If animals do have rights, what rights would those be? The most basic right any sentient being can have is for his or her interests to be given equal consideration. After that, things get more complicated. Some advocates think that all animals have a right to life. Others give more weight to the lives of beings such as chimpanzees, which are capable of understanding that they have a life, and of having hopes and desires directed toward the future. The movement's supporters agree that the way we treat animals now, as test subjects and factory-farm products, is flagrantly wrong.
If society were gradually to accept animal rights, it would spell dramatic changes. Some people might accept humanely raised meat, eggs and dairy products, if the animals had good lives, living outdoors in social groups of a size natural to the particular species. But this would most likely prove to be an interim stage. As the demand for animal products dwindles, the meat industry would breed fewer chickens, turkeys, pigs and cattle. Eventually the only remaining beef cattle, sheep and pigs would be small herds preserved so that we can take the grandchildren to see what these once abundant animals look like. Factory farming—for meat, eggs or milk—would disappear. If we are to continue to eat meat, we'll have to rely on scientists who are now trying to grow meat in vats. When they succeed, it will be the real thing, grown from animal cells, not a soy-based substitute, and it might even be indistinguishable from the meat we eat now. But since it would involve no animals, and hence no suffering or killing, there will be no ethical objections.
Animal’s rights is an issue that deserves to be analyzed. The way how humans treat animals represent a problem. Humans, in general believe that because ” they are superior” they can decide about animal’s destination and life. I’m not saying that humans can not eat chicken, however, the process and the conditions they apply are incorrect. We as human beings talk about to be humanitarians, but we offer to animals an horrible short period of life that is shameful. We can offer animals a nice place with the space that they need. In addition, allow them to grow as mother nature says, without hormones and antibiotics. Also, we are not making a favor to us because the quality of the food we eat is unacceptable and inadequate. Imagine that a certain race appears and conclude that they are superior than us and we have to be their slaves and live in deplorable conditions. Do we will approve this as well as we approve the destiny of animals? Unfortunately, Many important companies don’t care about animal’s treatment. We are talking about million of dollars that represents the profits of this business. the possible solutions and the ideal procedure would be to stop this humiliating process. Nevertheless, If this unfair process can not be stooped, at least we can act individually and support animal’s rights. A good way of doing this is reading the labels of food in the supermarket and buying only organic and free of hormone products.
In every level of the food chain survival of the fittest applies. All must kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. But in any other level other than our own do you see the absolutely unnecessary over slaughter torture, and waste of goods as our species creates? NO! And it's exactly that, unnecessary. Animals do not see the need to torture each other while killing for food and neither do they slaughter far more than they need to eat or for reasons of sport. But yet we are supposed to be above their primitive non-intelligent selves? That hardly makes sense. Regardless that animals cannot speak and tell you they are in pain it does not mean that they are not! If you have ever accidentally stepped on your pet dog or cat and heard it scream out in pain or limp away will you tell me it was not feeling pain? Of course it was, and any creature that feels pain should not have to suffer pain more than is necessary for our survival. People abusing poor helpless animals is like an adult abusing a helpless baby both are innocent creatures who don't deserve it. I'm sure something would be done about anyone hurting a baby so something must be done about animal abuse as well. We are human so lets act humane.
Animals do not see the need to torture each other while killing for food and neither do they slaughter far more than they need to eat or for reasons of sport. But yet we are supposed to be above their primitive non-intelligent selves? That hardly makes sense.
Primerose Borgella (T 5:40 P.M.) Unlike the Abolitionists and the Utilitarian who are in favor of animal rights, the Libertarians argue against animal rights. According to them, animals cannot have rights because rights are a subset of “proper treatment” that can be applied only to those with moral agency who understand and respect the rights of others. They pursue to say that animals may only enjoy some protection against cruelty, but they may not enjoy rights. In fact, animals are exposed to human being’s mistreatment such as killings, loss of freedom, factory farming purposes and harm when they are used as test subjects. As for me, I believe that animals matter morally. It is inhumane to deliberately working toward the destruction of the species up to their extinct. Suppose someone wants to kill your pets, he will certainly anger you. Therefore, animals must deserve more respect, more human treatment as living entities that coexist along us.
Most animal food products produced in the United States come from “factory farm” systems places that practice genetic engineering and chemically raise the meat causing the animal’s great suffering in the process. Conditions in these “factory farms” are such that many animals become injured and or ill from neglect, abuse and overcrowding. Often many animals die before slaughter. Battery cages are tiny and they confine approximately 19 million egg-laying hens in California. These social, intelligent animals are crammed in barren battery cages where they can’t even spread their wings. With no opportunity to nest, dust batter, perch, and walk, these birds endure lives filled with suffering. How is this behavior acceptable? How do these companies get away with mistreating these animals? If knowing this is wrong, then how do we let this go on? Shouldn’t we be accountable for our own actions and not allow this malpractice continue, this animal brutality. Haven’t we come far as humans and are intelligent enough to understand that we are mistreating these animals. When does it end? On the other hand we should also realized that the average farm worker family, according the USDA, makes about $13,000 a year, and we’re talking about family here with mom and dad both working in the fields because the work is sporadic and poorly paid. Please check this website I founded to be very interested go to www.mcspotlight.org what’s wrong with McDonald’s? Surprisingly we have a McDonald’s restaurant right across Miami Dade College. If you really think about what is going on in the food industry? Who is really is at fault? The big industry that is making the money while doing this inhumane treatment to the animals or the poor people that have no other choice but to buy the cheapest food they could afford or the people who have few options and so are forced to accept this exploitation. I personally believe the big people are at fault. Therefore I’m glad we did this project about the food industry the more I read about this I’m more surprise about the information that is out there. Now I will be more conscious about what I’m ordering, what I’m buying and especially what I’m eating.
Bulleting.AARP.org “Food, Inc” Editor Karl Weber Discusses processed food facts
I personally think that animals should be treated in a more humane way, due to the fact that they feel pain just in the same way that we do. We frequently argue in favor of animal rights; however, people all over the world are being really cruel when killing them. I don’t think that we have the rights to decide which species of animals deserve to be killed and which ones do not. We generally tent to decide which type of animal can be hunt and which ones cannot; nevertheless, some of these animals are killed just for entertainment. For instance, the fact that we have the ability to communicate in a really complex way and we have some moral responsibilities which as defines by Roger Scruton animals don’t posses, perhaps does not gives us enough reason to treat animals as a mean to an end. Have you ever stop to think that we are more animals than what we actually admit? Haven’t we acted among ourselves with the same brutality?
It is extremely difficult to discuss animal abuse in the food industry without opening a much deeper debate about animal rights. Tom Regan argues that animals have "inherent value" as subjects-of-a-life, and as such, they are bearers of rights. Based on this argument, I asked myself: Who established which animals we choose to treat humanly? We care for our dogs as if they were our children and on the other hand we are ok breading 20,000 chickens in a single shed at a density of 130 sq inches of space per bird? So where do we draw the line? Consuming animal product is a natural part of being a member of the food chain. However this must not justify animal abuse. Animals have not always been mistreated, so does demand justify the means? I have to disagree.
Large manufacturing food companies participate in the abuse of numerous animals in order to reduce cost and increase productivity. It is all part of the innovative modern factory farming of today’s “modern” agriculture. No more barnyards and green pastures. Today its all about who grows more with less, (less morality that is.)
Farm animals should have the same legal protection from cruelty that domesticated animals currently have. This shouldn’t even be a topic for debate. These animals are no less alive or capable of feeling pain than a dog or a horse.
I firmly believe that factory farming should be regulated by the government. The big corporations behind the inhumane breeding and slaughter of farm animals should be subject to the scrutiny of an agency that would look not only after animal rights, but would also take a look at the side effects of consuming these genetic manipulated animals. Daine Guzman T 5:40 pm
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an animal rights not-for profit organization and their slogan is “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment." Though I do have a palate for chicken and own leather shoes, I could not agree with them more. Granted, most animals do not make social contracts or make moral choices as pointed out by the philosopher Roger Scruton. Nonetheless, they feel pain, any one can see the anguish in their eyes and hear it in their cries and shrieks, they are defenseless animals that nourish us and the least that we can do for them is to treat them humanely, one way is with controlled-atmosphere killing or CAK. Animals feel pain and just because they do not have the cognitive gift that humans do, does not make them meaningless, they are conscious beings that suffer while we drive through fast food chains on the way home to catch the new episodes on T.V. It is wrong, any way you look at it; they are like newborns unable to defend or express themselves beyond a cry. The demand that we place from powerful corporations is unlike any other; these corporations also have the indistinguishable power to demand that their suppliers use CAK, we as consumers make them wealthy and though we truly may care, we are just too busy with our own lives to do anything about it. We can, however, write letters, support groups, be part of demonstrations and yet this may still not be enough, if we really care, we need to take a stand – NO MORE ANIMAL CRUELTY and YES to ANIMAL RIGHTS, LETS do something about it! Go to www.PETA.com; www.aspca.com; to Take Action go to https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1696 and sign their letter or request leaflets and stickers, and spread the word…We Are Their Voice, the ASPCA slogan.
