Inhumane Society: The American Way of Exploiting Animals (1990)

Fox, M. W.

Abstract

Today I see the veterinary profession entangled in the economic web of animal exploitation, ranging from the inhuman incarceration of farm animals in industrialized factory farm systems ... to the too-often needless suffering and destruction of laboratory animals in biomedical experimentation, teaching, and product safety testing. ... In order to reestablish the veterinary professions dignity and what I believe to be its primary responsibility of animals' health and well-being, all members of the profession need to take a much more radical and affirmative stance in support of animals' welfare and rights. To continue to remain silent, or to give lip-service to humane ethics while supporting inhuman animal industries ... is surely a transgression of professional ethics, unless of course the veterinarian believes that his/her primary obligation is not toward the alleviation of animal suffering, but to society.