Essay about Animal Rights

Is it ethical for animals to have the same rights as humans? During this paper I will present the views of both sides. I will try my best to give the reader a chance to come to there own unbiased conclusion. I will talk about the key areas of animal ethics. I will present the facts and reasoning behind the arguments over Animal cruelty, testing, hunting, and improper housing. My conclusion will hopefully bring us closer to answering many of the question surrounding “Animal Rights and Ethics”.

Imagine a life locked away in a cage with no form of control on your existence. It’s cold, dark, and you are scared. You don’t have a choice of what you eat, where you live, or how you are treated. You are unsure if it is day or night or what will happen to you next. You are locked away in a prison cell and you committed no crime. This is the life of a laboratory animal. Animal testing is the use of animals for scientific research purposes and experiments. It can be used for the findings of cures and medicines to testing new drugs, to understanding the behavioral psychology of the animals themselves. “Around fifty to one hundred million vertebrate animals, ranging from fish to primates, are used in experiments each year” (Lloyd). There are

According to Gallup.com a third of Americans want animals to have the same rights as people. The Animal Bill of Right implies that animals have the right to be free from exploitation and cruelty, It also prohibits laboratory animals to be used for research. Animals will also have healthy diets and medical care. It will also provide them with an environment that satisfies their needs. I do not believe we need a Bill of Rights for animals. This would not only be extreme but it will affect human culture, medical research, and cost of food

Animal testing has been one of the issues that people are fighting overtime because of its moral. Even though some results of tests are successful on people, many people are still fighting for the animal’s rights. They believe that animals should have their own rights to live a free life where they belong, just like their species. In scientists point of view, animals have been one of the main subjects to test on, but a lot of them are currently looking forward to use and develop alternatives for the cruel act of animal testing.

Animal experimentation has been at the forefront of brain research for decades. Rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, pigs, and monkeys are all used to develop drugs and treatments to benefit humans. Even though animal brains do not precisely mimic the biology of the human brain, their brains have many of the same basic structures and functions. Animal research, that is, the use of animals as experimental subjects in biomedical and behavioural fields of learning, has been institutionalised on the basis of two key assumptions, one factual and one moral. The factual assumption is that animal research provides a reliable basis for predicting the effects of drugs, products and yield significant scientific conclusions and medical benefits for society. The

Curious minds since the beginning of time have used animals to explore deeper into the realms of science, whether behavioral or biomedical. Despite many medical advances since, people have developed a division between what they feel is beneficial or not to the modernizing world as to whether animal cruelty is acceptable and humane or not. Animal testing is research science, typically regarding chemical exposures, drug overdoses, genetic manipulation, and surgical procedures that result in prolonged suffering and eventual death. According to Bernard E. Rollin’s journal entry from the Hastings Center Report, The Moral Status of Invasive Animal Research, “Science is ‘value free’ in general and ‘ethics free’ in particular” which indicates scientists are not concerned with the ethical matters but more so the results.

Animals suffering in experimentation labs are in just and cruel to animals. It is wrong to harm an innocent animal of any wrong doing, when the animal doesn't know right from wrong. It is argued that people have an obligation to animals, so that we can protect their welfare.

Millions of animals across the world are used for animal research. From trying to find a cure for diseases to making sure that cosmetics are safe for human usage, animals are subjected to tests. For many decades people have debated about the morality of using animals for research and testing. Two philosophers, Peter Singer and Carl Cohen, while disagreeing on whether or not animals should be experimented on do agree that animals deserve to be treated humanely, due to the fact that they have sentience.

backs and they were dragging their hind legs (Reed 38). While in the lab, the

In our world, protests occur each day on the issues of animal cruelty and human rights, but when the issues are put together which will reign over the other? The author Peter Singer of “All Animals are Equal” and “Tools for Research” presents his argument for determining when animal experiments are justified. The author starts his paper with a counter argument, questioning if one would be willing to let thousands of people die if those people could be saved by experimentation on a single animal. The answer is a unanimous no; in our culture we value human life over everything else. The author follows by asking the reader if they would be prepared to carry out their experiments on humans who are mentally retarded or orphaned babies, if that

Argument for Animal Rights The argument for animal rights assumes that animals posses their own lives and deserve to be assigned rights in order to protect their wellbeing. This view insists that animals are not merely goods utilised only to benefit mankind and they should be allowed to choose how they want to live their lives, free from the constraints of man. But if animals are given absolute rights, then surely they shouldn’t be allowed to kill each other, as this would be a violation of these rights.

For the past 20 years, there has a been an on going heated debate on whether experiments on animals for the benefit of medical and scientific research is ethical. Whether it is or isn't, most people believe that some form of cost-benefit test should be performed to determine if the action is right. The costs include: animal pain, distress and death where the benefits include the collection of new knowledge or the development of new medical therapies for humans. Looking into these different aspects of the experimentation, there is a large gap for argument between the different scientists' views. In the next few paragraphs, both sides of the argument will be expressed by the supporters.

Animal experimentation by scientists can be cruel and unjust, but at the same time it can provide long term benefits for humanity. Animals used in research and experiments have been going on for 2,000 years and keep is going strong. It is a widely debated about topic all over the world. Some say it is inhuman while others say it’s for the good of human kind. There are many different reasons why people perform experiments and why others total disagree with it.

Non-human animals are given rights only because of their interactions with human beings. Without involvement with humans, animals do not deserve rights. It is through this interaction with humans that animals are even given moral consideration. We do not give rights to a rock simply because it is a creation of Mother Nature, similarly non-human animals do not have rights unless it is in regards to humans. As pointed out by Jan Narveson "morality is a sort of agreement among rational, independent, self-interested persons who have something to gain from entering into such an agreement" (192). In order to have the ability to obtain rights one must be consciously able to enter into an agreement, non-human animals are

For centuries, animal experiments have been widely disseminated due to men's inability to find other ways to try new and innovative medications to treat different diseases that affect humankind. This is a problem of great importance because animals are used indiscriminately for profit and the advancement of medicine. Some people say animal experiments are necessary to improve the health and well-being of humanity. Other people claim that experimenting in animals is unfair and unethical because animals are living beings that experience pain and fear just like humans. In my opinion, if both humans and animals belong to the same planet, they should enjoy same privileges, regardless of their cognitive, social, and physical level. Now, let us evaluate three different arguments directly related to animal testing: animal cruelty, living organisms, and animals’ rights.