If humans are animals, how it is possible then for an animal to own another animal? Just because they differ from us in the way that they cannot defend themselves in the way humans do, they can’t fight. Maybe that’s the reason why some defend them. As is the case of abolitionist. But on the other hand, that the reason why others try to take advantage of them and creating what is known as factory farms where animal are exploited to the extent that it raised concern of government to issue laws that protected them to some level. The truth is that animal factories are necessary for the survival of the other animals (humans) even if the techniques seem now to be violating animal right to live. Because at the end, they will be killed and consumed.
“Is Animal Rights Important” Even though I love to eat meat and wear clothing that comes from animals, I think the issue of animal rights is important. Some animals are useful and smart. For example police K-9s are useful at detecting drugs, making suspects surrender, and rescuing people in times of disaster. Animals should be treated humanely even though most of their final destinations are on humans’ plate. They should not be locked in crates and allowed to live in horrible conditions. After I read an article on how chickens are de beaked, it made me want to become a vegetarian. The only thing that scares me about animal rights is, if animals are given full rights like human, how we will feed the world’s population. Not everyone can afford a vegetarian lifestyle but nonetheless I think ‘animal rights’ is a topic that should be discussed whether you eat meat or not. Jimmy Prince
Animal’s rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans. Advocates approach the issue from different philosophical positions but agree that animals should be viewed as legal persons and members of the moral community, not property, and that they should not be used as food, clothing, research subjects, or entertainment. This is a good definition from Wikipedia and it is very important we understand it because it made the point of what I’m going to say about this matter. Would you like to be treated like some of these animals that experience these conditions and abuse? Animal’s right is a good idea that human being should have the decency to treat animal with kindness and respect. This is how we would want people to treat us, isn’t it? I believe that animals deserve to live according to their natures therefore we don’t have to make them suffer. We all know that animals are capable of feeling pain, hunger, thirst and solitude. However, we’re still making them suffer no matter what. Millions of animals are killed each year in these farms. The farms force them to live in extremely close contact with the other animals, which is completely against their instincts. This lifestyle cause severe stress that leads some of them to cannibalism and self-mutilation. If they get killed at these farms, they die by gassing, poison, electrocution, suffocation, and neck breaking. Another problem with animal rights is the subject of animal testing. Animals are used for a variety of different tests. Human disease cures are always tried on animals first, most make up must perform experiments with the product on animals first, and dogs and pigs are used to practice surgery on for surgeons. It is not fair and humane to conduct experiments on animals to make sure a product or procedure is safe for us to use or endure. There are no legitimate reasons that an animal’s life is worth less than our own. I think that animal's should have similar rights that people have because they too feel pain and experience emotions and just because they look different doesn’t mean that they are that much different than us.
From an evolutionary standpoint the argument of animal rights can be very distinctly brought forth. To begin, all species as well as humans need food for survival, this food can take the form of of greenery or other species, with the latter requiring that a ‘life’ be taken. In nature such carnivorous behavior is commonplace amongst species regardless of cognitive abilities. The difference is that we humans possess these cognitive and rational abilities necessary to properly consider (rationalize) our decision to kill or feel guilt while most other species do not. To me, this ability in itself requires us to be more proactive in our treatment of animals because less developed species (moral patients) do not posses this feature making them incapable of being penalized for their actions while we are able to be fully aware of the consequences. This is why I side with Tom Regan in the belief that animals are ‘subjects of life’ and thus are bearers of rights because it is proven that some can posses cognitive abilities. It is important to remember that even when our species were still cavemen they brutally killed just as any other species for food with very little regard for ethical issues or guilt, it was only as society developed bringing the ability to choose that such matters became important. In our society today people are in a state of blissful ignorance with regard to food production, the common belief is that animals don’t think therefore they don’t feel/communicate the way we do. This leads way to the belief that certain species should be stripped of their rights and viewed solely as a commodity, open to be owned, sold or treated however the owner sees fit. This is also where I side with abolitionists such as Gary Francione in their view that one of the most basic rights of a species is not to be owned or treated as property. Furthermore I find that the assumption that animals don’t feel is completely illogical, for the same reason as Peter Singer. He believes that ‘ if language is needed to communicate pain, it would often be impossible to know when humans are in pain. All we can do is observe pain behavior, and make a calculated guess based on it’. For instance, if aliens came to earth and started killing all humans, putting them on each other in cages, and eating them, could they strip of us our rights and argue that we don’t feel the pain because they don’t understand us?. Furthermore it is proven that some animals bodies have the same receptors and pain signals as our body, how then could we think that they do not have pain? Also for anyone who has ever seen an animal in pain it is painstakingly obvious that the creature is in pain. In conclusion, I still do see the need for large scale food production (and consequently owning of a species), however I believe that there is a ethical way of going about it. I believe that all creatures or subjects of life should live in a way that is natural and not discomforting to them regardless the fact that they will be killed for food. This way is proven to produce better meat, deal with ethical issues and ultimately keep us humans healthier.
Juan Pablo Bertone (T 5:40 PM)How may you feel if a giant monster be came to kill you or give you a horrible treatment only because he is bigger and stronger than you? Of course, you would say that is a big injustice only because he is stronger and "superior" than you he wouldn't have the right of give you pain and make you suffer in a unmoral way. This is the same situation in the case of the treatment that human being have to give to animals. Because they have life like human being, they have the ability of feel pain. Consequently, they can't be treatmend as they would be simple things. Human beings that are consider "superior" have the responsability of doing somethin about it. I am not say that we can't kill them in order to get food, but why we can't kill them in a better way like to use some injection? It is somethin that we have to change in order to get a better world.
Humans: the most intelligent creature on the face of planet earth. This title gives us the privilege to have control over any other creature that lives here. Great power also comes with great responsibility but we humans have neglected the second part for the most part of our recorded history. If we remove our race from this planet there would be no more deforestation, no overconsumption of resources, no excessive waste, devastation, cruelty, way too many to name them all; in conclusion we are a virus. The most advance but the most irrational creature, in the last decades a few movies have attempted to show that in a very explicit way to the general public. The day the earth stood still, I Robot, The Matrix are just some examples the last one been the most reliable to defend the right that animals have to be treated with some humanity mostly in the food industry. An industry that in its desperation to fulfill a continuously growing demand has forgotten that they are dealing with leaving creatures and not objects. In the Matrix humans are no longer in control and the new superior race don’t seem to be able to understand our suffering in the same way we don’t want understand the suffering that the animals we use for consumption have. A lack of verbal communication can not be an excuse to take away their rights or deny their ability to feel pain. The same way we would disagree if those rights would be taken away from us by any superior race that at any point may colonize us but was not able to understand our language, we need to understand that we can not take those away from them. If other developed nations can understand and have stable food supplies without going to the extreme of making the animals suffer as much as we don in the US what is keeping us from doing the same?
Just because we love “McNuggets “, does not mean we have to love factory farming. I am a utilitarian because I do believe in “the greatest good for the greatest number of people”. Unfortunately, In today’s society people believe the more chickens clucking, the more barbeque sauce were going to need. Meaning the more chickens, cows, and other animals on farms being subdued into unruly treatments are just the small overlooked errors that are constantly pushed aside for the mighty power of a dollar. People misconstrued the facts behind the easily acquired fast food we munch on every day. Animals held in solitary confinement, being stuffed with steroids and vitamins are not something I agree with because animals do feel pain and unwittingly do affect us in negative unhealthy manner. I guess what I am trying to state the next time you want to eat the “baconator” think of the greased slab of meat the animal used to be when it got tapered.
