
the simple truth that it is much more efficient to produce vegetables to feed the world than meat, cannot
be debated. Producing a kilogram of animal protein takes 7 kilograms of plant protein. [6] Besides
taking into consideration the loss of food material, it is much more resource intensive to farm meat than
it is to produce food in plant form, taking roughly 13x as much water pound for pound, beef vs wheat
[2] [4]. Considering that much of the US is on the verge of a massive water shortage, this information
should be a little alarming. Not only water usage, but land too, over 80% of the lower 48 states is used
for either animal feeding agriculture, or meat raising factory farms [7] [4]. The whole business of
farming animals for consumption is wasteful beyond belief, and there is a lot at stake if we are to
continue down that murderous path. Most importantly are the animals we have subjected to countless
cruelties in our conscious-less food pursuits, and just after that is our humanity, mankinds innate
goodness. If we continue to impose this inhumanity onto these animals, we are no better than Hitler in
his Aryan pursuits. Whats the difference really, besides the food factor, the conditions these animals are
living in are equal to that seen in the Nazi prison camps... Let that sit for a second. Of course the meat
industry is at stake, but do we really care about the welfare of an industry that operates in such ways? I
should think that capitalists such as those in power of these companies should follow the demand of the
people, the final character of our tale. The people in this story control how it progresses from here, to

an ultimate end. Will humanity wake up, drop the egotistical blind fold and step out of the dream
world? I haven't lost faith yet.

References:
[1] Bekoff, Marc. (2000) Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Nature (5) [online].
http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/10/861.full.pdf+html
[2] Kreith, Marcia. (1991) Water Inputs in California Food Production [online].
https://www.watereducation.org
[3] Marino, Lori. (2013). Inside the Mind of a Killer Whale [online].
http://theraptorlab.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/inside-the-mind-of-a-killer-whale-a-qa-with-theneuroscientist-from-blackfish/
[4] Peta. (2010) Vegetarianism and the Environment [online].
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/vegetarianismenvironment/
[5] R, Matt. (2014). Undercover Investigations of Factory Farms and Slaughterhouses [online].
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/investigations.aspx
[6] Shah, Anup. (2010) Beef (1) [online]. http://www.globalissues.org/article/240/beef
[7] Vesterby, Marlow and Krupa, Kenneth S. (1997) Major Uses of Land in the United States [statistical
bulletin No 973]. Us Department of Agriculture