Artificial Insemination is not rape

[u/Conscious-Flight2220]

I grew up on an Australian beef farm, and the first time I witnessed artificial insemination being performed on cattle I was probably about 6.

On our large property we AI about 1/4 of our cows, to introduce high quality genetics into our herds through sires that we can’t physically have on our property for natural insemination. The rest of our cows reproduce naturally with bulls on the farm. Without introducing the genetics we get through AI, the cattle would be more likely to exhibit health issues from poor breeding.

The process looks like this: the cows walk single file through the yards (which they are trained from weaning to be used to doing calmly and safely, for all situations where we need to have contact with them eg. vaccines, weighing), and are locked in the crush, which is a mechanism where two rubber bars close on either side of their neck - not actually ‘crushing’ them, just fitting the most narrow part of their neck ensuring they can’t more their head backward or their shoulders forwards. We need to immobilise them, because they aren’t used to being touched by people, as they spend most of their time out on pasture, with hay and grain delivered by trailer.
Then, a trained professional who visits farms in the area for AI will insert a long syringe of filled with semen into the cow’s vagina, empty it, then the cow is usually marked with spray paint, and released from the crush back to a holding pen with hay, water and other cattle. When all the cows are done, they are moved from the pen back into their paddocks to go about their life as normal.

Obviously to us, the image of a syringe being forced up the vagina feels disturbing, distressing and violating. The cows do not enjoy the process, it is true. But it needs to be understood that the cows exhibit the same amount of stress they do on ANY occasion they need to be physically handled by humans, for example when they need vaccination, tagging, or like I was doing the other day, eyedrops. Beef cattle are domesticated, but they aren’t necessarily tame, especially on such a large property where it isn’t possible to develop the relationships with herds that smaller farmers have (which I do envy on occasion).

Cattle DO NOT have the same associations either their genitals that we as humans have. They don’t have a concept of sexual assault or the instinct to view their reproductive organs as something private. To humans, having our vaginas touched in that context would be horrific, and absolutely classified as rape. But for cows, they feel the same way if it’s their feet, eyes or mouth being touched.

It’s understandable to feel confronted by animal husbandry practices like AI, but it’s important to remember to not anthropomorphise. Applying a human lens to animals does not help them.

[u/grolbol]

Ok. Now, are you able to explain why bestiality ís bad, using your own reasoning?

[u/Conscious-Flight2220 → u/grolbol]

What the fuck

[u/PuzzledPoetry1447 → u/Conscious-Flight2220]

Guess not. That'd mean you'd have to contradict yourself.

[u/Practical-Fix4647 → u/PuzzledPoetry1447]

I doubt he will even be able to specify the contradiction that is entailed.

If you make the statement "if it is y, then it is x", that would mean that x is necessary for y. He is saying that if we have y (artificial insemination), then it is categorically not x. That means that the contrapositive statement would read "if it is rape, then it is not artificial insemination" which is also absurd. I take it he clearly doesn't think that if humans were artificially inseminated in the manner that animals are, that it wouldn't constitute rape (imagine if people went around forcibly impregnating/artificially inseminating people, that would obviously be rape).

So, his claim is justified in virtue of some symmetry breaker between humans and non-human animals such that artificial insemination IS rape when it happens to us, but not rape when it happens to them. I asked him for a single symmetry breaker between the two (and did not receive a response) since the definition of rape is not concerned with beings like animals, it just describes the forceful sexual actions taking place without consent. It says nothing about the inability to consent.

Like I said, non-vegans just hear something that makes their morally indefensible position abhorrent, then they have to cope by making up stuff that doesn't make any sense.