I do not want to be cruel to animals or to make them suffer without a cause, but I believe granting animals rights is going too far and could hurt human growth. For example, I wouldn’t want medical testing stopped on animals if continuing it could save many human lives. Animals’ research has produced vaccines for polio, tetanus, insulin for diabetes, and antibiotics to fight infections. Animals shouldn't have rights, rights are for humans to help society function well and to establish a safe relationship between individuals. Rights also depend on being able to distinguish on right and wrong and animals don’t have the capacity to do or the sense of morality. Animals are to kill only when they endanger us, eaten when we need food and run test on them to fight deceases. It is natural for us to eat them just as it is for a cheetah to eat a zebra.
Murder is immoral, right? So, is it immoral to eat animals?
It depends upon whether an animal has an awareness of its own existence and therefore an awareness of pain. It is very possible that feeling pain in the sense of responding to a painful stimulus does not entail self-awareness (consciousness). My own thought is that it is wrong to kill human beings because we are aware of our own existence. Perhaps some higher order mammals are also self-aware, but I suspect that is not the case.
If there is no self-awareness, no conscious being there to know its fate, killing it is quite different from killing a being that is aware of its own existence.
There is good reason for believing most, if not all, animals do not have consciousness because none show the kind of deliberate, purposeful adaptation that humans do. Animal culture has remained much the same in each species from the time each has appeared. Human adaptations demonstrate awareness of their own state and a continuous propensity to add new and "creative" ways of coping with natural and social situations.
By the way, this in no way entails that humans should be allowed to wantonly kill animals. There are many good reasons for showing care and concern for living creatures which do not entail refraining completely from killing them.
I personally choose not to “kill” or to eat meat for the simple reason that I practice Buddhism. Even though in the Buddhist Religion eating meat is allowed I just feel better by not participating in any sort of violence or painful activities.
The problem with animal rights rests upon the belief that humans and animals share a different underlying value. Once someone believes that he or she is better than another creature, the idea of control and power over them becomes easier to justify. As sentient beings, humans and animals are not different in the sense of suffering and desires. We both can feel pleasure and pain and even remember pain. For example, when a dog that has been beat every day since birth will always flinch or panic when you raise your hand, even if you mean no harm. The dog recognizes and remembers the feeling of being beat and does not want anything to do with it. Treat every universal creature, as you would want to be treated. There is no way to know what or how the universal substance that flows within the interspaces of the universe, so believing that animals are subordinate to humans is just ignorant.
As humans we believe we are superior to other animals. That being said, we still are animals. If we feel pain, then it is obvious that other animals feel pain just as much as we do even though they can not communicate it to us. Moreover, who is to say that what is the right way to show pain or what is the right way to communicate it? As much as there should be human rights those principles should transcend to other areas of life such as animal rights. Yes, it is true that animals can’t enter a social contract were they have as much rights as they have obligations, but it is undeniable that each living thing provides a purpose in some way another to this world even if they are not aware of. I don’t oppose animal testing, for medical research, nor do I think we should all be vegetarians but I believe we should treat animals with respect and implement harsher guidelines when it comes to farming as well as medical testing. In the end, the way we treat animals affects humanity as a whole, excessive use of chemicals in animals affects our bodies, excessive farming affects the environment and animal cruelty affects our ethical well being.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) - with more than 2 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs. I come from a Spanish family we enjoy all types of food and most of the time it is worked around some form of meat. Unfortunately the way animals are treated in the United States and in many leading countries is less than desirable. I believe that animals should have some form of a free, painless life. Measures although must be taken to keep some of the bacteria that infests certain animals. Yes I do understand that this might hurt the animals, but at the end of the day the food industry is not only one of the biggest but one of the most important in the world. The taste of food and the quality of the animals going into world reknowned dishes is the reason all this continues to go on. To my point on PETA, I cannot agree with them on their point of view at all. They use tactics many terrorist use in order to get their point across. And this is why I believe so many food processing companies continue doing what they do. They continue keeping their chickens in the tight spaces. They will continue to inject hormones to get fuller fatter meats from these animals. Animal rights group tend to be extremist and they become confused with terrorist. I believe animals have the ability to feel pain, but I don’t believe they have rights. At the end of the day if changes are to made, money needs to be loss and I don’t believe this will occur…
Is factory farming ethical? My stance on that particular issue is that factory farming is at first glance a business. Essentially, a business’ goal is try to find ways to reduce cost and increase output to try to satisfy demand. But, in the case of factory farming, they are not dealing with inanimate objects, their products are living organisms. And because they are living organisms they should not be treated as though they are lower than that. While reading the article on factory farming, I noted that factory farms have to resort to placing animals in high density in order to occupy less space and increase output. I think that factory farms shouldn’t view their animals as products but as living organisms that sacrifice their lives everyday to keep us alive. As a comparison, our soldiers die on the frontlines everyday to protect our way of life; as also do animals die everyday to keep us alive. So for such animals, they should be treated with the most respect. In order to show this respect, we must at the very least, let them have a comfortable, natural life as much as possible. I believe because if it weren’t for these animals, a lot of people would surely not be here today.
Cruelty towards animals exists in many forms. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, it frequently happens, and it will continue to affect our health and daily lives forever. Concerning the many arguments there are regarding animal rights, I mostly agree with Peter Singers position. Singer defends animal rights from the animal’s ability to feel pain. Some advocates may suggest that we cannot hold that to be true since animals do not speak, and therefore they cannot communicate. So just because animals cannot communicate orally, is that enough for us to conclude that they do not feel pain? I completely disagree with this view. There are humans whom for reasons outside of their control, cannot speak, but still can show that they are suffering by expressions they exhibit. How can we consider that animal pain behavior would be any different?
For this reason, I believe that even though animal consumption will always exist for our nutritional purposes, the treatment of animals should not take a back seat. Why can’t we find an ethical way of treating these creatures who are also living beings? The more people support Factory Farming and the harsh treatment of these animals, the more we also compromise the welfare of our personal health. As a result, studies show that the Centers for Disease Control estimate that there are more than 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses each year. This alarming number is just one sign of what we are compromising for the cheaper chicken, and how every time we buy animal products from the farms that use factory farming we continue to send the signal that animal cruelty is simply okay. There should be no difference between the laws that defend domestic animals from those that are used for human consumption.
From many years ago, the animal right has been an important issue for humans. People from years before Christ have been threatening animals with violence and with hard procedures of dead. Some people used to burn live animals just for pleasure or many for religion rituals. Animal rights or animal liberation is a subject that has been studying and analyzed by important philosophers as Rene Descartes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and some more. The idea that animals need to be treatment with some consideration even though they don’t have feeling or any conscious as many philosophers thought was exposed inclusive by one of them. Animals have been used by humans as an alternative to survive for food, cloths, and even more for transportation. If animals have been used for many of this issues why we don’t treat them with dignity. Nowadays people think in money, but they don’t think in how the animals are treatment in order to get the money from them. In my own opinion, animals have feeling and some of them are very intelligent why people have to use violence to kill them. We get feeding by chickens, pigs, cows, and they are many times killed with cruelty and without mercy. In conclusion, this kind of method to kill animals need to be supervised regularly to stop or prevent these actions on those innocents.
Humans shouldn't considerer their judgments 100% precise, because they are not. Therefore they should have an especial care when they have to decide what is good or not for other creatures as animals. Even when it is very difficult to conclude if animals can have the same rights that we do or if they should be treated different, people shouldn’t come up with statements that sound more like excuses trying to justify their behavior, like those who believe that animals can’t feel pain and doesn’t have feelings. If animals don’t seem to have the same cognitive abilities as we do, it doesn’t mean they have less value than us, it only means that they are different. So, talking in count that humans have the power to determine how everything functions in the world and govern societies and the nature, they are the only ones who can make changes. If the way people treat other life creatures depends on which category the animals belong, and these categories have been determined by us, we need to revaluate them in order to treat animals better. We don’t mistreat all animals, the ones contemplated as pets have more privileges than others seen as food or wild animals. Other people believe that some animals are more intelligent that others because they have similarities with humans, however some people believe that animals can’t feel pain so they don’t conclude they should have the same rights we do. I personalize found this statement wrong because if is very easy to contradict it. If someone hits an animal, this is going to scream and moan, the same way I child would do. So thinking that animals don’t suffer is a statement used as an escape to get rid of the feeling of guilt when people mistreat and abuse animals. We need to change this belief and start educating our children about it so we can start making the change we need for our future in order to become a better race.
