Animal Rights, Human Wrongs vs. The Damned Human Race Essay

The statement that can best be made about the purpose of The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain is that he believes that mankind is immoral, vulgar, wasteful, vengeful, discriminatory; cruel, greed, and obscene. This is because he has a moral sense and conscience despite this, doesn’t make our decisions right and properly. However, contrast with Mark Twain’s thesis; I think human beings are not that all bad and not the lowest animal, but perhaps not the highest animal either.

Twain's experiments comparing human behaviour to that of animals in various situations intend to puncture some illusion that human species has about itself by stating that we are inferior to animals because we engage in organized mass fighting, we enslave, we are patriots and hate others who are not a part of our country. Twain's experiments reveal that other animals are superior to humans because he uses examples of man’s faulty ways to point out that animals do not behave in such a manner.  First, we engaged in organized fighting.  We pick fights with other people in hopes that others would join us.  Animals seem to fight out what they are in disagreement of that instance after the fight is over they move on.  We tend to hold grudges.  Second,

Today, the discussions about the protection of the animal’s rights have received the attention of many people, many countries in the world. A lot of actions have been made by animal right activists to influence the world. Alex Epstein and Yaron Book, both authors of the “The Evil of Animal ‘Right’,” argue animal right activists use too much violence on their action, which is considered going against the law. Then, the authors give a lot of evidence to prove testing animals are extinct, but using animals for testing gives us new vaccines which make our lives better. Without animals for testing, how can scientists find out the vaccine for diseases? Animal right groups are making many effects to Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Regan presents a few cases such as those of rabbits, whales, and gibbons physically violated or murdered so that human beings can acquire unessential products. For instance, rabbits are used in cosmetic testing labs where they are held captive, lose their vision, and occasionally die. Rabbits do not have tear ducts so they are used to test harmful products that they cannot flush out of their eyes. Many of these products will result in the destruction of the iris or cornea as well as swelling, redness, or blindness in the eyes. Along with rabbits, whales are also being harmed and killed for unnecessary reasons; they are hunted so that wax, perfume, and soap can be made. Another scenario given by Regan is the hunting of baby gibbons for veal. The difference between the killing of gibbons and the killing of cattle for meat or hide has to do with the method in which they are being killed.

In “The Lowest Animal,” Mark Twain’s story declares that man is not the “Top animal,” but is in fact the animal of lowest descent. Twain points out how man is needlessly cruel, greedy, indecent, brutal, etc. Animals do not have the ability to decipher between right and wrong. They do only what they

In “The Case for Animal Rights”, Regan explores different philosophical ideologies regarding the treatment of animals by humans. He finds flaws with each having done so he puts forth the idea of animal rights as the philosophy which solves the conundrum. The ideologies he discards are such:

Through the usage of various satirical devices Mark Twain develops an essay that explains why Man is below all other species, along with Man’s greatest weaknesses. I personally found Mark Twain’s essay “On the Damned Human Race” a dark piece of a satire, however it was carefully orchestrated to display the cruelty, and yet I struggled to fully accept that Man is completely unreasonable.

The controversial issue of animal testing isn’t a top priority for most Americans, but it is for the animal rights activist that have established brand boycotts and loyalty. Animal testing has been around for decades; however, most Americans do not know if their household cleans or beauty products are tested on animals. Companies like Fabreze, Lysol, and even Comet are still tested on animals as of 2017 but have a standing consumer boycott by animal rights activist. “A study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics (February 2015) found that from 1997 to 2012, the total number of laboratory animals increased by 73%, but due to inadequacies in recordkeeping on the use of animals in experimentation, the number may be even higher (“Animals,”

Edward James Hughes was born 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire in a terraced house overlooking the Rochdale canal. He lived just on the border between city and country. This early setting of seeing firsthand the contrast and split in civilization enforced in him a very dualistic view of life. His early childhood days also had a profound impact on his disposition as he became fascinated with nature and the animals within it. Animals held specific importance to Hughes as his hobby of hunting fostered a belief in him of an inherent closeness between human and animal. In his boyish mind, the relation between the two was strictly to catch and kill. He thought it true that any creature outside the “ordered world of men” should be killed

As of today PETA is one group that is helping animals in barbaric situation like that of professional research laboratories. In these laboratories, the staff treats animals inhumanly where chemicals are poured onto the animal causing burns and sores. According to answers.com, animal rights are the rights to humane treatment claimed on behalf of animals, especially the right not to be exploited for human purposes. This movement in America traces its roots to the settlers. According to the US History Encyclopedia in 1641, Body of Liberties laws, Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans came up with the first animal protection laws when they included two provisions prohibiting cruelty to animals. After the Civil war is when animal rights became a

Mark Twain suggests that humans are the lowest of all animals due to their greediness and misery they cause. He also explains how the other animals are the “higher animals.” Although some people believe that humans are the highest animals the reality is that humans are morally the lowest and that humans are greedy. Humans are morally low and know when they are doing wrong and sometimes still keep doing it again. People abuse animals such as kicking a dog and cause pain for no reason.

Continually, Twain makes the point that humans are essentially cruel. Using an array of examples during his essay, he uses this theme as the basis of his argument. The first occurrence of this theme is the hunting and anaconda example. He points out that the Englishman hunt for entertainment and are wasteful. He writes “They killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left seventy-one to rot”(Twain 357). His description of the animals as “great” implies his respect for the animals, contrasting than the selfish hunters. Furthermore, Twain, seeking to not only assume, but prove this savagery sets up an example to compare humans to animals. When setting an anaconda in a cage with seven calves that the anaconda is well capable of killing, the anaconda only kills one. Twain describes the

Most people will step on an insect without a second thought while ordering a double-double at In-N-Out. There is a vocal minority of people who will not step on that insect, but order a grilled cheese at the very same In-N-Out. There is an even smaller minority who will not even order the cheese because a cow had to produce milk to make the cheese. The subject of animal rights incites heated debates. On one end of the spectrum would be animal rights organizations like People for the Ethical treatment of Animals or PETA for short. PETA takes a stance against any use of any animal, even using silk from silk worms. According to this organization, the only tolerable use of an animal is a neutered companion pet in the backyard. On the other end of the spectrum would be the people like the infamous dentist, Walter Palmer, who paid thousands of dollars to African hunting guides to lure a lion off an animal preserve in order to shoot it. Palmer then had the lion stuffed and mounted to a board by a taxidermist to remember his kill. Most Americans ' beliefs fall somewhere in between Palmer and PETA.

Humans have always had a complicated relationship with non-human animals. This relationship has always benefitted the needs of humans, with little consideration for animals’ needs. Some animals are tortured for entertainment, some are butchered for food and others are taken from their habitat and family, and forced to be pets for humans. These are all examples of the ways humans have exploited animals for their own satisfaction. Hal Herzog’s essay “Animals Like Us” describes the complicated relationship that humans and animals have, and how difficult it is to determine what is ethical when dealing with animals. Jonathan Safran Foer makes a similar observation in his essay “The Fruits of Family Trees” of the ethical issues in the

The greatest distortion of the human/animal relationship is the act of cruelty towards animals. The legislative response to animal cruelty first became known in North America and Europe in the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Concern for the pain and suffering experience of animals came about when we started “humanizing animals”. Animals were allowed in the house, given a name and taken care for much like you would a child. Thomas (1983) study found the following: