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The ethics of animal rights
Do animals have rights
Animals should have rights
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For centuries, animals have been used by us people like they are some of our worst enemies. We have tortured, slaughtered, skinned, burned, experimented on, and even used them as pets. These animals who have the right to live like any other free creatures must be saved from the torment of humanity. Our human species have been nothing but cruel and dishonest toward the use of these poor animals. Cruel because of our poor ways of slaughtering the animals and dishonest due to the fake reports we provide to the public of their use. In order for us to understand what the animals go through, we must put ourselves in their shoes, and clearly when we do that no human would want to be in their place. Yes, we need their meat and yes we need them …show more content…
Mercer argues that animals have no capacity to tell What is right and what is wrong like humans do and they cannot be accounted for their actions either. The purpose of this article is to inform the general public that animals are to be treated with passion by humans, but not to the extent of giving them the same rights as humans as Animal Rights activists claim. Throughout the whole article Mercer forcefully argues that animals activists are too extreme and also provides real-life tragedies of the insane Animal Right advocates being killed by …show more content…
6). We make the excuse of animals not being able to control their actions so we have to think for them by controlling them and benefiting from their use. I disagree with Mercer because if animals think and act similar to humans that is why it is irrelevant to say that they act flexibly. People are born with their rights naturally in this modern time, so should animals as well. My argument is that if animals do act flexibly, how come they feel the excitement, fear, and know when there's a danger around them, in addition how do the animal parents take care of their babies just like humans
Regan, Tom. “The Case for Animal Rights.” In Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2 ed.. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.
...nimal rights yet I do question myself where to draw the line. I do not condone violence or harm against animals, yet I shudder at the thought of a mice plague and feel saddened by the extinction of our native animals by ‘feral’ or pest species. Is it right to kill one species to save another? I am appalled by the idea of ‘circus’ animals yet I will attend the horse races every summer for my entertainment. I think Tom Regan’s argument and reasoning for animal rights was extremely effective at making whoever is reading the essay question his or her own moral standards. Reading the essay made me delve into my own beliefs, morals and values which I think is incredibly important. To form new attitudes as a society it is important we start questioning how we view the lives of others, do we see animals as a resource to be exploited or as equals with rights just like we do?
“... the right question for animals is not ‘Can they reason?’ ‘Can they talk?’, but ‘Can they suffer?’ ”
Nevertheless, his argument has some weak points. In this section, I will present my strongest objection to his argument, that humans and animals need to follow the social contract altogether in order to have rights claims, in response to the second premise that equal inherent value provides the basis for rights claims. In fact, a right claim requires responsibilities, duties, and obligations of the parties that take part in the event of the rights claim. As a result, if we apply the same basis for rights claims to animals, they should also hold responsibilities for these right claims, which is impossible in this case. Let’s see an example, if we don’t “touch” animal at all, I wonder whether all of them will act the same with us or not. The answer is obvious, that we still have to avoid the carnivores. Therefore, my points show that this premise is weak, which leads to the invalidation of the conclusion that animals are deserving of equal
Almost all humans want to have possession and control over their own life, they want the ability to live independently without being considered someone’s property. Many people argue that animals should live in the same way as humans because animals don’t have possession of their lives as they are considered the property of humans. An article that argues for animal rights is “The case against pets” (2016) by Francione and Charlton. Gary L Francione and Anna E Charlton are married and wrote a book together, “Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach (2015). Francione is a law professor at Rutgers University and an honorary professor at University of East Anglia. Charlton is also a law professor at Rutgers University and she is the co-founder of the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic. In this article Francione and Charlton mainly focus on persuading people to believe in animal rights but only focus on one right, the right of animals not to be property. The article is written in a well-supported manner with a lot of details and examples backing it up, but a few counter-arguments can be made against some of their arguments.
Animals are used today for many sources of protection, food, clothing, transportation, sports, entertainment, and labor, but millions of these animals die each year from abuse. “Most of the reasons that people give for denying animals rights are: animals do not have souls, god gave humans dominion over the animals, humans are intellectually superior to animals, humans are intellectually superior to animals, animals do not reason, think, or feel pain like humans do, animals are a natural resource to used as humans see fit, and animals kill each other” (Evans). It all started in the nineteenth century, when people began abusing animals by beating them, feeding them poorly, providing them with no shelter or poor shelter, left to die if they were sick or old, or by cruel sports. Most of the organized efforts to improve human treatment of animals all started in England. Around the 1800s, there was signs of rising concern for animal welfare in the United States.
