Ethical Treatment of Animals

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If animals don't have rights, does it follow that it is right to treat them however we like? Discuss in relation to at least two approaches to normative ethics. Humans are superior, non-human animals are inferior. Animals were put here as the playthings of humans, for us to do with what we want. We are able to farm them and control them, we can change their genetics and what they look like, animals have no minds of their own. We eat them, race them and catch them for sport. We even refer to undesirable human behavior as animal. In this world you either harm or you are harmed. God gave humans the ability to harm, so we do. Animals are here for us to exploit. Maiming and injuring an animal is no different to eating it. This is a very crude argument which is known as absolute dismissal, one is able to relate to it but not take it very seriously. Roger Scruton accepts "Animals were once regarded as things, placed on the earth for our use and enjoyment, to be treated according to our convenience" He concedes that this is no longer the case though. This issue needs more careful consideration. What is amusing in the opening paragraph is that humans are merely slightly more sophisticated animals. I could therefore extend this essay into how humans treat each other, however I will concentrate on the treatment of non-human animals for the rest of this essay. During this essay I will be adopting and using normative ethical theories from philosophers to highlight my thesis and arguments. What is important to note is that people do treat animals however they like, just as humans treat each other just as they like, this is the result of humans having free will. What is significant is that most people choose to treat animals... ... middle of paper ... ... best how I feel we should behave to animals. He makes an important distinction between domesticated and wild animals which I have failed to do in this essay. "Towards the first (animals who depend on us), we have a duty to provide a fulfilled life, an easy death and the training required by their participation in the human world. Towards the second (Animals in the wild), we have a duty to protect their habitats, to secure, as best we can, the balance of nature and to inflict no pain or fear" (p125) Bibliography. Hobbs Kant Schlosser, E, (2001) Fast food nation. Penguin Press. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (2003 [most recent publication]) "The social contract and discourses." Everyman. More info? Frey, Raymond G (1980) "Interests and Rights- The Case Against Animals" Clarendon Press Scruton, R (1996) "Animal Rights and Wrongs" Metro publishing

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