Mahatma Gandhi once said that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way animals are treated.” One would believe that animal’s rights would be a vital concern to the United States government since thirty nine percent of the American population possesses pets. Instead, there is a debate of whether or not animals should have rights, such as the right of humane treatment, and the right to not be exploited for human purposes. Moreover, there is a greater debate of whether or not animal rights should be enforced earnestly by the government. Animals and the many things they provide for the human race, such as companionship, food, and clothing, have been taken for granted for many decades. Although statistics state that over 9.1 billion animals are slaughtered every year in America for food, they also report that over six million people die of malnourishment and starvation every year. Nowadays, animals face more than just poachers, pollution, and extinction; they are forced to live in fear of being abused, in response to wanting tender love and care. Simply put, they are not offered the same high level of significance that they bestow on humans by being companions, sideshows, sacrifices, and experiments. Animal liberation has been an ongoing argument for over two centuries. There have been disputes in favor of and in contradiction of animal rights, philosophy has even touched down on a few influential points, and history has made its contributions. But in spite of everything, humanity has not yet reached an agreement concerning animal rights, and considers it to be a vague issue. In the early 1800’s, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the first animal welfare group was founded in Eng...
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monetarily and otherwise - on pets, the importance of animal law is growing. Here's an
The article mainly focuses on this issue, not mentioning the aspects of animal rights. The authors argue their points well but can have counter-arguments against some
Human beings have been shown to be the cruelest animals on the planet. While other animals will kill for defense or food, humans are the only ones that inflict unnecessary cruelty onto others like they do through experimentation. Fortunately, some people throughout the years have shown sympathy towards the various animals that are tested on day after day and work to stop the atrocities committed by man. Animal rights activists and their cause can be traced back to their origins in the antivivisection campaigns of the 1900s. Both individuals and groups of people work to abrogate the abuse of animals, usually through protests. The most prominent organization that advocates for animal rights is PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who have fought many battles in the war against animal cruelty. Two of PETA’s victories were in their campaigns, where they worked with several other organizations, against Gillette and Colgate for their experimentation on and mistreatment of animals. Their victory against Gillette came with, “the multinational company announcing a moratorium in December 1996 on animal testing of its ...
There are many anti-cruelty laws in the United States as well as other states. This laws prohibit torturing, beating, mutilating and unnecessary killing of animals. Also, they cover neglecting abandoning or depriving pets or farm animals of food, water or shelter. In 1822 the British parliment passed the Martin Act for animals protection, later on Richard Martin formed the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. But the cruelty to Animals Act was not firmily established until the years of 1849 and 1854. As a matter of fact the word was finally starting to spread throughout Europe and even the United States because of this movement the American Society for the prevention of animal cruelty was later formed in the year of 1866 by Henry Bergin in New York. In addition to this in the nineteenth century many laws were passed both in Great Britain as well as the Unites States to protect the helpless, especially-children, lunatics, and domestics animals, from willful and malicious acts of cruelty.
As an advocate of animal rights, Tom Regan presents us with the idea that animals deserve to be treated with equal respect to humans. Commonly, we view our household pets and select exotic animals in different regard as oppose to the animals we perceive as merely a food source which, is a notion that animal rights activists
Regan T. The Struggle for Animal Rights. International Society for Animal Rights. Inc. darks Summit, PA. 1987.
America focuses heavily on its livestock and crops earning us a major role in global trade as a farming nation. Unfortunately this has led to some poor choices in treatment of our animals. Many farmers who believe in animal rights say that it started back when farmers only tended to fewer animals, “Ownership of farm animals became concentrated in fewer hands, and flocks and herds grew larger. As a result, the individuality of animals was lost to their owners and they began receding from most people's everyday life” (Namit 29). When people lost their connection to the animals that provided their food, the quality of the animal's lives began to dramatically decrease. Consumers constantly pushed farmers to their limits with high quotas. To keep up with demands agriculturalists turned to some unorthodox practices to keep costs low and still maintain their annual quotas; “To raise efficiency and cut costs, farm animals began to be engineered for abnormally rapid weight gain, fed unnatu...
Humane societies are groups that aim to stop human or animal suffering due to cruelty or other reasons. Animal control agencies are services provided by the government. The officers may work with police or sheriff offices, parks and recreational departments, and health departments by confining animals or investigating animal bites to humans. Animals held may be returned to their owners, released to the wild, or be adopted; and also be put down after so often. Humane societies, or also known as ASPCA ( American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was first founded in the USA in New York, 1866 by Henry Bergh. Here, animals are taken in and are able to be adopted by the public and are well cared for in these facilities. Often times they are well-known for their "No kill" policy, unless the animal is unable to be adopted due to untreatable healthcare
The ugly truth is that animals are dying at the hands of their owners everyday, some in very violent ways that can be avoidable given the right solution. Slaughterhouses, puppy mills, dog fighting, and so on, are just a few examples of how animals are being treated badly by people. Animal cruelty is a form of violence which, un...
Callicott, J. Baird. “Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair” in Environmental Ethics edited by Robert Elliot. Oxford University Press, New York. 1995. p. 52-63.
A large amount of information relating to animal rights disseminates from the many websites PETA is associated with. These websites are a key factor to attract supporters and publish information that will help advance its activism. These two PETA websites that were very useful for researching this paper are www.peta.org and www.furisdead.com. These websites ...
Towards animal welfare comes the aspect of animal cruelty. Animal cruelty is a fairly recent subject that has affected society. Animal cruelty has now shown comparisons through human abused households. The concern is recent because as society changes humans attitudes change which now affects towards animals. Animal welfare is used to help animal cruelty, because decreasing the violence between animals and humans can help the regulations of animal welfare. Research and testing have become more prominent and a strong concern to the public on the treatment on animals. Many activists today are trying to change the view people see toward the animal they have as a companion. Ethical issues are the many concerns about animals and the question always asked is,”who has the right to control the animal?”