The need for an "animal ethics turn" in animal husbandry

In the following paper I argue that there is an urgent need for an ‘animal ethics turn’ in animal husbandry. There are various reasons for this demand, such as the negative impact of livestock farming on climate change and the fact that current animal protection laws only address minimum standards of animal welfare, which, in some cases, are systematically violated. Some animal ethics approaches such as abolitionism argue that the only moral solution is to completely renounce the use of animals as resources or products. The present paper, however, represents an animal welfare position. It rejects the reduction of animals to a mere means for human purposes as morally offensive and unacceptable. This does not mean to reject the use of animals in any form as ethically objectionable, but demands that humans should always respect animals’ pursuit of a flourishing life by responding positively to their species-specific and individual needs and capabilities.