Jeremy Rifkin Animals

Non-human animals should have the same rights that humans have such as not being used as food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation.

In the article Rifkin explains that because of their feelings, animals should have some type of rights. This would go against any animal testing for big companies or scientific experiments that could solve medical cures. Wild animals are known to be dangerous and giving them rights would complicate things. For example; carnivores have a killing sense and would not think twice

In the article “A Change of Heart About Animals”, Rifkin asserts that humans are treating animals in the most atrocious way, and he claims that in order for their lives to improve, we need to definitely adjust ours. He uses great amount of logos, and several experiments done with different animals and tries his best to closely relate animals to us, humans. Rifkin although, never inserts a call for action to this problem throughout his article. Instead, he puts the emphasis on the pathos of the argument. In the world we are living in today, there is about 8.7 million different living species. Whether they are land or marine animals, they do play a big role in our community such as being apart of the food pyramid, assisting handicapped people wherever they go, or being a transportation for people living on farms and fields. With this being said, the ranking of animals in our community has brought up a heated argument in connection to their rights and welfare. Eight legged, four legged, or two legged land or sea animals do not comprehend the concept of rights. If we, humans, give animals “rights”, we are basically inferring the fact that we are like animals, and they have the entitlement to share our rights. Although they don’t understand rights, the fact that many of these animals are being treated inhumanely is wrong and animal welfare should be ingrained into this community rather than the massive inhumane treatment.

The fundamental question that defined the content of the article was "What gives us the right to exploit other organisms as we see fit?" (Suzuki, 2008, p.681). Humanity had a long history of using animals in testing due to biological similarities (Suzuki, 2008, p. 680). He put a mirror to people by questioning the ways animals were treated in those scenarios, and if the methods and product were worth the suffering of animals. To do this he looked at examples of scientific studies to alleviate human illness, as well as use of animals for entertainment. By contrasting the harsh realities animals face with the rationalization of their captors, the article underlined not only humanity's unlimited capacity for cruelty but also the factors that allow it to keep on doing the same thing no matter what the truth of the matter is. The article was written for those who those who do not know about the scientific exploitation of animals as well as those who have not in the past seen the idea of captivity and scientific treatment of

Animals share the same right as human beings. To have a right is to have a claim or entitlement to something and to have that claim recognized by others. There are two types or rights; legal and moral rights. Legal rights are comulgated by law making part of government. Moral rights are stems from reason and worth for example life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I believe animals share both rights because the only difference between human beings and animals is basically the ability to speak.

Many people nowadays have different views on what exactly to define animals as, and whether or not they deserve any rights. Some believe that they are nothing more than a childhood pet used for entertainment, while others believe that they are beautiful exquisite animals. Currently, animals inside of a household have more rights that cattle or chicken since they are treated as another member of the family. I think that all animals are worthy of moral consideration, not just house pets, since all animals have enough intelligence to be domesticated, they can all feel emotions such as pain and happiness, they can all care about the wellbeing of others, and they all play a critical role in the circle of life.

Although Jeremy Rifkin says that we should feel empathy towards animal I don't think we should because then it creates more problems than it would solve. For Example, Where do we cross the line for animal rights and how do we determine which animals get rights and which don’t? When the animals do gets rights would we still keep them as pets and what would happen to medical research

According to the “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Animals” written by the International League of the Rights of Animals in September of 1977 animals have similar right to those of humans. Animals have a right to live with respect and shall not be killed without reason. They shall not be denied the right to reproduce, or have the freedom of living in their natural habitat (Opposing Viewpoints 20). Activism in animal rights first began in the late 1960s because a documentary from Canada showed baby seals being beat to death with clubs was shown across the world. When people saw the documentary, they were outraged and started a massive animal-rights movement, which is now targeting factory farms (“Key Issue: Animal Rights” 1).

Animal rights are another issue we are facing right now. There are many who believe that they have no rights, others say that they have the same rights as humans and others are in the middle of these two extremes issues. The topic is very complex because if animals have rights which one are those since the only way to protect them is by regulating them on how are they are treated or how can they be used. Animals are used in many ways such as food, medicine, research, cosmetics, cloth and sport among many other ways. Many who believe that the reason animals have no rights is because of the lack perception where they don’t feel or have pain like humans. There is no doubt that animals feel pain or pleasure and just for that reason they have rights, some people say. On the other hand, we cannot compare animals to humans because they are indeed different and for that reason, they cannot have the same rights. For example, animals can’t vote.

Jeremy Rifkin I strongly agree with your thesis. I believe animals should not be mistreated and viewed as nothing more than unintelligent animals. When you said that animals our fellow creatures are like us because they feel pain, suffer, and experience stress; that had me thinking. Animals are capable of thinking for themselves if they also feel pain, suffer, and experience stress, like you said. I like how you used evidence to support your claim. In the article you stated," In Germany, the government is encouraging pig farmers to give each pig 20 seconds of human contact". I agree with the case you make about animals being alike to humans and should not be looked as ignorant things. The facts and evidence you gave from real scientists on

At this moment, tens of millions of animals, such as rats, rabbits, monkeys, cats, and dogs, plus more, are being locked inside cages in labs all throughout the country due to being used in horrific experiments. These animal experiments are used to develop and enhance new drugs and to test the safety of products before being used on humans. Many of these experiments inflict pain to the animals and decrease their satisfactory of life. More than a hundred million animals suffer and die every year in the U.S. from medical education and clinical experiments, as well as merciless chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic tests. Animals also suffer and die in classroom biology experiments and dissection.

Have you ever wondered why animals are used in experimentation? Each year over 100 million are killed due to experiments for biology lessons, medical training, chemical, drug, food, cosmetic testing, and curiosity driven experimentation. The better question is why? Why use animal when there are many alternatives. Animals may not be able to speak up for themselves but humans have a voice for them. Many people have participated in protest, taken surveys, and created organizations to protect animals from the cruelty.

One of my favorite quotes of all time “If you don’t like seeing pictures of violence towards animals being posted, you need to help stop the violence, not the pictures.” -Johnny Depp. Living together with animals can be seen as cruelty, suffering, and pain towards their moral standing in the human world, even if it’s not similar to human standing. Animals has been seen continuously in the United States and several of different countries throughout generations. I feel as we the people need to do something about these animals who are suffering such as this brutality, suffering, and pain. I believe if we take a stand that it’s possible to change this animal cruelty and make peace with the poor animals.

Mohandas K. Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. What, then, does it say about the people of the United States, for allowing the deaths of millions of innocent animals for the benefit of research, that in most cases is not even useful? 100 million animals are killed each year due to animal testing or experimentation (PETA,1). In the past, it was acceptable to use animal testing for scientific research, but now that there are other viable alternatives to the testing of innocent animals, such as in-vitro, stem cell testing, non-incasing imaging techniques, and micro-dosing. Animal testing should only be used in cases where said drug or treatment will treat life-threatening diseases. Animal testing in this day and age is both unnecessary and cruel, as there are multiple alternatives and the most of the time is not useful in human research.

Animals are a big part of many people’s lives. They provide companionship; they provide daily assistance to those that have deficits and are having difficulty functioning in their daily life; they provide security and help keep a watchful eye on things, plus so much more. And yet, with all that animals do for us, there are those that are treated with such little regard, care, and cruelty. They are unable to speak for themselves and therefore, they need a voice to speak for them.