Animal Rights and Ethics Essay

Throughout history, humans have utilized nonhuman animals for the benefit of mankind. This tendency increased as civilization developed, and presently, necessitated by staggering population growth and technological progress, human use of animals has skyrocketed. We eat them, we breed them, we use them as test subjects. Some people have begun to question the ethics of it all, sparking a debate on animal treatment and whether or not they have rights. In a paper on the subject, Carl Cohen lays out his definition of rights, explains their relationship with obligations, and uses these ideas to present the argument that manifests clearly in his piece’s title, “Why Animals Have No Rights”. THESIS

There are people in today’s society who don’t believe animals deserve to have rights simply because they are “lower animals”. Mark Twain, however, would argue that humans are the lowest of the animals in his essay “The Lowest Animal”. Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is defined as the human infliction of suffering or harm upon any non-human animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival (dictionary.com). Everyday, animals are locked in cages, beaten, tested on, tortured, and abandoned. Those horrible things occur in every society, and only select groups of people and organizations try to prevent it.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an animal that is being abused? Well, maybe you should think about it and see if it will affect people, families, and society. Lots of animals are neglected because their owners don’t care or want them anymore. They abuse an animal and pretend like nothing happened. It has a big impact on many people, hearing that an animal or a pet is getting abused. It’s heartbreaking to see them with no home or no owner to love and take care for. Many, many animals get abused because of their owners. These animals’ owners get mad about something personal in their life and they start taking it out on their animals. That’s not right to treat animals that way! That person should NEVER take things out on his/her

Today we live in a world of opposites: animal lovers and activists who strive to make equality for all living things and people who have anthropocentric mindsets which causes them to believe that animals are undeserving of rights. Should not there be rights for all living things? Well, at least this is what I believe, and I did not come to this conclusion on my own. The way I view animal rights is tremendously influenced by my exposure to media, my personal experiences, and the values of my generation.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there is a growing problem with people in the United States not properly using animal welfare. Animal rights activists believe that animals were not put here for human use and should be able to live their lives free of human intervention. Animal welfare is better for all animals and for human benefit while using the animals.

Animal rights means that animals deserve certain kinds of consideration- consideration of what is in their best interests, regardless of whether they are cute, useful to humans, or an endangered species and regardless of whether any human cares about them at all (just as a mentally challenged human has rights even if he or she is not cute or useful or even if everyone dislikes him or her). It means recognizing that animals are not ours to use- for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation. (“Frequently”)

For as long as people and animals have been around there has been question to what their rights are; the main ones being how they should be treated, and if they can feel pain like humans. People all around the world eat meat on the daily like it is no big deal but what they do not know is how a lot of the animals are treated while being raised. Chickens, cows, and pigs are a major part of this; people raise them on farms with only one purpose; to make money off their meat, milk, and young. Organizations around the world try to help reduce the neglect and abuse they receive. Some of these organizations are PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), CARE (Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth), along with many local shelters and veterinary clinics. Although many people think that animal abuse isn’t very common, it happens every day all around the world. Cats, dogs, mice, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and even fish along with many others are punished unequally. Animals do feel pain and it is proven that they feel it just as a human would. So the thing to ask is; what are animal rights when it comes to abuse, testing and neglect? It happens every day but still continues to be in the world, if they cannot defend themselves is it fair? Animals are continuously tested for the comfort of humanity: examples of some tests

According to Animals Are Equal to Humans it states, “The points made earlier about human rights can be rephrased: animals may not be killed, exploited, cruelly treated, intimidated, or imprisoned for no good reason” (“Animal Liberation” n.pag.). Animals should not have to sacrifice their own lives just to be used for a laboratory project, each organism should be able to live freely without having a number identifying them. It is unfair for them since they cannot defend themselves; animals only need peace in their life. In another case, the freedom for these animals has very little recognition, and lacks acknowledgement for their own rights. Tom Regan, a philosophy professor quotes, “Because these animals are treated routinely, systematically as if their value were reducible to their usefulness to others, they are routinely, systematically treated with a lack of respect, and thus their rights routinely, systematically violated” (qtd. in “Animal Liberation” n.pag.). They feel that they do not have an importance to life because their rights have never been respected, while also being violated since

Animals should be used for the betterment of humans. In turn, humans should treat animals humanly and respectfully. There are a few categories regarding animal rights that are debated: factory farming, veganism/vegetarianism, the overpopulation of companion animals, animal testing, and the use of animals for entertainment such as racing, fighting, zoos, and circuses.

