Animal Rights

6 Pages 1394 Words

Animal Rights
Can animals think and deliberate in their actions, or are they just acting on impulses? Do animals suffer, or
are their brains so underdeveloped that they lack that feeling? Do animals even have rights? According to national
laws, these questions have to be answered by each individual. Each of us has to select a set of principles of ethical
conduct. A small rural farmer may name his livestock and treat his livestock with kindness and dignity. A huge
corporate farmer would probably answer ‘no’ to those same questions. He may treat his livestock as machinery and
nothing more. If one animal does not work correctly, he may replace it with an animal that does (Scully 191-192).
Both farmers were born and raised in America, yet they view animals’ rights very differently.
Getting people to care about the degree to which animals are suffering needlessly is difficult. We need to
have compassion and raise the question of ethics for the other beings with which we share this world. Some
arguments against animal testing, hunting, animal farming, and other ways humans treat animals are very good.
Unfortunately, legislators appear to be unwilling to take action for the animals that cannot advocate for themselves.
In the movie The Deer Hunter starring Robert DeNiro, an innocent animal life was saved because a human
life was suddenly changed. DeNiro’s character had just returned from war and went hunting with his friends. He
was on the trail of a large buck with a huge rack. Through his view scope you saw this handsome animal looking
back with big brown eyes. The buck was terrified yet peaceful. Although DeNiro’s character had just returned
from war where he had taken many lives, he realized in that instant, that life is priceless (The Deer Hunter).
Somehow we need to get everyone to see the buck through the view scope and realize what life means.
Many debates about animal rights are...