Dictionary.com defines 'emotion' as:
e·mo·tion
noun
1.
an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.
2.
any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.
3.
any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.
4.
an instance of this.
5.
something that causes such a reaction: the powerful emotion of a great symphony.
So, to attempt to distinguish between emotion and feeling is probably irrelevant to this discussion. The words are interchangeable. It's clear to me that animals have feelings. Two of our mothering turkeys let out warning noises when they saw a rat snake outside their pen this morning. The stags show anger when they fight.
It's difficult to argue that free range and well cared for animals are not happier than battery farm animals. Perhaps, however, one could suggest that what they've never had they never miss. Even free range stock lives in conditions that humans would reject for themselves, so how far can one take the argument?
Populations demand cheap food and economies are now such that they depend on it. If battery farms were closed down, we wouldn't be able to afford the price of a live animal let alone its eggs or meat. The main problem seems to be that businesses too often get away with cruel conditions and treatment. Perhaps we all can afford the luxury of keeping animals in pampered conditions but we won't feed the world with the results.
The immediate issue, as far as I am concerned, is the failure to ensure that battery farms comply with the laws and regulations. However, more important than that is the matter of cruelty to children and adults. Which would you put at the top of your own list of priorities?