Everyday animals are kept captive in small cages, treated poorly, and experimented on all for the benefit of humans. At the same time, billions of animals are killed each year for food, again for the advantage of humans. Animal testing can be an effective tool for biomedicine research, but many of these animals are experimented on to test everyday household products like cosmetics and cleaning supplies. Animals are not capable of speaking for themselves and for researchers to benefit from that is inhuman and wrong. Hundreds of millions of animals including primates, rats, rabbits, and even animals we keep as pets like cats and dogs suffer each year due to testing (Clemmitt). It is not right for us to abuse, experiment on, eat, or wear animals in any way. It is morally wrong to experiment on animals in order to produce safe consumer products and further advance biomedical research because it is damaging to them, can be ineffective in some situations, and there are many alternative solutions to test these products.

Animals should acquire a Bill of Rights just like humans. They should receive equal treatment as a human being on Earth. Animal rights are defined as rights (as to fair and humane treatment) that regard and belong fundamentally to all animals. In human existence, it is well understood that there resides a basic principle; the limit to a person's rights should be the rights of another that are infringed upon - most critically, when a person's life, health or freedom is at risk. If animals had rights, people would not utilize them for their selfish desires and allow them to obtain a better life without humans employing creatures to advance their way of living. Animals should not be restricted within zoos, cities, cages, or scientist’s laboratories,

Animal rights is the idea that all animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives. It’s important to have animal rights because it prevents animals from living horrible, tortured lives for human benefit and entertainment. They have feelings and emotions too, they should be treated as humanely as possible at all times, they are not on this earth for human benefit and usage.

Animals need rights because they can’t just speak for themselves. An animal can’t just tell them to stop abusing them, even if they bark or meow or whine. “Concerns about the treatment of pets may reflect campaigns to stop cruelty toward these animals by organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”( Lewis). The cruelty organization is starting to branch out with animal rights. The organization is starting to get people to get on board with not eating animals. Also, not to abuse any animals, exotic or home pets. “Some animal rights advocates reject all animal use, no matter how humane. Some have even suggested that animal welfare reforms impede progress toward animal rights because they improve the conditions under which “animal exploitation” occurs, making it more difficult to stimulate public opposition to animal use” (Staff, Fur Commission USA). Animals welfare is almost like animals right but it is just about the welfare of the animals ( basically abuse) not about eating them. “At its deepest level, human ethics is based on the independent value of the individual: The moral worth of any one animal is not to be measured by how useful that person is in advancing the interest of another animal. To treat animals in ways that do not honor their independent value is to violate that most basic of animals rights: the right of each other with respect” (Regan). Animals Rights are about animals need these rights because they need to be treat like something that has a

They feed them nothing, keep them in cages or places where they do nothing all day and just sit and think about what they did wrong to their owner. Even though it seems that they are not human they still have many feelings and thoughts. Animals are being beaten and starved everyday and millions of helpless animals die each year because of heartless owners. Every day in the United States animals are beaten, neglected, or forced to struggle for survival. One of the first steps in protecting animals and creating effective cruelty laws is knowing what animal cruelty actually is. “There are two categories: passive cruelty and active cruelty.” “The first involves acts of omission, meaning the abuse happens as a result of neglect or lack of action. Passive cruelty might seem less serious, but that is not the case; it can lead to terrible pain and suffering, and ultimately death.”(Animal Cruelty Must Stop). These things are very saddening, because it happens all over the world; however, all pets and animals have feelings, have a life to live, and rights. These rights have been growing so much in these few years. People have been helping an saving animals they find that are unhealthy and or injured. Animal sanctuaries have been much more common and much more helpful. The lives of these pets should be long, fun, and full of rich love. Some might feel that abuse of any pets is completely fine and that no one will ever

third world. Singer feels that since the people of the third world are so far