from the several kilometres they wander around daily in nature. Confined and stressful conditions lead often to apathy and abnormal behaviour, such as self chewing, cannibalism and stereotypic movements. Fur animals are killed in 6-8 months old with electricity or gas.

Currently, as the popularity of the fur coats has de-clined, most of the fur is used in fur garments. Many EU countries have been phasing out fur farming – ex-cept Finland. For example, fur farming has been ended in Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and the United King-dom. Likewise, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands have taken steps toward ending fur production.

AnimAl experiments

Every year thousands of millions of animals are used in experi-ments. Animals can for instance be poi-soned, kept hungry, thirsty and deprived

from sleep, be infected with diseases, injured, radiated and given irritating substances. In addition to painful experiments, laboratory animals are kept in confined spaces, in which they lack opportunities to perform their natural behaviour.

Numerous animal tests are done for secondary reasons, such as for testing cosmetics and chemicals. Also many medical experiments are unnecessary. For instance, much overlapping research is done since results are concealed for competition reasons. Likewise, many tests could be substituted for alternative methods, such as using tissue cultures and computer models. Further-more, the results gained from animal tests are not often applicable to humans due to physiological, anatomical and structural differences.

AnimAliA

Animalia – Federation for the Protection of Animals is Fin-land’s leading animal protection organisation. Our objective is to promote the welfare and the rights of animals. We op-pose any treatment of animals that causes pain or distress to animals or prevents them to perform their essential spe-cies-specific behaviour. Animalia concentrates primarily on animal experiments, factory farming and fur farming. We campaign and lobby for better legislation in collaboration with various organisations and authorities. We also actively inform general public about animal welfare issues.

Animalia’s work is mainly funded by membership fees and donations, so your help is crucial to us. Join us now and be-come a member. Together we can have an influence!Support member 25 € / yearActive member 30 € / yearJunior member 20 € /year (under 18 years old)

Pay the membership fee either to the account in Nordea 229818-189 or in Sampo 800018-2105644. Please remember to add your name and address to a message of the bill. (Fill also the membership form at our internet pages.) As a mem-ber you get Animalia-magazine four times a year.

You can also become our monthly supporter with minimum 5 € / month. In that case, order a membership form from us: animalia@animalia.fi

You can also donate to us:Nordea 101130-260629. Please remember to add a code 1012 to a message of the bill. (Animalia has an official per-mission for fundraising – OKU 1947 A.)

Animalia – Federation for the Protection of Animals Porvoonkatu 53 00520 Helsinki, Finland Tel. +358-9-720 65 90 E-mail. animalia@animalia.fi www.animalia.fi

Are AnimAls morAlly significAnt?

We are using increasing amounts of animals in food production, fur industry and scientific experiments. Animals are kept in ever more industrialised conditions and subjected to stressful and painful practises. This exploita-tion has created a need to re-think our moral relations with animals.

account. Since animals can experience, we can speak about their welfare, and thus, they have a moral worth.

The interests of humans and other animals should be taken equally into account. Thus, the primary interests of animals, such as staying alive and avoiding suffering, should not be violated because of the secondary interests of humans, such as convenience, entertainment and fashion.

FArm AnimAls

Currently, hundreds of billions of farm animals are slaughtered every year for food production. In factory farming, the life span of animals is short and they live in confined conditions. They have few opportunities to move around and to perform their species-specific behaviour, such as social behaviour and food searching. Consequently, animals suffer from stress and boredom. This can lead to abnormal behaviour and illnesses. High stocking densities, unstable herds and over-large herd sizes worsen the problems. Animal breeding has focused on the productivity of animals, which has contributed in grow-ing disease levels. Farm animals are slaughtered considerable younger than their natural life span.

Examples of ethical problems in animal farming:

The majority of laying hens live in cages, in which »they have an area that is equivalent to a sheet of A4. Cockerel chicks are killed right after their hatch-ing.Broiler chickens are bred to grow unnaturally fast, »which cause them highly painful leg and heart problems.Sows are kept in small cages that prevent them »turning around during farrowing, suckling and ges-tation periods. Most cows are kept tethered, so that they cannot »move around during a winter-period. Calves are kept in individual pens until they are eight months old, even though they have strong needs for social contacts.

Fur FArming

In Europe, over 20 million fur animals are killed every year. Fur animals are kept in small cages, in which they have lit-tle space to move around and to perform their natural be-haviour, such as climbing, swimming or moving in tunnels. Their space in cages, which is less than a square metre, is far

morAl vAlue oF AnimAls

We think that human beings have a non-violable inher-ent worth. No one should be harmed because of her or his race, sex and other morally non-relevant qualities. In contrast, the value of animals is often associated to their utility for humans: a pig is valued because of its meat and a mink because of its fur. Likewise, our emo-tions influence in our judgements: dogs are often re-garded as more important than hens.

In animal rights thinking, it is viewed that not only humans, but also other animals have an inherent worth. They are valu-able as individ-uals, not as in-struments for reaching peo-ple’s aims. The ability of ani-mals to feel pain and pleasure is a sufficient reason for their inherent worth. Animal sciences have well demonstrated that animals’ nervous system and behaviour indicate that animals are conscious of their surroundings and can experience various feelings, such as pain, sorrow, fear, happiness and affection.

The ability to experience is a sufficient condition for the inherent worth, not an intellect or other “higher” men-tal capacities. Many human groups, such as severely disabled people and small babies, lack those mental capacities that have been regarded as the criterion of the inherent worth. However, few of us would deny the moral value of these people. Since moral action aims to diminish suffering and to increase welfare, all those beings that can fare well should be taken morally into