I completely understand that some animals have to be killed to supply the human population with food but animal rights goes beyond just the typical farm animals, it spreads over the brutalization of all animals, wild or captive. Animals may not be able to speak our language but that does not mean that animals are incapable of feeling frightened, sadness, depression or pain such as humans, so why wouldn’t they be given some basic rights? A mother lion will mourn the death of her cub, a herd of elephants will mourn the death of an elder, a dolphin can committee suicide because of depression, a lost bear cub will cry out in fear and a dog will weep when in pain, so how is it that humans can continue to brutalize these animals for their own pleasure and/or gain? Because of the ability that animals have to feel our same emotions they should be given basic rights. For should an infant that cannot speak for its self and not express his/her own emotions with words not be given basic rights? I believe every life lived should be treated with respect, both human and non human.
Animal Cruelty Within The Food Industry: Are We Blind?
Animal cruelty is an issue that most humans find easy to discard and ignore. Maybe people feel embarrassed about engaging in this type of conversation. As a human race, I believe we are in denial that this is a true and horrific atrocity. This issue has nothing to do with our eating habits or whether we are carnivores or vegetarians. It solely has to do with the way we are treating the animals we sit down and eat at our dinner tables.
I am a meat lover. I do not find myself ever becoming a vegetarian. I believe that we have the right to consume meat as part of the natural food chain to which our human race belongs. What is in despicable to me is the treatment that the food industry is giving the same animals we so much enjoy eating. Animals are tortured, mutilated and incarcerated. Is this done because we simply believe that we are superior to them? Is it done in order to save “big corporation” bucks? Is it all of the above? To me, there is not a good enough reason to endorse this type of behavior against any living thing.
If we go by the believe that “we are, what we eat” then it is really horrible to think of what we now are. If this was the case, we are the product of torture, mutilation and experimentation. We eat meat products from animals that have been injected with antibiotics and have been genetically altered, fatten and caged. We should all become conscious of this horrible truth that stains all the good being a human represents. We should apply to this cruelty the saying “do not do upon others what you do not want done upon you”.
There is no way to stop what is being done to animals since it generates so much money. Everyone knows that this horrific treatment of animals is wrong but the money blinds everyone. No matter what the theories for and against this subject are the problems will still persist. I believe that animals have the right to be free and if you own any pets you understand that they have feelings and emotions. Im not a vegetarian and I do believe that there should be a consumption of certain animals by the people. That is the cycle of life, in the animal kingdom that is how they survive. However, I believe that both humans and animals are born with the right to a decent life free of torture. In a perfect world all animals would roam around happy and free until their day comes. Since this wont happen it is up to the individual to make choices that lessens demands for the food these animals provide. Ignorance is bliss and most of us are fine with eating animals until we see whats being done to them, but still we turn the other cheek. There neeeds to be more awareness and the realization that if we all do a tiny part we can become part of a better treatment for animals.
Animals rights is a very delicate topic that has its pros and cons. On one side, the way we treat the animals is clearly wrong and everybody that has just a little bit of sense can agree to that. Animal cruelty is at its peak and nothing is being done to stop it. On the other side, we live in a country where the demand for these foods is at an extreme aswell. Supply and demand is one of the most important concepts in this country's economy. If the public demands to eat more and more chicken, then the industries will see themselves forced to raise more and more chicken. If the only way to increase your supply is through factory farming, then by all means go ahead and do so. Yes, animals do deserve to to have rights, but who is going to speak for them? Its not like they can speak for themselves.
Animal cruelty has majorly increased through out the years and there have been many debates on whether this is far for them or not. I’m personally kind of confused on this topic. There are basically three sides to this topic, first the people that are completely against it, then the people who agree with it and then the people who just ignore the fact that this is going on. I think its wrong for us to torture the poor animals because its bad enough as it is that we only keep them around for our benefit/hunger but on top of that we have to make them suffer during this process?! I see it wrong in many ways but we can not say we are completely against this process because if we were then we would stop eating the chicken and go on strike. About 90% of people see it wrong but still go to the nearest KFC and still eat the tortured chicken. We see what is happening to them all over the news but yet we do nothing, so how can we say that we are completely against it? I would prefer the chicken not to be tortured and to be able to live with its peek because I wouldn’t want to be tortured so what makes us think that this chicken wants to be tortured as well? I believe torturing animals is wrong but I also believe that its one of those things that isn’t going to change due to the popular demand of the supply. It goes for the same thing as gas, we don’t like the fact that its so expensive but yet we still buy it because we need it to be able to use our cars. Well the chicken is being tortured yes, but we are still eating it because we are hungry and we are not thinking about how the chicken got to our plate just the fact that we are hungry. I don’t believe that people are so against the fact that we are torturing these animals because if we were, then we would stop eating these animals and therefore cause these companies to go out of business. This would probably cause the companies to met our demands and stop torturing them or probably just trick us into thinking that they don’t do it anymore. It’s a way of life and survival of the fittest. Either you get eaten for saving a helpless chicken or just eat the chicken and pretend you don’t know what happened to it. My conclusion is that animal cruelty is wrong but its something that happens in our world that probably wont stop due to our demands.
I used to be very succeptible when it comes to animals. I did not want to be bothered with them, especially dogs because I was afraid they might become vicious at any given moment toward me. I came to realize that I was wrong. Animals like dogs, horses and cows, to name a few, can be very friendly and attached. I had a friend who had a dog at his house. Whenever I paid him a visit, I used to be concerned about his dog that it might bite me one day. After visiting his residence a few times, its dog started to come to me. I would scracth its back and belly. The dog would be get so happy when I do that and it would begin to lick my face. I was stunned and overwhelmed with joy to see that. When I pulled up in front of the house. Before I could even get out of the car, the dog would literally jump in the car and started licking my face. I just could not believe. My whole impression about animals and dogs were changed. I became so attached to the animal and I would spend at least five to ten minutes playing with him before I go inside the house to see my friend. One day, I caught the bus to the house and when I was leaving, the dog walked me all the way to the bus stop. It waited until I got onboard then left. When the dog died, I literally cried. I felt that I lost something very special to me. I wished I could bring it back to life. You can already tell by now that I am pro animal and I think they should be treated with respect and dignity just like human being. Though they may not have the verbal communicating skills that we have, they still have feelings. They react joyfully when they are happy and feel good and they feel the pains when they are hurt. I think that animals should also be treated humanly before put to sleep and use for human consumption. Animals love life and would like to live happily just like us. They are good friends to have and they behave well when treated humanly. I think its morally wrong to abuse them, cage them in tiny little space until they are slaughtered. Please show mercy and compassion and be kind to animals because they feel the pain when you wack them. Stop animal abuse. It is unacceptable and cruel. gerald laguerre, T-540pm
I feel that animals should have same rights as humans! I am a big dog lover and even though dogs are not getting used in the food industries I think it’s not fair for the edible animals to get processed in the food world. Just think of it as another human. Animals existed in this world before humans and who are we to make the decisions to slaughter them. I think it’s immoral for humans to kill and eat animals because human would not do that to each other. Animals feel pain just like humans, so can you imagine the pain birds may feel as they are sent to a place where they are preparing for the last moments of their life being slaughtered. That’s just unfair! Every living thing should be given respect, especially if they have not done harm to you. So overall, animal rights should be important to our society, and animals should be treated like humans.
Why Horse Racing Should Be Banned. Horse Racing is an abusive sport that is widely enjoyed by people in developed nations such as the US and Spain. The history of this sport goes as far back as the time of the Roman Empire. What amazes me is how people care so much about dogs and cats and yet turn a blind eye or pay little attention to the abuse of race horses. Millions of dollars are made each year at the Derby horse racing. According to idausa.org, almost 800 horses die on racetracks each year and another 3,566 horses get injured. Many of the horses that underperform die in slaughterhouse. The failure of these horses to communicate the pain they suffer during a horse race does not justify their forceful or abusive use. I believe that their pain can be measured with today’s technology. If a horse is beaten with a stick, there will be changes in brain waves which can be measured and if that the case then horse racing should be abolished as many of them die while trying to “please” their “intelligent” masters.
37 comments:
At Marvick:
Whats more humane than killing the chickens with something they wont even see it coming or feel it......
If animals do have rights, what rights would those be? The most basic right any sentient being can have is for his or her interests to be given equal consideration. After that, things get more complicated. Some advocates think that all animals have a right to life. Others give more weight to the lives of beings such as chimpanzees, which are capable of understanding that they have a life, and of having hopes and desires directed toward the future. The movement's supporters agree that the way we treat animals now, as test subjects and factory-farm products, is flagrantly wrong.
