Looking at Animal Cruelty Through the Lens of Child Labor in U.S. History

I support Singer and Mason’s avocation of federal law in the indictment of CAFO’s and the market dynamics encouraging them with the example of Child Labor in U.S. history (45, 54). The market in the 19th and early 20th century exploited children because they were profitable, and had little-to-no power politically. Currently, animals are treated poorly for similar economic and legal reasons at the detriment to our environment, health, and morals. Child Labor represents a child working “adult” jobs in factories, mines, textiles, etc. where they are often exploited by their bosses. Factors that influence child labor include poverty, limited education, subjugated workers, and inadequate enforcement of child labor laws. Eventually the labor and reform movements, that often combined the problem of child labor with that of other working peoples resulted in the decline in child labor and Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.

I believe that the market exploits animals much like it did child laborers through the reasoning of profit and market dynamics. Children workers in the U.S. were generally treated as legal non-entities until the Fair Labor Standards Act was created which defended them from labor-exploitation. Although children are not farmed animals, I believe that their similarity lies in their economic exploitation, their “lack of legal standing” and shared suffering. The pre-child labor laws market exploited children and denied them their health and humanity because it was profitable and legal, just as the current market exploits animals and denies them their sentience for the same reasons. Federal regulations for animal cruelty can be fought alongside rules for agricultural pollution, worker’s rights, and our health; much like children's labor rights were fought alongside rights for other working peoples. Much like the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law defining and enforcing rules regarding animal cruelty would shut down modern CAFO’s in favor of more ethical animal farming practices that respect animal sentience, and the effects of animal agriculture on our environment.

SOURCES:

http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/causes.html