Animal Rights Essay

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”.

Doesn’t it kill you to see a movie and see an animal get killed or just hurt in it? Good thing that’s all special effects. Back in the day, around 1966, movies didn’t always use special effects. Khartoum, a movie based on a holy war in the Sudan desert, directed by Basil Dearden and Eliot Elisofon, used horses a great deal, but did not use the special effects in order to not hurt the animals. Many horses died in the making of this movie, as well as others, even including a major hit, Ben-Hur. Today, there are many activist groups that fight for and about the unfair treatment and protection for animals in everyday life. The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is one of these groups. PETA was founded in

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

The experiments conducted in New York University’s research laboratories are cruel and the details are horrendously graphic. Researchers intentionally mutilate the eyes of the baby Macaque monkeys,

Quite recently a video immerged online that depicted the torture of baby monkeys by the NIH (National Institute of Health) to record their reaction in unnaturally traumatising events. In one such test a female monkey and it’s baby were placed in a cage together and the mother was heavily sedated. Scientists laughed as the baby monkey franticly tired to revive its presumed dead mother. Robotic snakes were when placed in the cage to further traumatise the young baby monkey. These same monkeys are often deliberately addicted to particular medications or alcohol to worsen these reactions of fear and

“Would we imprison our children in cages too small for them to move? Would we violate our sisters and steal their babies? Would we deliberately infect our friends with diseases and leave them untreated? Of course not so why would we do the same to animals? We must abandon the archaic and incorrect boundary of “human,” which we use to justify the ongoing massacre of billions of beings (PETA)”. According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, “There is an estimate of 100 million animals that are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in laboratory testing every year. “Most animals in laboratories never will experience fresh air or sunshine, only bars and concrete sound more like a prison well that’s just the beginning of what animal’s experience. There are few facilities that provide some outside caging, and they typically rotate the animals, giving them limited and infrequent amounts of time outdoors. Standard lab conditions, such as small, crowded cages, lack of enrichment, loud noises, and bright lights are all known to create stress in animals. When it comes to animals and their rights, there is a fine line between our needs and taking advantage of these animals just because we consider them to be inferior (NEAVS).”

    The poor, shivering animals huddled against the corner of their prison cage, attempting to sleep, but kept awake due to the never-ending pain in their fragile heads and weak body. Any minute they know they'll have to, once again, face the torture of being strapped down to wires and small cups attached to their bellies, or the electrical shocks transported straight to their brains. They moan with pain but have trouble because the vocal chords  have been removed so the screams dont disturb the scientists. They tremble with fear, sensing their fate, hoping it'll end. Fortunately, it will; the scientists will behead them, removing the brains to study and collect

In the Biomedical Primate Research Center labs, their test monkeys are tranquilized to make it appear like they are relaxed and don’t experience any pain. While the monkeys can’t move due to being anesthetized, researchers inject diseases into the monkey’s eyelid. That way they can view and observe the reaction the monkey has to the disease at all times. Once the disease is positive in the monkey’s system, they are thrown into a small individual cage (“Experimenting on Animals: Inside The Monkey Lab”). This experiment isn’t even one of the most cruel and gruesome ones conducted.

Why is it that we as a society condemn the actions of a man against a man but very rarely a man against an animal? I think this question must be understood if we are ever to change the rights animals have. As of yet I don't believe animals have any actual rights. Rather humans have rights that involve animals. If we are to truly allow animals to have rights the same or similar to humans then we must first define what it is that makes us feel as if they are entitled to rights.

Animals have become the slaves of this day and age (Levin 8). Before the Civil War, it was believed that African Americans were less intellectual than Caucasians, but this idea was proved false. The same can happen with animals that are being treated as slaves. Abraham Lincoln said, “Whenever I hear any on arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” The same opinion can be applied to animals. How do people know if a baby monkey feels the same fear as a baby human when it is taken away from its mother and locked in a cold steel cage? “Think about what it would be like to turn the tables… How would a scientist like

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

Furthermore, many animals are being subjected to sickness, pain, and early death (Moss A.12). For instance live animals are sometimes used in car crash testing (Manning) and one facility removes monkey fetuses by C-section, aborts, and sells the fetuses along with the monkeys’ breast milk (Lush). It is important to relize that animals can feel physical pain and can understand and experience emotional pain. In particular monkeys have the intellectual capability similar to young children (Panahi 18). Plus, mice and rats are compassionate, intelligent, and social creatures. For the most part, the understanding of these animals has not reached the public, but over time more and more people have gotten to know what goes on inside research labs (Avila).

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.

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