If society were gradually to accept animal rights, it would spell dramatic changes. Some people might accept humanely raised meat, eggs and dairy products, if the animals had good lives, living outdoors in social groups of a size natural to the particular species. But this would most likely prove to be an interim stage. As the demand for animal products dwindles, the meat industry would breed fewer chickens, turkeys, pigs and cattle. Eventually the only remaining beef cattle, sheep and pigs would be small herds preserved so that we can take the grandchildren to see what these once abundant animals look like. Factory farming—for meat, eggs or milk—would disappear. If we are to continue to eat meat, we'll have to rely on scientists who are now trying to grow meat in vats. When they succeed, it will be the real thing, grown from animal cells, not a soy-based substitute, and it might even be indistinguishable from the meat we eat now. But since it would involve no animals, and hence no suffering or killing, there will be no ethical objections.
Animal’s rights is an issue that deserves to be analyzed. The way how humans treat animals represent a problem. Humans, in general believe that because ” they are superior” they can decide about animal’s destination and life. I’m not saying that humans can not eat chicken, however, the process and the conditions they apply are incorrect. We as human beings talk about to be humanitarians, but we offer to animals an horrible short period of life that is shameful. We can offer animals a nice place with the space that they need. In addition, allow them to grow as mother nature says, without hormones and antibiotics. Also, we are not making a favor to us because the quality of the food we eat is unacceptable and inadequate. Imagine that a certain race appears and conclude that they are superior than us and we have to be their slaves and live in deplorable conditions. Do we will approve this as well as we approve the destiny of animals? Unfortunately, Many important companies don’t care about animal’s treatment. We are talking about million of dollars that represents the profits of this business. the possible solutions and the ideal procedure would be to stop this humiliating process. Nevertheless, If this unfair process can not be stooped, at least we can act individually and support animal’s rights. A good way of doing this is reading the labels of food in the supermarket and buying only organic and free of hormone products.
In every level of the food chain survival of the fittest applies. All must kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. But in any other level other than our own do you see the absolutely unnecessary over slaughter torture, and waste of goods as our species creates? NO! And it's exactly that, unnecessary. Animals do not see the need to torture each other while killing for food and neither do they slaughter far more than they need to eat or for reasons of sport. But yet we are supposed to be above their primitive non-intelligent selves? That hardly makes sense. Regardless that animals cannot speak and tell you they are in pain it does not mean that they are not! If you have ever accidentally stepped on your pet dog or cat and heard it scream out in pain or limp away will you tell me it was not feeling pain? Of course it was, and any creature that feels pain should not have to suffer pain more than is necessary for our survival. People abusing poor helpless animals is like an adult abusing a helpless baby both are innocent creatures who don't deserve it. I'm sure something would be done about anyone hurting a baby so something must be done about animal abuse as well. We are human so lets act humane.
Animals do not see the need to torture each other while killing for food and neither do they slaughter far more than they need to eat or for reasons of sport. But yet we are supposed to be above their primitive non-intelligent selves? That hardly makes sense.
Nice point.
Primerose Borgella (T 5:40 P.M.)
Unlike the Abolitionists and the Utilitarian who are in favor of animal rights, the Libertarians argue against animal rights. According to them, animals cannot have rights because rights are a subset of “proper treatment” that can be applied only to those with moral agency who understand and respect the rights of others. They pursue to say that animals may only enjoy some protection against cruelty, but they may not enjoy rights. In fact, animals are exposed to human being’s mistreatment such as killings, loss of freedom, factory farming purposes and harm when they are used as test subjects. As for me, I believe that animals matter morally. It is inhumane to deliberately working toward the destruction of the species up to their extinct. Suppose someone wants to kill your pets, he will certainly anger you. Therefore, animals must deserve more respect, more human treatment as living entities that coexist along us.
ANA GUARENO PHI2010 TIME 5:40
Most animal food products produced in the United States come from “factory farm” systems places that practice genetic engineering and chemically raise the meat causing the animal’s great suffering in the process. Conditions in these “factory farms” are such that many animals become injured and or ill from neglect, abuse and overcrowding. Often many animals die before slaughter.
Battery cages are tiny and they confine approximately 19 million egg-laying hens in California.
These social, intelligent animals are crammed in barren battery cages where they can’t even spread their wings. With no opportunity to nest, dust batter, perch, and walk, these birds endure lives filled with suffering. How is this behavior acceptable? How do these companies get away with mistreating these animals? If knowing this is wrong, then how do we let this go on? Shouldn’t we be accountable for our own actions and not allow this malpractice continue, this animal brutality. Haven’t we come far as humans and are intelligent enough to understand that we are mistreating these animals. When does it end? On the other hand we should also realized that the average farm worker family, according the USDA, makes about $13,000 a year, and we’re talking about family here with mom and dad both working in the fields because the work is sporadic and poorly paid.
Please check this website I founded to be very interested go to www.mcspotlight.org what’s wrong with McDonald’s? Surprisingly we have a McDonald’s restaurant right across Miami Dade College. If you really think about what is going on in the food industry? Who is really is at fault? The big industry that is making the money while doing this inhumane treatment to the animals or the poor people that have no other choice but to buy the cheapest food they could afford or the people who have few options and so are forced to accept this exploitation. I personally believe the big people are at fault. Therefore I’m glad we did this project about the food industry the more I read about this I’m more surprise about the information that is out there. Now I will be more conscious about what I’m ordering, what I’m buying and especially what I’m eating.
Bulleting.AARP.org
“Food, Inc” Editor Karl Weber Discusses processed food facts
Hallester Tejada
Tuesday night, 5:40
I personally think that animals should be treated in a more humane way, due to the fact that they feel pain just in the same way that we do. We frequently argue in favor of animal rights; however, people all over the world are being really cruel when killing them. I don’t think that we have the rights to decide which species of animals deserve to be killed and which ones do not. We generally tent to decide which type of animal can be hunt and which ones cannot; nevertheless, some of these animals are killed just for entertainment.
For instance, the fact that we have the ability to communicate in a really complex way and we have some moral responsibilities which as defines by Roger Scruton animals don’t posses, perhaps does not gives us enough reason to treat animals as a mean to an end.
Have you ever stop to think that we are more animals than what we actually admit? Haven’t we acted among ourselves with the same brutality?
It is extremely difficult to discuss animal abuse in the food industry without opening a much deeper debate about animal rights. Tom Regan argues that animals have "inherent value" as subjects-of-a-life, and as such, they are bearers of rights. Based on this argument, I asked myself: Who established which animals we choose to treat humanly? We care for our dogs as if they were our children and on the other hand we are ok breading 20,000 chickens in a single shed at a density of 130 sq inches of space per bird? So where do we draw the line? Consuming animal product is a natural part of being a member of the food chain. However this must not justify animal abuse. Animals have not always been mistreated, so does demand justify the means? I have to disagree.
Large manufacturing food companies participate in the abuse of numerous animals in order to reduce cost and increase productivity. It is all part of the innovative modern factory farming of today’s “modern” agriculture. No more barnyards and green pastures. Today its all about who grows more with less, (less morality that is.)
Farm animals should have the same legal protection from cruelty that domesticated animals currently have. This shouldn’t even be a topic for debate. These animals are no less alive or capable of feeling pain than a dog or a horse.
I firmly believe that factory farming should be regulated by the government. The big corporations behind the inhumane breeding and slaughter of farm animals should be subject to the scrutiny of an agency that would look not only after animal rights, but would also take a look at the side effects of consuming these genetic manipulated animals.
Daine Guzman
T 5:40 pm
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an animal rights not-for profit organization and their slogan is “animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment." Though I do have a palate for chicken and own leather shoes, I could not agree with them more. Granted, most animals do not make social contracts or make moral choices as pointed out by the philosopher Roger Scruton. Nonetheless, they feel pain, any one can see the anguish in their eyes and hear it in their cries and shrieks, they are defenseless animals that nourish us and the least that we can do for them is to treat them humanely, one way is with controlled-atmosphere killing or CAK. Animals feel pain and just because they do not have the cognitive gift that humans do, does not make them meaningless, they are conscious beings that suffer while we drive through fast food chains on the way home to catch the new episodes on T.V. It is wrong, any way you look at it; they are like newborns unable to defend or express themselves beyond a cry.
