“How should animal rights compare to human rights?”
When I looked through the topics list for the paper immediately animal rights and human rights stood out. I have always been an animal lover and this topic seemed like a no brainer. Upon researching and diving into this topic even deeper I realized maybe where I thought I stood isn’t really where I meant to stand. This paper really opened my eyes to how I need to know my facts and background before stating my view and validating that point. In order to understand what is being stated I feel it is important to cover the basic definitions of my topic. These being human rights, animal rights, and animal welfare. Human rights are rights that are believed to belong justifiably to every person
…show more content…
Many people don’t even think twice about what rights they have, they assume since they are a human being there are just things they are automatically entitled to. At one point in my research I came across and article that showed 30 different rights we as human should have. For example: we are all free and equal, right to life, no torture, freedom to move, right to a good life, even a free and fair world. After reading the list several times I thought to myself why are these only human rights why can’t these right be applied to animals as well. The definition of animal rights states that animals should be free from human use and exploitation. Would these be the same rights as humans? No not by any means. I think what people fail to realize is that humans are animals, we are all mammals, primates, etc. Over time though it has come to be a separate topic and anything that is not a human being and is living is referred to as an animal. One of the best examples I found of animal rights is that “the prophet taught that the animals’ rights are to be respected, to be spared from suffering and given the food it needed, to be treated well, was not negotiable.” (Waldau 2010, 3) This shows what I believe to be the best interpretation of what animal rights exactly are. I choose to explain animal welfare only because upon researching I found a lot of …show more content…
Some say they are important and deserve to live, others say they don’t have any way to reason or think like we do therefore they do not have the same rights as humans. Aristotle was one of the first to comment on what distinguishes a human from an animal, and why animals don’t have the same if any rights that human beings do. He argued that because humans have the ability to reason and think of things in a logical manner they were leaps and bounds above animals (Prade 2012, 311-314). I don’t believe this for a minute I have watched numerous situations where animals have stopped to decide what their next move would be. It could be a cat jumping from one fence post to another, a fox chasing a rabbit, a horse in a battle across seas, even a hummingbird getting food from a feeder. All these animals have to observe and reason how they are going to accomplish their goals. What I think a lot of people fail to realize is that animals have to have some sort of reasoning sense otherwise they would have been around for the thousands of years that they have. If animals lacked the intelligence to reason with other animals or situations they would have died off a long time
"The Case For Animal Rights" written by Tom Regan, promotes the equal treatment of humans and non-humans. I agree with Regan's view, as he suggests that humans and animals alike, share the experience of life, and thus share equal, inherent value.
Regan, Tom. “The Case for Animal Rights.” In Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2 ed.. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.
...nimal rights yet I do question myself where to draw the line. I do not condone violence or harm against animals, yet I shudder at the thought of a mice plague and feel saddened by the extinction of our native animals by ‘feral’ or pest species. Is it right to kill one species to save another? I am appalled by the idea of ‘circus’ animals yet I will attend the horse races every summer for my entertainment. I think Tom Regan’s argument and reasoning for animal rights was extremely effective at making whoever is reading the essay question his or her own moral standards. Reading the essay made me delve into my own beliefs, morals and values which I think is incredibly important. To form new attitudes as a society it is important we start questioning how we view the lives of others, do we see animals as a resource to be exploited or as equals with rights just like we do?
Most would not put animals in the same category as humans so giving them the same rights seems quite ridiculous; since humans are supposed to be seen as the alpha species. What is a more realistic term is to consider them our property, because we continue to use animal testing and think it is okay to harm these animals. In the end, animal testing and research is cruel and should be done away with. It is a proven fact that animals feel pain just like humans do. No animal deserves to have his or her life purpose be to give his or her life unknowingly for science. We must to put an end to this cruelty and torture because just like humans, animals are living beings. No matter how it is perceived, it is cruel and unusual punishment.
Every year millions of animals are abused, injured, and hurt. It seems as if humans are not very concerned about animal rights according to these statistics.. Animal rights is the idea that animals should not have to suffer and be able to be in possession of their life. Some people are willing to sacrifice things such as certain brands of makeup or certain kinds of food to improve animal welfare. For many years animals have been experimented on and placed in factory farms. Factory farming is a method of producing food products where the factories value how much they produce and how much they profit over the welfare of the animals. These farms keep animals confined in small spaces and make the animals eat things they were not originally
Animal rights can defined as the idea that some, or all non-human animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives and that their most basic interests should be afforded the same consideration as similar interests of human beings. Animal rights can help protect the animals who experience research and testing that could be fatal towards them. The idea of animal rights protects too the use of dogs for fighting and baiting. Finally, animal rights affects the farms across america, limiting what animals can be slaughtered. The bottom line is, there is too much being done to these animals that most do not know about.
animals. If they keep the animals, then the animal will be treated as a pet or
The Case for Animal Rights. Routledge, London-New York, 1988. Regan T. The Struggle for Animal Rights. International Society for Animal Rights.
After reading “Do Animals Have Rights?” by Carl Cohen, the central argument of the article is that rights entail obligations. Cohen examines the syllogism that all trees are plants but does not follow the same that all plants are trees. Cohen explains the syllogism through the example of hosts in a restaurant. They have obligation to be cordial to their guests, but the guest has not the right to demand cordiality. Cohen explains using animals, for example his dog has no right to daily exercise and veterinary care, but he does have the obligation to provide those things for her. Cohen states that animals cannot be the bearers of rights because the concept of rights is essentially human; it is rooted in, and has force within, a human moral world. Humans must deal with rats-all too frequently in some parts of the world-and must be moral in their dealing with them; but a rat can no more be said to have rights than a table can be said to have ambition.
4. What is Animal Rights? Animal Rights is the thought of letting animals get the basic rights. They don’t want animals to be caused pain, or be exploited/killed by humans. It does not mean equality between humans and animals.
Many countries around the world agree on two basic rights, the right to liberty and the right to ones own life. Outside of these most basic human and civil rights, what do we deserve, and do these rights apply to animals as well? Human rights worldwide need to be increased and an effort made to improve lives. We must also acknowledge that “just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures” (Dalai Lama). Animals are just as capable of suffering as we are, and an effort should be made to increase their rights. Governments around the world should establish special rights that ensure the advancement and end of suffering of all sentient creatures, both human and non-human. Everyone and everything should be given the same chance to flourish and live.
A. A. “The Case Against Animal Rights.” Animal Rights Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Janelle Rohr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1989.
Animal Rights and Animal Welfare? Two totally different things; one implies that animals should have the equality of humans, and the other implies that animals must be treated with respect, and cared for properly. Animal Welfare is the act of respecting, and caring for animals properly, and Animal Rights is wanting animals treated the same as humans. Now, the issue with this is, animals are used on a daily basis; varying from clothing to shoes, to ingestion, and scientific research. My opinion on it is that animals cannot be treated equally as humans, for they need us just as much as we need them. Over time, animals have been domesticated to depend on humans and that is exactly what has happened. For example, they now depend on us for
... concept. An animal cannot follow our rules of morality, “Perhaps most crucially, what other species can be held morally accontable” (Scully 44). As a race humans must be humane to those that cannot grasp the concept. Animals do not posess human rights but they posess the right to welfare and proper treatment by their handlers.
Animal welfare is a fairly recent, yet troubling argument in society. This subject is a strong argument on a variety of opinions. Animal welfare has become a major issue and has grown internationally. The human concern and the safety and rights of animals is the meaning of the concept of animal welfare. Through decades of animal welfare, people fight to prevent the action of animal cruelty and bring help towards animal rights.