AMERICA'S ANIMAL PROBLEM

Imagine that you are going to be reincarnated as a domesticated animal, and you can choose whether to be reincarnated in the U.S. or in Spain. Which country would you pick? My hunch is that many of you will think that if you choose Spain, there's a chance you might be a bull raised to die in a bullfight, and so it is better to pick the U.S. and avoid such a fate. But that would be an unwise assumption.

- PETER SINGER

The cruel and bloody ritual of bullfighting does mean that each year an estimated 35,000 bulls die a horrendous death. But, overall, animals in Spain have better lives than those in the U.S.

Take, for instance, the matter of egg-laying hens. Around 230 million of them in the U.S.-almost 60% of the country's hen population-are crammed into bare wire cages that do not allow them enough space to fully stretch their wings. In Spain, keeping hens in such conditions is illegal, and the nation's 46 million hens have almost twice the space. They also have access to a nest, perching space, and litter to allow pecking and scratching. None of those enrichments are to be found in U.S. cages.

These hens spend a full year in their cages, whereas it takes about 20 minutes for each bull to die in a Spanish bullfight. So it is reasonable to conclude that U.S. cages cause more suffering to hens than bullfights do to bulls, given the time and conditions spent in captivity. And because there are more than 1,000 times as many hens in Spain as there are bulls bred to die in bullfights, a randomly selected domesticated animal is more likely to be a hen, and it will have a much better life in Spain than in the U.S.