The demand that we place from powerful corporations is unlike any other; these corporations also have the indistinguishable power to demand that their suppliers use CAK, we as consumers make them wealthy and though we truly may care, we are just too busy with our own lives to do anything about it. We can, however, write letters, support groups, be part of demonstrations and yet this may still not be enough, if we really care, we need to take a stand – NO MORE ANIMAL CRUELTY and YES to ANIMAL RIGHTS, LETS do something about it! Go to www.PETA.com; www.aspca.com; to Take Action go to https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1696 and sign their letter or request leaflets and stickers, and spread the word…We Are Their Voice, the ASPCA slogan.
Sandra Sicily
If humans are animals, how it is possible then for an animal to own another animal? Just because they differ from us in the way that they cannot defend themselves in the way humans do, they can’t fight. Maybe that’s the reason why some defend them. As is the case of abolitionist. But on the other hand, that the reason why others try to take advantage of them and creating what is known as factory farms where animal are exploited to the extent that it raised concern of government to issue laws that protected them to some level. The truth is that animal factories are necessary for the survival of the other animals (humans) even if the techniques seem now to be violating animal right to live. Because at the end, they will be killed and consumed.
Diego Ramirez
“Is Animal Rights Important”
Even though I love to eat meat and wear clothing that comes from animals, I think the issue of animal rights is important. Some animals are useful and smart. For example police K-9s are useful at detecting drugs, making suspects surrender, and rescuing people in times of disaster. Animals should be treated humanely even though most of their final destinations are on humans’ plate. They should not be locked in crates and allowed to live in horrible conditions. After I read an article on how chickens are de beaked, it made me want to become a vegetarian. The only thing that scares me about animal rights is, if animals are given full rights like human, how we will feed the world’s population. Not everyone can afford a vegetarian lifestyle but nonetheless I think ‘animal rights’ is a topic that should be discussed whether you eat meat or not. Jimmy Prince
Roosevelt Dejoie
T 5:40 PM
Animal’s rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans. Advocates approach the issue from different philosophical positions but agree that animals should be viewed as legal persons and members of the moral community, not property, and that they should not be used as food, clothing, research subjects, or entertainment. This is a good definition from Wikipedia and it is very important we understand it because it made the point of what I’m going to say about this matter.
Would you like to be treated like some of these animals that experience these conditions and abuse? Animal’s right is a good idea that human being should have the decency to treat animal with kindness and respect. This is how we would want people to treat us, isn’t it? I believe that animals deserve to live according to their natures therefore we don’t have to make them suffer. We all know that animals are capable of feeling pain, hunger, thirst and solitude. However, we’re still making them suffer no matter what. Millions of animals are killed each year in these farms. The farms force them to live in extremely close contact with the other animals, which is completely against their instincts. This lifestyle cause severe stress that leads some of them to cannibalism and self-mutilation. If they get killed at these farms, they die by gassing, poison, electrocution, suffocation, and neck breaking. Another problem with animal rights is the subject of animal testing. Animals are used for a variety of different tests. Human disease cures are always tried on animals first, most make up must perform experiments with the product on animals first, and dogs and pigs are used to practice surgery on for surgeons. It is not fair and humane to conduct experiments on animals to make sure a product or procedure is safe for us to use or endure. There are no legitimate reasons that an animal’s life is worth less than our own. I think that animal's should have similar rights that people have because they too feel pain and experience emotions and just because they look different doesn’t mean that they are that much different than us.
Roosevelt Dejoie
T 5:40PM
From an evolutionary standpoint the argument of animal rights can be very distinctly brought forth. To begin, all species as well as humans need food for survival, this food can take the form of of greenery or other species, with the latter requiring that a ‘life’ be taken. In nature such carnivorous behavior is commonplace amongst species regardless of cognitive abilities. The difference is that we humans possess these cognitive and rational abilities necessary to properly consider (rationalize) our decision to kill or feel guilt while most other species do not. To me, this ability in itself requires us to be more proactive in our treatment of animals because less developed species (moral patients) do not posses this feature making them incapable of being penalized for their actions while we are able to be fully aware of the consequences. This is why I side with Tom Regan in the belief that animals are ‘subjects of life’ and thus are bearers of rights because it is proven that some can posses cognitive abilities. It is important to remember that even when our species were still cavemen they brutally killed just as any other species for food with very little regard for ethical issues or guilt, it was only as society developed bringing the ability to choose that such matters became important.
In our society today people are in a state of blissful ignorance with regard to food production, the common belief is that animals don’t think therefore they don’t feel/communicate the way we do. This leads way to the belief that certain species should be stripped of their rights and viewed solely as a commodity, open to be owned, sold or treated however the owner sees fit. This is also where I side with abolitionists such as Gary Francione in their view that one of the most basic rights of a species is not to be owned or treated as property. Furthermore I find that the assumption that animals don’t feel is completely illogical, for the same reason as Peter Singer. He believes that ‘ if language is needed to communicate pain, it would often be impossible to know when humans are in pain. All we can do is observe pain behavior, and make a calculated guess based on it’. For instance, if aliens came to earth and started killing all humans, putting them on each other in cages, and eating them, could they strip of us our rights and argue that we don’t feel the pain because they don’t understand us?. Furthermore it is proven that some animals bodies have the same receptors and pain signals as our body, how then could we think that they do not have pain? Also for anyone who has ever seen an animal in pain it is painstakingly obvious that the creature is in pain.
In conclusion, I still do see the need for large scale food production (and consequently owning of a species), however I believe that there is a ethical way of going about it. I believe that all creatures or subjects of life should live in a way that is natural and not discomforting to them regardless the fact that they will be killed for food. This way is proven to produce better meat, deal with ethical issues and ultimately keep us humans healthier.
BRAD ELIAS T 5:40-9
Juan Pablo Bertone (T 5:40 PM)How may you feel if a giant monster be came to kill you or give you a horrible treatment only because he is bigger and stronger than you? Of course, you would say that is a big injustice only because he is stronger and "superior" than you he wouldn't have the right of give you pain and make you suffer in a unmoral way. This is the same situation in the case of the treatment that human being have to give to animals. Because they have life like human being, they have the ability of feel pain. Consequently, they can't be treatmend as they would be simple things. Human beings that are consider "superior" have the responsability of doing somethin about it. I am not say that we can't kill them in order to get food, but why we can't kill them in a better way like to use some injection? It is somethin that we have to change in order to get a better world.
Humans: the most intelligent creature on the face of planet earth. This title gives us the privilege to have control over any other creature that lives here. Great power also comes with great responsibility but we humans have neglected the second part for the most part of our recorded history. If we remove our race from this planet there would be no more deforestation, no overconsumption of resources, no excessive waste, devastation, cruelty, way too many to name them all; in conclusion we are a virus. The most advance but the most irrational creature, in the last decades a few movies have attempted to show that in a very explicit way to the general public. The day the earth stood still, I Robot, The Matrix are just some examples the last one been the most reliable to defend the right that animals have to be treated with some humanity mostly in the food industry. An industry that in its desperation to fulfill a continuously growing demand has forgotten that they are dealing with leaving creatures and not objects. In the Matrix humans are no longer in control and the new superior race don’t seem to be able to understand our suffering in the same way we don’t want understand the suffering that the animals we use for consumption have. A lack of verbal communication can not be an excuse to take away their rights or deny their ability to feel pain. The same way we would disagree if those rights would be taken away from us by any superior race that at any point may colonize us but was not able to understand our language, we need to understand that we can not take those away from them. If other developed nations can understand and have stable food supplies without going to the extreme of making the animals suffer as much as we don in the US what is keeping us from doing the same?
Leonardo F Mesa
T-5:40
Just because we love “McNuggets “, does not mean we have to love factory farming. I am a utilitarian because I do believe in “the greatest good for the greatest number of people”. Unfortunately, In today’s society people believe the more chickens clucking, the more barbeque sauce were going to need. Meaning the more chickens, cows, and other animals on farms being subdued into unruly treatments are just the small overlooked errors that are constantly pushed aside for the mighty power of a dollar. People misconstrued the facts behind the easily acquired fast food we munch on every day. Animals held in solitary confinement, being stuffed with steroids and vitamins are not something I agree with because animals do feel pain and unwittingly do affect us in negative unhealthy manner. I guess what I am trying to state the next time you want to eat the “baconator” think of the greased slab of meat the animal used to be when it got tapered.
gonzalo martinez
tues. 5:40
fall'09
I do not want to be cruel to animals or to make them suffer without a cause, but I believe granting animals rights is going too far and could hurt human growth. For example, I wouldn’t want medical testing stopped on animals if continuing it could save many human lives.
