How Do Animals Treat Animals

Animals have been seen by humans as many different things, including a source of companionship, work, and food. There are opposing ethicists’ views regarding how people are morally obligated to treat animals, giving different definitions of right and wrong with specific groups of animals, including both domestic and wild (Sander-Staudt, n.d.). Even though some believe that wild animals are worthy of lesser treatment, many still fight for all animals to be treated the same (Sander-Staudt, n.d). Animals deserve equal treatment because they can think similarly to humans, they have a comparable ability to communicate, and they suffer like we do.

There have been many theories regarding caring for animals that come from care ethicists, and many have a similar goal but have some clear differences. Some care ethicists believe that animals deserve to be treated just the same as other species including humans, including Peter Singer (Sander-Staudt, n.d). Others, “such as Rita Manning, point out differences in our obligations to

Peter Singer argues that speciesism is present in society, and that it is morally wrong for us to consider another species of beings as of lesser importance (Sander-Staudt, n.d). It is not right to “favor humans over animals” (Sander-Staudt, n.d, para. 45). Some say that it is “at least somewhat appropriate to think of human relationships with wild animals in terms of a society of independent agents whose territory is entitled to protection from others” (Clement, 2003, p. 3). Therefore they should be considered just as worthy of care as other animals, in the eyes of these care ethicists (Clement,