Animal Rights Essay, Research Paper

Persuasive Essay-Animal Rights

Roughly half of all Americans own some type of pet, many of which are highly intelligent, loving creatures like dogs or cats. Due to the fact that most pets are cute and cuddly, most people would object to any kind of cruel treatment imposed on their animals. However, it is more than just cuteness that gives animals the right to be protected from human cruelty. There is no reason why animals should not be entitled to the same basic, fundamental protections that humans have; the right to live and the right against all torture, physical or mental. There is overwhelming evidence that animals deserve these rights, that guaranteeing these rights is feasible, and that acknowledging these rights is necessary in order to halt the unimaginable barbarism of which many animals are helpless victims.

There is a sense, shared by almost all people in the world, that no person has the right to kill or hurt another, except in self-defense. This theory is derived from the undisputed fact that human beings are capable of feeling pain, because the body has a nervous system. When nerve cells are destroyed by say, a sharp blade, the brain receives messages that trigger in the consciousness as pain- the more cells that are destroyed at once, the sharper and more unbearable the pain. The nervous systems in most animals, especially mammals, are almost identical to those in human beings, suggesting that animals can feel pain just as acutely as people. Therefore, if people have no right to cause pain in other people, they have no right to cause pain in animals. Moreover, there is scientific evidence stating that most animals have emotions, are susceptible to mental stress, and are affected by some of the same things that affect humans emotionally. In a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University in 1997, children of almost every species of mammal down to the smallest rodent suffered and died soon after being untimely separated from their mothers- despite adequate care from scientists. Animals confined in cages for very long periods of time, such as those on farms and those in vivisection laboratories, show signs of insanity and neuroticism, often throwing themselves against the walls or tearing flesh from their own bodies in crazed, desperate fits. The obvious signs that animals are like humans in their ability to feel pain and joy demand that they be granted their inalienable rights against murder, torture, and imprisonment. The only things that stand in the way for animal rights are money and human convenience. Most people do not consider animals worthy of any rights because they are not human, and humans are somehow better , though that is no excuse for cruel treatment. It used to be considered acceptable to enslave Africans because they were not white, and the German people accepted the murder of six million Jews people they were not Christian. Power is no excuse for oppression, and it s time to throw away the silly prejudices and look at the facts; animals are sentient.

Animal rights have often been deemed untenable for several reasons, but a close look at facts proves otherwise. Some people question how far to push laws against animal cruelty, and where to draw the line between sentient and non-sentient creatures. Can a man be prosecuted for stepping on an ant? Should it be illegal to shoot a wild animal that is attacking you? No, self-defense has always been, and will always be a legitimate reason to kill. As for the question of where to draw the line in which animals to guarantee fundamental rights, the answer is that all animals have rights, including the tiniest insect. However, it is inevitable to avoid all contact with the smaller creatures, and protecting every bug is impossible, so killing an insect can be overlooked. Overall, a basic rule to follow is, If it s alive, don t kill it. However, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish are another story; they deserve protection under the law. Cruelty to, or imprisonment of these types of animals should be a crime, since it is only done by choice, and is perfectly avoidable. A person should be charged with murder of an animal if the accusation is substantial, and if the act was done deliberately. For, if an animal is killed by a firearm or by a trap, or by anything that shows deliberate intention to kill, then the offense is prosecutable. It is easy to avoid killing if one does not pursue with the intention of killing. Animals, of course, do not have an obligation to honor other animals rights because they cannot possibly be aware of these rights. In addition, if people somehow prevented animals from killing other animals, the result would be a disaster for the ecosystem, and a disruption of the balance of nature. Humans are the only species that has the choice of whether to be violent or placatory, and should therefore be obligated to steer clear of bloodshed. In conclusion, the practices of meat farming, fur farming, and vivisection, should be outlawed to stop the brutal treatment of helpless animals.

The problem with so-called animal rights today is that they are rights more for people than for animals. It is a crime to kill a dog only because the owner will suffer mental stress, inconvenience, or loss of money. The dog s life is not taken into consideration because crimes against animals are only considered crimes on the grounds of the harm that they cause the owners of the animals. It is vital to acknowledge the rights of animals because doing so will stop the unimaginable atrocities that are committed against animals everyday in places like meat and dairy farms, fur farms, and vivisection labs. Every year, 30 million sentient animals are slaughtered for food, after living lives on farms that mimic Hitler s concentration camps. The meat industry treats its animals as machines that should be exploited and manipulated in whatever means necessary to ensure the maximum output of meat as quickly as possible, for the lowest cost. The welfare of the animals is obviously not taken into consideration. Farms take calves from their mothers at birth, and stuff them into jam-packed, disease infested, lightless barns with hundreds of other despairing animals. Each animal is injected with globs of growth hormones that speed up growth so fast that many animals lack the leg muscles to support their overgrown, abnormal body waits. In order to be fattened, each is force fed with a funnel until its stomach nearly bursts, and is then given chemicals that prevent vomiting. Females live a constant cycle of births and immediate re-impregnations, while kept in furrowing crates and gestation cages, which don t allow them to lie down comfortably. When they are too old to have more children, they, like the males, are packed into trucks and driven to the slaughterhouse. The buildings where animals are kept reek of vile stench and disease, and are so filthy that animals develop breathing problems and all sorts of painful sicknesses, which of course go untreated, due to the costs. One common malady afflicting beef cattle is called “cancer eye”, which left untreated, eats away at the animal’s eye and face, until it produces a crater in the side of the animal’s head. Slaughterhouses embody hell on Earth, with over two hundred and fifty killings per hour, on a national average. The factory hangs incoming animals by their legs and carries them down conveyer belts until their necks are sliced open by a mechanical blade, which often misses, resulting in animals boiled alive in cooking tanks. Fur farms treat their victims little differently, by forcing them to spend their entire lives in small cages with floors of metal wire, which are designed to let feces fall through. In producing some types of more expensive fur, animals are refrigerated or kept outside in the cold in order to make them grow a shinier coat. Numbers are often shocking- it takes around forty mink to make a mink coat, which produces forty lives of agony. The most disgusting and horrifying thing that is done to animals is the making of veal, which is prized for its tenderness. With an iron chain around its neck and a cage that measures just two feet wide, a baby calf finds it impossible to turn around, stretch, or even lie down comfortably for its entire life. This confinement prevents muscle tissue from developing, creating the valued tenderness of veal. The calves are fed an all-liquid milk-substitute that is purposely deficient in iron and fiber. It is intended to produce borderline anemia and the pale colored flesh fancied by ‘gourmets’. Vivisection labs, where doctors do experiments on live animals, resemble torture chambers seen Frankenstein movies. Doctors sever the limbs of live animals, induce heart attacks and ulcers, and use animals to try out the latest chemicals, including vanity items. For all these reasons and many more, animal rights are necessary to prevent inhumane treatment of all animals. Again, the problem is that a crime against an animal is only thought of as a crime if it hurts people. Farms and animal testing labs are supposedly beneficial to people, so they are not considered crimes against animals, and remain legal. If we legislate animal rights to help the animals instead of the people who own them, then all of these atrocities can be averted. Another thing that keeps such atrocities legal is a simple factor called money. As long as it is profitable to abuse animals in this way, it will continue to be done- unless people realize the truth about animals rights, and treat animals with the same dignity and respect with which they treat themselves.

It doesn t take a genius to figure out that there is something horrible going on in America. Basic logic and reasoning should tell people that there is something wrong with torturing animals for money or meat. No law should have to define what cruelty is- people should be able to see it on their own. All that stands in the way of giving animals their rights is greed.