As an advocate of animal rights, Tom Regan presents us with the idea that animals deserve to be treated with equal respect to humans. Commonly, we view our household pets and select exotic animals in different regard as oppose to the animals we perceive as merely a food source which, is a notion that animal rights activists
According to Animal Ethics, “A minority of people don’t have any concern for the way animals are treated and are not concerned even when animals are tortured pointlessly. A less extreme version of this view is shown by people who are opposed to torturing animals in some unusual ways or merely for the fun of it, yet don’t think it matters very much that animals suffer because of the way humans treat them as long as humans benefit from it.” This proves that humans shouldn’t neglect one species of animals just because it benefits them. Which there justifies why there should more action taken to give all animals better treatment instead of just one animal species. Some humans don’t believe they do this type of discrimination towards animals. Although not all people do this they may imply it in their actions like, for example with fish. A quote from Animal Ethics states, “For example, one can reject the use of dogs and cats for food (an acceptable practice in some countries) but accept the consumption of, say, chickens and fishes. This is also a form of speciesist discrimination, since all sentient animals have an interest in not being harmed regardless of the species to which they belong.” In the end though you may give more respect to all mammals more action should be taken to respect to all animals no matter if we use them as a resource for food or
In the article “No, animals don’t have rights” (2014), the author argues that the movement for animals rights is reducing humans to animals, or upgrading animals to humans. However, this is not entirely true, humans are also animals, but with a higher degree of intelligence. In the article “Yes, animals have feelings” (2014), has shown that most scientists agree that vertebrates animals are, to different degrees, sentient. Humans can’t understand what they feel exactly, but we can notice their change in behavior and emotion. Animals are responsive and expressive, they have their intentions and preferences. Opponents believe that animals don 't have rights or that even if they do, those rights should count for less than human desires; others believe giving animals rights would demean humanity and animal rights must be rejected; also, that human welfare is more important than animal welfare, interests of animals should be overruled when necessary. A research by the Clever Dog Lab at the University of Vienna, shows that dogs, just like humans, glance at the left side of the human face first, this is where the bilateral brains exhibit more emotion. Therefore, dogs rapidly read mood and intentions. A research led by Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trento, found that dogs were relaxed when they watched videos of dogs wagging their tails mainly to the
In conclusion, I agree with Tom Regan’s perspective of the rights view, as it explores the concept of equality, and the concept of rightful treatment of animals and humans. If a being is capable of living, and experiencing life, then they are more than likely capable of feeling pleasure and pain, except in a few instances. If humans are still treated in a respectable and right way even if some cannot vote, or think for themselves, then it is only fair that animals who also lack in some of these abilities be treated as equals. As Regan puts it, “pain is pain, wherever it occurs” (1989).
The ugly truth is that animals are dying at the hands of their owners everyday, some in very violent ways that can be avoidable given the right solution. Slaughterhouses, puppy mills, dog fighting, and so on, are just a few examples of how animals are being treated badly by people. Animal cruelty is a form of violence which, un...
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Call Number: HV4711.A5751992. Morris, Richard Knowles, and Michael W. Fox, eds. On the Fifth Day, Animal Rights. and Human Ethics.
The abuse that animals endure at human hands is heartbreaking, sickening, and infuriating. Animals are just as delicate as humans, so why not abuse us too? Animal lives should be just important as ours. No animals should be killed or abused for testing, entertaining, clothing, or hoarding. Every year, millions of animals are being killed and torture for testing.
The diverse animal right movement will continue to be challenged by this question, but I would like to propose a middle ground solution. Advocacy is a powerful tool We can use this tool to create a significant conscious transformation not only in terms of people's notion concerning animal
But, non-humans animals do not have a sense of morality. Therefore, non-human animals do not have rights. If animals do not know what is right or wrong, why should one worry about killing and eating them? Animals taste good and they may be necessary for one’s health; if they do not know what is right or wrong, we should not worry about it