Animal Rights And

The Implications
For Business
Presented by
Aye Thwe Zin III BM 157
Theingi Min Thein III BM 169
Sandi Oo III BM 183
Contents
Introduction

Animal Abuse in Business

Laws and Regulations on Animal Welfare

Economic Reasoning for Animal Mistreatment

Possible Solutions

Conclusion
Introduction
 Animals have been human’s companions for thousands of years.
 They serve as people’s food, medicine, transportation, farming
labor, and entertainment.
 The rise of commercialism has forced business to increase
production on animal products and services.
 Like humans, many animals have a sense of pain and emotions.
 Therefore, animal welfare becomes an issue of business ethics.

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

Animal Abuse in Business
1. Agriculture
The production of animal products: meat, egg and milk.
In industrialized factories, animals often live in crowded
imprisonment, away from their natural habitats.
E.g., Beef cattle never seen grass, because they are being fed
by high-protein soybeans.
The average life span of beef cattle is 2 years, compared to
their natural life span of 20 years.

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

1. Agriculture (Cont.,)
In egg production, immediately after hatching, the male and female chicks are
separated.
Female will be sent to egg production facilities and the male are killed in the first day
of their lives.
Female are not any luckier, as they live in small cage where they can hardly open
their wings.

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

1. Agriculture (Cont.,)
Milk production involves heavy animal mistreatment as
well.
Cows do not produce milk unless they give birth to
calves, so they will be artificially inseminated to
pregnancy.
The baby calf is taken away by force because the
mother’s milk needs to be reserved for humans.
A male calf will be made into veal meat and a female calf
will be raised to become another dairy cow.

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

2. Entertainment
Animals also plays a substantial role in providing entertainment to human
beings.
E.g., Monkeys at zoos and circus, elephants picking up children, dolphins
performing shows and horse riding and competitions.

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

3. Laboratory Experiments
To test a new drug, new chemical, new vaccine, new food
or skin care product
Lead to itching, allergies, pain, tumor, insomnia and death
90% are mice and rats but also birds, rabbits, pigs,
hamsters and even chimpanzees are used
In the US, more than 100 million animals have died due to
laboratory experiments

III BM 183 Sandi Oo

 Laws and Regulations on Animal Welfare

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) (August 24, 1966)

The only Federal law in the United States that regulates
the treatment of animals in research, teaching, testing,
exhibition, transport, and by dealers. USDA, APHIS, and
Animal Care enforce the Act.

What are the main points of the Animal Welfare Act?

The key elements of the act are to: Reduce animal
suffering by enabling preventive action to be taken
before suffering occurs.

What are 3 current animal welfare issues?

Key issues in the area of animal welfare include animal
testing, living conditions in zoos, wildlife conservation,
and treatment of animals in the food industry.

III BM 157 Aye Thwe Zin

 Economic Reasoning for Animal Mistreatment
How do animals affect the economy?
They generate economic benefits by increasing resource
productivity or the quantity or quality of outputs, or by
reducing input costs.

What is the economic importance of animals?

Farm animals contribute not only a source of high-quality food
that improves nutritional status but also additional resources
such as manure for fertilizer, on-farm power, and other by-
products, and, in addition, provide economic diversification
and risk distribution

How have the animals been exploited for economic benefits?

The purposes for which this is done are varied. The raising and
killing of animals for the production of certain types of
foods is the most common one, though animals are also killed
to produce clothing, for entertainment, or to be used as labor
or tools, including their use as laboratory tools.

III BM 157 Aye Thwe Zin

Why is it important to treat animals well?
Animal welfare is important because there are so many animals around the world suffering from being used for
entertainment, food, medicine, fashion, scientific advancement, and as exotic pets. Every animal deserves to have a
good life where they enjoy the benefits of the Five Domains.

III BM 157 Aye Thwe Zin

Possible solutions
Alternatives to Factory Farming

The simplest way to reduce animal suffering in factory farming is

vegetarianism as it reduces the demand of meat and thus reduces the
numbers of animals being raised and killed.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

• Another alternative is to promote animal friendly farms which allow
cattle to graze on pastures and chickens to run around.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

Alternatives to Animal Experiments
• Microbiological substitution uses fungi instead of animals. Micro
dosing allows new drugs to be experimented safely on humans using
small quantities, but this method is very costly.
• However, these methods can only reduce the number of animals
sacrificed, but cannot completely eliminate animals used for research
(Arora, 2011).
• But with the development of technology, maybe one day people can
really be able to skip animal testing by using alternative experiments
completely.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

Alternatives to Other Animal Mistreatments in Business

• There is no better alternative for entertainment animals other than to

set them free.
• Pet breeding is not ethical when there are more similar pets in the
shelters waiting for a home.
• However, people can reduce pet breeding by refusing to purchase
pets from pet breeding.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

Legislation & Media Coverage
• Legislation can be powerful, but currently animal mistreatment in
business is more of an ethical issue than a legal one.
• In many countries, the animal protection laws exclude animals for
farming, entertainment and research purposes.
• Therefore businesses comply with higher humane animal standards
only voluntarily.
• Media coverage on animal mistreatments in business can reveal the
unknown reality of animal suffering to the public.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

Conclusion
• As public concern increases, it is possible that more legislation will
start enforcing animal welfare in commercial enterprise.
• Businesses should be aware of this trend and examine new humane
alternatives in order to stay competitive in the market as well as to
foster environmental sustainability.
• After all, helping animals is also helping human beings as it retains our
humanity as the leader for all species.

III BM 169 Ma Theingi Min Thein

Thank You For Your Attention!

Questions Are Welcomed