Pain-Free Animals Could Take Suffering Out of Farming 429
Philosopher Adam Shriver suggested that genetically engineering cows to feel no pain could be an acceptable alternative to eliminating factory farming in a paper published in Neuroscience. Work by neuroscientist Zhou-Feng Chen at Washington University may turn Shriver's suggestion a reality. Chen has been working on identifying the genes that control "affective" pain, the unpleasantness part of a painful sensation. He has managed to isolate a gene called P311, and has found that mice who do not have P311 don't have negative associations with pain, although they do react negatively to heat and pressure. This could end much of the concern about cruel farming practices, but unfortunately still leaves my design for the fiery hamburger punch in the unethical column.
Re:Dmritard96 (Score:5, Informative)
Now, particularly for adults, the ability to sense pain as a mere signal, rather than as, well, pain, would be quite nice.
Re:What is this doing under idle? (Score:2, Informative)
there are people who cannot feel pain.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/915341/people_who_cant_feel_pain.html?cat=52 [associatedcontent.com]
counterintuitively, it's not a good thing.
what would be a good thing would be partially desensitized to pain. that way you get the information ("hey, you should pull your hand off the stove burner") without the incapacitating effects.
Re:Dmritard96 (Score:2, Informative)
While it would certainly be desirable to have the ability to "turn down" the pain, permanently attenuating it would be bad, because it decreases dynamic range, either distorting the scale of pain, or more likely causing some low-level pains (like sore muscles) to go completely unnoticed.
Fortunately, we do have the ability to temporarily reduce pain levels, and it's automatically triggered when needed -- adrenaline!
Re:Kind of Creepy and Absurd (Score:5, Informative)
I think you are confusing beef and veal. Normal beef cows are not confined to a tiny pen.
People unfamiliar with farming underestimate the degree to which the comfort of animals is taken into account. Stressed steers are less healthy. Dairy cows produce significantly less milk when stressed or uncomfortable. Some dairies play music all day because they've found it has a calming effect and increases production.
Like anything, it's all about money. But comfortable animals help the bottom line.
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe you are thinking of veal pens.
There are all kinds of ways to farm cattle. Here in New Mexico they are allowed to graze on multi-thousand acre ranches.
Re:Can't they just lobotomize them? (Score:5, Informative)
Having worked on a dairy farm for years, and seeing that I have 8 hogs in my back yard, I'm going to call bullshit on this one. Dairy cattle are typically allowed to freely roam for most of the day. Their day goes like this:
Wake up in a large barn, with 400 or so other cows. Mosey out into a holding pen and stand there until let into the milk barn. Stand there and get milked. Blow snot on the person milking you. Crap all over the place, try to splatter on the person milking you. Walk out into a field. Stand around and chew on grass all day. Come back to the holding pen because your udder is full and uncomfortable. Stand there until let into the milk barn. Stand there and get milked. Blow snot on the person milking you. Crap all over the place, try to splatter on the person milking you. Walk out into a field. Chew on some grass. Go back to the barn and go to sleep.
Hog pens are messy, but that's not because they're mistreated - pigs can't effectively sweat, so they cover themselves with wet mud to help dissipate heat. I promise, they *prefer* it that way. The pens are usually about 10x10' per pig.
Re:Brainless! (Score:3, Informative)
This is still a retarded solution to a non-existant problem (or one we have no desire to solve).
First of all, there are already humane ways to kill animals (and humans) without them feeling any discomfort—and they're a heck of a lot simpler/cheaper than genetically engineering animals to feel no pain. Aside from creating another genetically-modified life-form that megacorporations like Monsanto can patent can make billions from it, there's nothing to be gained from this.
You want to kill an animal without making it suffer? Here's a solution that costs about $50 to implement:
Tests conducted on pigs have shown that the animal feels no discomfort and will willingly keep their head in the contraption until they pass out and eventually die from asphyxiation. This is just one of the many already existing solutions out there (like shooting the animal in the head with a gun).
The real problem isn't that there's no way to kill animals currently without them feeling pain. The problem is that the meat industry, and most consumers, really don't care how livestock are treated.
Even if the animal cannot feel physical pain, it's still going to be spending its entire life in cramped, inhumane living conditions.
Re:Kind of Creepy and Absurd (Score:3, Informative)
I noticed that when I went to the livestock judging at the local fair recently. It was all kids' 4-H projects, and the judges were taking very careful time to explain how important it was that you handle the livestock gently, as bruised meat is essentially worthless.
I know some farming operations are rougher than others (factory farmed chickens for example), but all of the beef cattle I see raised around here spend most of their days pretty much the same as they do in the wild - wandering around through a wide open field eating grass.