Animal Rights: Animal Liberation By Peter Singer

Animal rights are considered as “the rights of animals, claimed on ethical grounds, to the same humane treatment and protection from exploitation and abuse that are accorded to humans”(CITE). This means that individuals that believe in animal rights conceive the idea that animals should have the same rights and protections as humans do. With this

animals cruelty, discrimination, and animals equal rights. Singer uses philosophy to teach and educate others on his point of view. Singer points out that animals have rights too and supports animals just like he does with Black Liberation, Gay Liberation, and Women Liberation. Singer states, “It is a demand for a complete change in our attitudes to nonhumans. It is a demand that we cease to regard the exploitation of other species as natural and inevitable, and that, instead, we see it as a continuing moral outrage.” (pg.208) He supports the equal treatment of animals just like women did in changing societies views of work place and labor.

The main theme of Animal Liberation by Peter Singer is summarized in one quote by Isaac Bashevis Singer, “In their behavior towards creatures, all men [are] Nazis” (84). Singer spends the whole book attempting to prove that Nazis and the abusers of animals are the same. He does this by talking about scientific testing and the way animals are treated before being killed for their meat. He dives into the specifics of what happens during animal testing and animals killed for meat in order to appeal to the humanity of the reader in order to exploit it. By exploiting the humanity of the reader Singer attempts to guilt the reader into becoming a vegetarian.

Imagine being in a circus ring watching tigers and lions leaping through blazing rings of fire, elephants standing on their heads, and monkeys riding red bicycles for a colossal crowd of screaming, cheering fans. The elephant’s exhausted, worn body is swamped with intricately designed drapes. The sweet, endearing smell of fresh cotton candy and popcorn fills the air with excitement. When the show has reached the grand finale and has come to an end, a trainer arrives with a bull hook and thrusts it into the elephant’s side. Bloody wounds are all over its body from the mistreatment of the circus industry. This is the life that circus animals live each and every day. The animals are mistreated on a routine basis and are crammed into small boxcars for more than three-fourths of their life, serving the public for a moment of entertainment each night. The life of a circus animal is one of pure, unending misery. The use of animals in circus shows is inhumane because they are a threat to public health, and they are mistreated when outside of the public eye.

The Vancouver Aquarium uses dolphins and belugas to provide entertainment and utilizes the profit gained, to aid them in research. In The Case for Animal Rights, Tom Regan’s moral principles state that there should be total abolition of the use of animals in science as well as for entertainment purposes (337). Moreover, he claims that humans and animals have equal values and rights. Based on this principle, I argue that the practices of the Vancouver Aquarium of using belugas and dolphins for scientific and entertainment purposes is immoral and thus unjustified.

For centuries, the circus has always been advertised as a fun-filled event for everyone to enjoy. Because of the silly, fun-filled antics displayed by every acrobat, clown, and animal, most visitors do not question the circus’s background or what happens when the Big Top closes. Only recently have the atrocities against animals come to light, and the truth is very depressing. The reality is that all animals in a circus environment are being forced to perform against their will out of fear: fear of being beaten, whipped, muzzled, or starved. Now that the truth is out, it is up to the public to do what is right and not support such a cruel institution.

There are many different rights that animals have had taken away from them because of human behavior. For example, animals are being harmed around the world as a result of human product testing, many are being euthanized when there are too many in shelters and pounds, and countless are constantly being neglected or abused by owners. Luckily, there are movements and groups that are working to protect animals from these inhumane practices. Animals need the protection of humans to bring an end to testing on animals, abusive treatment and euthanasia.

I believe that animals should be treated just as well as humans. "When it comes to feelings like pain, hunger, and thirst, “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy," says Ingrid Newkirk. Animal rights are rights believed to belong to animals to live free from use in medical research, hunting, and other services to humans. Because animals have feelings and are much like humans, they deserve to have rights just like people do.

Each and every human around the world have always and still are mistreating animals and not giving them the respect they need. They have always been put in danger by many of us. Animals are creatures that should not be treated like trash. They are part of this world that god has brought, just like he brought us humans as well. Animals do matter as individuals, and many of us do not realize that. The death and mistreatment of animals has become a serious issue around the world. “All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and motherly love” (Singer 2). Therefore we all have equal feelings just like them, Animals should have virtuous rights.

Should animals have rights? Do they deserve them? Or are they just animals? In the beginning, God created the world in seven days. On the sixth day, God established the relationship between man and animal. God said “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” the job of man are to protect and take use of the earth. Our role was to take care and control the creation of God. Animals have the right to be treated the most humane way possible and with respect. This controversial topic of animals having rights has been around for years. I believe animals should have rights and to not suffer under the security of humans.

Training is another concern. Physical punishment has long been the standard training method for animals in circuses. These methods are simply cruel. They include the use of electric prods, whips, and even some animals especially large cats, have their teeth removed. Bears balancing on balls, apes riding motorcycles, elephants standing on two legs are acts that are physically uncomfortable and behaviorally unnatural. Such “performances” do not teach audiences about how animals behave under normal circumstances. Instead, they are often portrayed as ferocious and stupid.

René Descartes, a famous philosopher, once argued that, “animals are not sentient- they are machines, like mechanical clocks, devoid of feelings and incapable of experiencing pleasure or pain” (Vaughn). Today, unlike Descartes, most people believe that animals are intrinsically or instrumentally valuable, also, whether they have or deserve any rights. Defining what cruelty is has been very subjective. To some people. An animal is just property and they can beat it around as much as they want, to others, animals are part of their family and they would never lay a finger on them. There is legislation against animal cruelty but because there is so much subjectivity, the legislation fails to deter people from abusing their animals. For there

Animal don’t have the same rights as humans do only because a) they can’t communicate with us b) sense they can’t communicate with us they can’t say no to basic stuff. This isn’t meaning that they don’t have their own sort of rights (not being abused) but they are just different than humans own rights.

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

Animal rights are defined as rights believed to belong to animals to live free from use in medical research, hunting, and other services to humans.1 Animals have a right to be free of human use and exploitation. It’s not about putting animals above humans, or giving them the same rights. Humans exploit animals in a myriad of ways. Some common justifications for this abuse are that animals are unintelligent, they are not as important as people, they don’t have feelings, they have no other purpose, and that God put animals here for us to use. Rights should not be determined by intelligence, or we would have to give intelligence tests to determine which humans deserve rights. It 's irrelevant whether animals created rights or are even capable of understanding the concept of rights. We don 't have a set of requirements for humans to be beneficiaries of basic rights. For example, a severely retarded human may be unable to understand what a right is, but that doesn 't mean he or she doesn 't deserve the protection of basic rights to be treated as any living creature should. He or she would never be slaughtered for food, beaten for entertainment, or used as any type of resource. Their lack of understanding does not make it okay to severely mistreat them. Animals are intelligent in their own ways. They know what they need to survive, and although they don’t speak any language known to humans, they communicate with each other.