Why I support the Humane Slaughter Association

Abstract

The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) is one of my two favorite animal charities. (The other is Animal Ethics.) While spending the equivalent of only half a million US dollars a year, HSA plays a leading role with advances in humane-slaughter technology and best practices. A conservative calculation suggests that HSA may have prevented one painful fish death per $50 of donations, and the actual figure could be at least an order of magnitude cheaper. HSA is also unique among animal charities in that it seems less likely than most others to cause long-run harm to wild animals through memes of non-interference and environmentalism. Still, HSA does pose its own downside risks, such as the possibility of making consumers assume that meat is humane, and it may not shape far-future trajectories as profoundly as outreach-oriented animal organizations do.