20 May 2011

Animal Rights - The Compassionate Fight

What exactly is meant by the term "Animal Rights"? Does it mean that all animal life should really have the same rights and privileges as humans? No, of course not. But it does mean that all creatures should really be allowed to live their natural lives without having interference, exploitation or cruel treatment from humans. Humans do not need to have to exploit other creatures. We have the intelligence and ingenuity to live in this world without having relying on the other animals who share the planet with us. The only ways in which we do need to rely on other animals is in such matters as needing bees and other insects for the pollination of lots of food plants. With out the bees performing their job there would be famines and starvation. We also rely on other animals to keep down the numbers of insects that would eat all our crops. Superior to rely on these animals than to spray poison everywhere. Apart from a few instances like these, where there is no exploitation by us, we have no need for other animals to support us - we have no have to have to use or abuse them.


We don't have to have animals for food - we are healthier on a vegan diet. And the planet would be in a far much better state for us too if we adopted a plant based diet, simply because animals raised for meat and milk consume enormous amounts of food and water and generate vast lakes of slurry and clouds of methane and carbon dioxide which are climate-changing green house gases. Land has to be prepared for them and the millions of tons of food that is fed to them could be utilised to feed starving humans. Enormous tracts of the Amazon forest are being cut down to grow soya beans and other plants to feed cattle, and this loss of trees is helping to accelerate global warming. With a plant based diet, every country could grow sufficient food to feed all its citizens. Some of the land that farm animals take up could be set aside to supply wildlife habitats for all the animals that have been displaced to make way for 'livestock'.


We don't require animals to aid us come across medical items. The history of experimenting on non-human animals in the hope of locating drugs for humans is one of a large waste of time and resources. Most drugs that pass the preclinical stages, and seem to be powerful and safe in the animals utilised to test them, fail when tested on humans. In spite of the cruelty and suffering involved in this fraudulent research, 1 of the factors the practice is allowed to continue is simply because the researchers have learnt no other way to do their function. It is what they have been trained to do. They are employed to and comfortable with it. And when the drugs harm and kill humans - as they generally do, the drug corporations can plead innocence to charges of negligence for the reason that they tested the drugs in dogs and rats and monkeys, and they seemed to be secure. Regardless of all that testing, 100,000 Americans die every single year due to the effects of medically prescribed drugs. Two million other people suffer severe but non-fatal side effects. The identical pattern is seen in other countries. No, we do not need to use other animals to obtain cures for humans. Following a century or far more of testing on rats, monkeys, dogs, cats, rabbits and a entire menagerie of beasts, all the biggest killer diseases and conditions of ill well being in industrial countries are no nearer to being cured.


We just do not will need to use and abuse other animals. Cruel practices and abuse continue because folks do not care about all the suffering they trigger. They would rather please their taste buds than give a thought for the chickens, sheep and pigs that are killed so they can fill their bellies. They would rather take a further pill, that quite possibly won't do any fine - and sometimes for self inflicted diseases - than question the science behind the experiments on laboratory animals when better strategies are already accessible and extra are waiting to be discovered. The use of these animals in research is fake science and it has by no means been validated as an accurate means of obtaining drugs. Hundreds of scientists and physicians, some of whom had been formerly involved in this inhumane study, have publicly announced their opposition to it and have pointed out how cruel and useless it is. Humans have the right to not be experimented on. It is time other animals had been given that suitable. They suffer as considerably as any human. They really feel discomfort and fear like we do. We have no suitable to use them even if such use were beneficial to us - which it is not.


It is sometimes thought that Animal Rights campaigners care absolutely nothing for humans. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people who campaign for rights for other animals also have a deep compassion for humans. Indeed, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Youngsters in the UK was started by members of the already-existing Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Earlier, in the 18th Century, Benjamin Lay, a vegetarian and Quaker in Pennsylvania who hated cruelty of any kind, campaigned for the abolition of slavery. These are just two of several instances where those interested in protecting non-humans have extended their compassion to suffering humans too. Compassion knows no barriers of class, race, sex or species. Most campaigners for animal rights think that all animals - which includes human ones - should certainly have basic rights. Quite a few are involved in political and social justice movements as properly as campaigns calling for an end to cruelty towards non-human animals.


The main argument in favour of animal rights is that of morality. It is wrong to exploit other people. It is wrong to do cruel issues. It is wrong to slaughter animals. If it is wrong to do something to humans, it is also wrong to do it to other animals. Can non-humans be treated badly due to the fact they lack the intelligence of most human adults? If so, there are human adults who lack the intelligence of some other animals. But no sane individual advocates that they be employed to discover and develop drugs or that they will need to be treated in the cruel ways that are allowed for animals on farms, in circuses and in the wild.


By showing respect to all animals in this globe and permitting them rights, we humans would benefit. We would have far better well being from better research techniques. Sufficient food to feed just about every human several times over. Alot more water, as it would no longer be used for farm animals which currently require millions of gallons a day. A great deal more land for recreational use - which includes places to watch wild animals. Less pollution - including the pollution that adds to global warming. Clearer consciences. And maybe respect and compassion for each and every other.

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