Animals’ research has produced vaccines for polio, tetanus, insulin for diabetes, and antibiotics to fight infections. Animals shouldn't have rights, rights are for humans to help society function well and to establish a safe relationship between individuals. Rights also depend on being able to distinguish on right and wrong and animals don’t have the capacity to do or the sense of morality. Animals are to kill only when they endanger us, eaten when we need food and run test on them to fight deceases. It is natural for us to eat them just as it is for a cheetah to eat a zebra.
Martinez, Y
Murder is immoral, right? So, is it immoral to eat animals?
It depends upon whether an animal has an awareness of its own existence and therefore an awareness of pain. It is very possible that feeling pain in the sense of responding to a painful stimulus does not entail self-awareness (consciousness). My own thought is that it is wrong to kill human beings because we are aware of our own existence. Perhaps some higher order mammals are also self-aware, but I suspect that is not the case.
If there is no self-awareness, no conscious being there to know its fate, killing it is quite different from killing a being that is aware of its own existence.
There is good reason for believing most, if not all, animals do not have consciousness because none show the kind of deliberate, purposeful adaptation that humans do. Animal culture has remained much the same in each species from the time each has appeared. Human adaptations demonstrate awareness of their own state and a continuous propensity to add new and "creative" ways of coping with natural and social situations.
By the way, this in no way entails that humans should be allowed to wantonly kill animals. There are many good reasons for showing care and concern for living creatures which do not entail refraining completely from killing them.
I personally choose not to “kill” or to eat meat for the simple reason that I practice Buddhism. Even though in the Buddhist Religion eating meat is allowed I just feel better by not participating in any sort of violence or painful activities.
Noel Aquino
(T. 5:40 pm)
Noel: For animal cognition, go here. For animal consciousness go here.
Anthony D'Angelo phi2010 t 5:40
The problem with animal rights rests upon the belief that humans and animals share a different underlying value. Once someone believes that he or she is better than another creature, the idea of control and power over them becomes easier to justify. As sentient beings, humans and animals are not different in the sense of suffering and desires. We both can feel pleasure and pain and even remember pain. For example, when a dog that has been beat every day since birth will always flinch or panic when you raise your hand, even if you mean no harm. The dog recognizes and remembers the feeling of being beat and does not want anything to do with it. Treat every universal creature, as you would want to be treated. There is no way to know what or how the universal substance that flows within the interspaces of the universe, so believing that animals are subordinate to humans is just ignorant.
As humans we believe we are superior to other animals. That being said, we still are animals. If we feel pain, then it is obvious that other animals feel pain just as much as we do even though they can not communicate it to us. Moreover, who is to say that what is the right way to show pain or what is the right way to communicate it? As much as there should be human rights those principles should transcend to other areas of life such as animal rights. Yes, it is true that animals can’t enter a social contract were they have as much rights as they have obligations, but it is undeniable that each living thing provides a purpose in some way another to this world even if they are not aware of. I don’t oppose animal testing, for medical research, nor do I think we should all be vegetarians but I believe we should treat animals with respect and implement harsher guidelines when it comes to farming as well as medical testing. In the end, the way we treat animals affects humanity as a whole, excessive use of chemicals in animals affects our bodies, excessive farming affects the environment and animal cruelty affects our ethical well being.
Clara Gomez
PHI 2010 5:40 p.m.
Alejandro Diaz...
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) - with more than 2 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.
I come from a Spanish family we enjoy all types of food and most of the time it is worked around some form of meat. Unfortunately the way animals are treated in the United States and in many leading countries is less than desirable. I believe that animals should have some form of a free, painless life. Measures although must be taken to keep some of the bacteria that infests certain animals. Yes I do understand that this might hurt the animals, but at the end of the day the food industry is not only one of the biggest but one of the most important in the world. The taste of food and the quality of the animals going into world reknowned dishes is the reason all this continues to go on.
To my point on PETA, I cannot agree with them on their point of view at all. They use tactics many terrorist use in order to get their point across. And this is why I believe so many food processing companies continue doing what they do. They continue keeping their chickens in the tight spaces. They will continue to inject hormones to get fuller fatter meats from these animals. Animal rights group tend to be extremist and they become confused with terrorist.
I believe animals have the ability to feel pain, but I don’t believe they have rights. At the end of the day if changes are to made, money needs to be loss and I don’t believe this will occur…
Is factory farming ethical? My stance on that particular issue is that factory farming is at first glance a business. Essentially, a business’ goal is try to find ways to reduce cost and increase output to try to satisfy demand. But, in the case of factory farming, they are not dealing with inanimate objects, their products are living organisms. And because they are living organisms they should not be treated as though they are lower than that. While reading the article on factory farming, I noted that factory farms have to resort to placing animals in high density in order to occupy less space and increase output. I think that factory farms shouldn’t view their animals as products but as living organisms that sacrifice their lives everyday to keep us alive. As a comparison, our soldiers die on the frontlines everyday to protect our way of life; as also do animals die everyday to keep us alive. So for such animals, they should be treated with the most respect. In order to show this respect, we must at the very least, let them have a comfortable, natural life as much as possible. I believe because if it weren’t for these animals, a lot of people would surely not be here today.
Cruelty towards animals exists in many forms. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, it frequently happens, and it will continue to affect our health and daily lives forever. Concerning the many arguments there are regarding animal rights, I mostly agree with Peter Singers position. Singer defends animal rights from the animal’s ability to feel pain. Some advocates may suggest that we cannot hold that to be true since animals do not speak, and therefore they cannot communicate. So just because animals cannot communicate orally, is that enough for us to conclude that they do not feel pain? I completely disagree with this view. There are humans whom for reasons outside of their control, cannot speak, but still can show that they are suffering by expressions they exhibit. How can we consider that animal pain behavior would be any different?
For this reason, I believe that even though animal consumption will always exist for our nutritional purposes, the treatment of animals should not take a back seat. Why can’t we find an ethical way of treating these creatures who are also living beings? The more people support Factory Farming and the harsh treatment of these animals, the more we also compromise the welfare of our personal health. As a result, studies show that the Centers for Disease Control estimate that there are more than 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses each year. This alarming number is just one sign of what we are compromising for the cheaper chicken, and how every time we buy animal products from the farms that use factory farming we continue to send the signal that animal cruelty is simply okay. There should be no difference between the laws that defend domestic animals from those that are used for human consumption.
Jocelyn Reyes Tues 5:40pm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Liberation_(book)
From many years ago, the animal right has been an important issue for humans.
People from years before Christ have been threatening animals with violence and with hard procedures of dead. Some people used to burn live animals just for pleasure or many for religion rituals. Animal rights or animal liberation is a subject that has been studying and analyzed by important philosophers as Rene Descartes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and some more. The idea that animals need to be treatment with some consideration even though they don’t have feeling or any conscious as many philosophers thought was exposed inclusive by one of them. Animals have been used by humans as an alternative to survive for food, cloths, and even more for transportation. If animals have been used for many of this issues why we don’t treat them with dignity. Nowadays people think in money, but they don’t think in how the animals are treatment in order to get the money from them. In my own opinion, animals have feeling and some of them are very intelligent why people have to use violence to kill them. We get feeding by chickens, pigs, cows, and they are many times killed with cruelty and without mercy. In conclusion, this kind of method to kill animals need to be supervised regularly to stop or prevent these actions on those innocents.
www.http://wikipedia.org.
Eyra Romero
Tuesday @ 5:40pm
Phi2010
Reference # 527878
Humans shouldn't considerer their judgments 100% precise, because they are not. Therefore they should have an especial care when they have to decide what is good or not for other creatures as animals. Even when it is very difficult to conclude if animals can have the same rights that we do or if they should be treated different, people shouldn’t come up with statements that sound more like excuses trying to justify their behavior, like those who believe that animals can’t feel pain and doesn’t have feelings. If animals don’t seem to have the same cognitive abilities as we do, it doesn’t mean they have less value than us, it only means that they are different. So, talking in count that humans have the power to determine how everything functions in the world and govern societies and the nature, they are the only ones who can make changes. If the way people treat other life creatures depends on which category the animals belong, and these categories have been determined by us, we need to revaluate them in order to treat animals better. We don’t mistreat all animals, the ones contemplated as pets have more privileges than others seen as food or wild animals. Other people believe that some animals are more intelligent that others because they have similarities with humans, however some people believe that animals can’t feel pain so they don’t conclude they should have the same rights we do. I personalize found this statement wrong because if is very easy to contradict it. If someone hits an animal, this is going to scream and moan, the same way I child would do. So thinking that animals don’t suffer is a statement used as an escape to get rid of the feeling of guilt when people mistreat and abuse animals. We need to change this belief and start educating our children about it so we can start making the change we need for our future in order to become a better race.
