The resolution to farm animal welfare does not lie in some utopian world where we and all
other species live in a rural harmony and where nothing ever dies. Nor does it lie in accepting that
the world is a cruel and violent place where only the brutish survive. Both of these views assign
progress to the dustbin of Webster’s (1994) ‘impossiblism’—they imply action is futile, as both
perspectives require the world to change, to become something it is not. Such polarised
viewpoints are worthless and merely let people off the hook—i.e. there is no point in making any
effort, as it cannot bring success! Thankfully most now accept that we cannot just do whatever we
like to animals, that there are lines we should draw and not cross and that these lines are held
under constant review as our understanding of animal sentience grows. This is the approach of a