"In order to satisfy the human taste for flesh, over five billion animals are slaughtered every year in the United States alone. Most chickens, pigs, and calves raised for food never see the light of day. These animals are often so intensively confined that they are rarely able to turn around or spread a wing.
The conditions under which animals are kept and the ways in which they are used by factory farmers, experimenters, furriers, commercial developers, and others, tend to disregard the fact that animals are living." (A Companion to Ethics- 343)
So what does this have to do with Utilitarianism?
Utilitarianism is an egalitarian position (all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities) that hold the belief all beings affected by an action must be considered equally. The equality which is important for this view is not the equal treatment of individuals, but the ability to suffer.
All like interests are counted regardless of skin color, sex, religion, or species.
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