I completely understand that some animals have to be killed to supply the human population with food but animal rights goes beyond just the typical farm animals, it spreads over the brutalization of all animals, wild or captive. Animals may not be able to speak our language but that does not mean that animals are incapable of feeling frightened, sadness, depression or pain such as humans, so why wouldn’t they be given some basic rights? A mother lion will mourn the death of her cub, a herd of elephants will mourn the death of an elder, a dolphin can committee suicide because of depression, a lost bear cub will cry out in fear and a dog will weep when in pain, so how is it that humans can continue to brutalize these animals for their own pleasure and/or gain? Because of the ability that animals have to feel our same emotions they should be given basic rights. For should an infant that cannot speak for its self and not express his/her own emotions with words not be given basic rights? I believe every life lived should be treated with respect, both human and non human.
Posted by: Edgar J. Casiano
T-5:40 PM
Animal Cruelty Within The Food Industry: Are We Blind?
Animal cruelty is an issue that most humans find easy to discard and ignore. Maybe people feel embarrassed about engaging in this type of conversation. As a human race, I believe we are in denial that this is a true and horrific atrocity. This issue has nothing to do with our eating habits or whether we are carnivores or vegetarians. It solely has to do with the way we are treating the animals we sit down and eat at our dinner tables.
I am a meat lover. I do not find myself ever becoming a vegetarian. I believe that we have the right to consume meat as part of the natural food chain to which our human race belongs. What is in despicable to me is the treatment that the food industry is giving the same animals we so much enjoy eating. Animals are tortured, mutilated and incarcerated. Is this done because we simply believe that we are superior to them? Is it done in order to save “big corporation” bucks? Is it all of the above? To me, there is not a good enough reason to endorse this type of behavior against any living thing.
If we go by the believe that “we are, what we eat” then it is really horrible to think of what we now are. If this was the case, we are the product of torture, mutilation and experimentation. We eat meat products from animals that have been injected with antibiotics and have been genetically altered, fatten and caged. We should all become conscious of this horrible truth that stains all the good being a human represents. We should apply to this cruelty the saying “do not do upon others what you do not want done upon you”.
There is no way to stop what is being done to animals since it generates so much money. Everyone knows that this horrific treatment of animals is wrong but the money blinds everyone. No matter what the theories for and against this subject are the problems will still persist. I believe that animals have the right to be free and if you own any pets you understand that they have feelings and emotions. Im not a vegetarian and I do believe that there should be a consumption of certain animals by the people. That is the cycle of life, in the animal kingdom that is how they survive. However, I believe that both humans and animals are born with the right to a decent life free of torture. In a perfect world all animals would roam around happy and free until their day comes. Since this wont happen it is up to the individual to make choices that lessens demands for the food these animals provide. Ignorance is bliss and most of us are fine with eating animals until we see whats being done to them, but still we turn the other cheek. There neeeds to be more awareness and the realization that if we all do a tiny part we can become part of a better treatment for animals.
Christini
Animals rights is a very delicate topic that has its pros and cons. On one side, the way we treat the animals is clearly wrong and everybody that has just a little bit of sense can agree to that. Animal cruelty is at its peak and nothing is being done to stop it. On the other side, we live in a country where the demand for these foods is at an extreme aswell. Supply and demand is one of the most important concepts in this country's economy. If the public demands to eat more and more chicken, then the industries will see themselves forced to raise more and more chicken. If the only way to increase your supply is through factory farming, then by all means go ahead and do so. Yes, animals do deserve to to have rights, but who is going to speak for them? Its not like they can speak for themselves.
Animal cruelty has majorly increased through out the years and there have been many debates on whether this is far for them or not. I’m personally kind of confused on this topic. There are basically three sides to this topic, first the people that are completely against it, then the people who agree with it and then the people who just ignore the fact that this is going on. I think its wrong for us to torture the poor animals because its bad enough as it is that we only keep them around for our benefit/hunger but on top of that we have to make them suffer during this process?! I see it wrong in many ways but we can not say we are completely against this process because if we were then we would stop eating the chicken and go on strike. About 90% of people see it wrong but still go to the nearest KFC and still eat the tortured chicken. We see what is happening to them all over the news but yet we do nothing, so how can we say that we are completely against it? I would prefer the chicken not to be tortured and to be able to live with its peek because I wouldn’t want to be tortured so what makes us think that this chicken wants to be tortured as well? I believe torturing animals is wrong but I also believe that its one of those things that isn’t going to change due to the popular demand of the supply. It goes for the same thing as gas, we don’t like the fact that its so expensive but yet we still buy it because we need it to be able to use our cars. Well the chicken is being tortured yes, but we are still eating it because we are hungry and we are not thinking about how the chicken got to our plate just the fact that we are hungry. I don’t believe that people are so against the fact that we are torturing these animals because if we were, then we would stop eating these animals and therefore cause these companies to go out of business. This would probably cause the companies to met our demands and stop torturing them or probably just trick us into thinking that they don’t do it anymore. It’s a way of life and survival of the fittest. Either you get eaten for saving a helpless chicken or just eat the chicken and pretend you don’t know what happened to it. My conclusion is that animal cruelty is wrong but its something that happens in our world that probably wont stop due to our demands.
I used to be very succeptible when it comes to animals. I did not want to be bothered with them, especially dogs because I was afraid they might become vicious at any given moment toward me. I came to realize that I was wrong. Animals like dogs, horses and cows, to name a few, can be very friendly and attached. I had a friend who had a dog at his house. Whenever I paid him a visit, I used to be concerned about his dog that it might bite me one day. After visiting his residence a few times, its dog started to come to me. I would scracth its back and belly. The dog would be get so happy when I do that and it would begin to lick my face. I was stunned and overwhelmed with joy to see that. When I pulled up in front of the house. Before I could even get out of the car, the dog would literally jump in the car and started licking my face. I just could not believe. My whole impression about animals and dogs were changed. I became so attached to the animal and I would spend at least five to ten minutes playing with him before I go inside the house to see my friend. One day, I caught the bus to the house and when I was leaving, the dog walked me all the way to the bus stop. It waited until I got onboard then left. When the dog died, I literally cried. I felt that I lost something very special to me. I wished I could bring it back to life. You can already tell by now that I am pro animal and I think they should be treated with respect and dignity just like human being. Though they may not have the verbal communicating skills that we have, they still have feelings. They react joyfully when they are happy and feel good and they feel the pains when they are hurt. I think that animals should also be treated humanly before put to sleep and use for human consumption. Animals love life and would like to live happily just like us. They are good friends to have and they behave well when treated humanly. I think its morally wrong to abuse them, cage them in tiny little space until they are slaughtered. Please show mercy and compassion and be kind to animals because they feel the pain when you wack them. Stop animal abuse. It is unacceptable and cruel. gerald laguerre, T-540pm
I feel that animals should have same rights as humans! I am a big dog lover and even though dogs are not getting used in the food industries I think it’s not fair for the edible animals to get processed in the food world. Just think of it as another human. Animals existed in this world before humans and who are we to make the decisions to slaughter them. I think it’s immoral for humans to kill and eat animals because human would not do that to each other. Animals feel pain just like humans, so can you imagine the pain birds may feel as they are sent to a place where they are preparing for the last moments of their life being slaughtered. That’s just unfair! Every living thing should be given respect, especially if they have not done harm to you. So overall, animal rights should be important to our society, and animals should be treated like humans.
Why Horse Racing Should Be Banned.
Horse Racing is an abusive sport that is widely enjoyed by people in developed nations such as the US and Spain. The history of this sport goes as far back as the time of the Roman Empire. What amazes me is how people care so much about dogs and cats and yet turn a blind eye or pay little attention to the abuse of race horses. Millions of dollars are made each year at the Derby horse racing. According to idausa.org, almost 800 horses die on racetracks each year and another 3,566 horses get injured. Many of the horses that underperform die in slaughterhouse.
The failure of these horses to communicate the pain they suffer during a horse race does not justify their forceful or abusive use. I believe that their pain can be measured with today’s technology. If a horse is beaten with a stick, there will be changes in brain waves which can be measured and if that the case then horse racing should be abolished as many of them die while trying to “please” their “intelligent” masters.
Mansur Hussain
T 5:40PM
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