Animal Rights
"It is possible to commit an immoral act
against a non-human
animals." In order to commit an immoral act against a
non-human animal, one
must define the word "morality". According to the
definition it means
conformity to the rules of right conduct,. On the other
hand immorality means
wickedness or evil (random house dictionary). So in
reflection a wicked or an
evil act against an animal is an immoral act also.
I believe that it is possible
to commit an immoral act against an animal
because they are creatures just like
us. They feel pain and emotions just
like us humans. When someone violates our
rights, we get hurt which often
results in some kind of action. But animals are
helpless, they can't take any
action because they are less intelligent then
humans. However I do believe
that humans are the supreme beings on this planet
and that we are on the
highest evolutionary scale, but still that does not give
us the right to
commit wrong acts to the animals. Some of the wrong or immoral
acts that I
strongly oppose to are animal experimentation, entertainment
involving
animals, hunting and finally habitat destruction. Animal
experimentation is
unethical due to the suffering and death on animals in the
laboratory and
that they have a right to be free from such exploitation.
Vivisection is
the practice of experimenting on animals which started due to the
religious
prohibitions on human dissection. When religious leaders finally
lifted these
prohibitions, it was too late, vivisection was already entrenched
in medical
and educational institutions (internet). The author of the article on
"animal
experimentation is unethical" also opposes vivisection because
he believes
that is "morally wrong, cruel & fruitless." He also
believes that they
are characterized by scientific limitations, the most
important of all the
difficulty of transferring results to human beings with any
degree of
reliability (Bender 55). There are many reasons to oppose vivisection
for
example the enormous physiological variations among rats, rabbits,
dogs,
pigs, and human beings. An experiment in 1989 was performed to
determine the
carcinogenicity of fluoride proved this fact (internet).
Approximately "520
rats and 520 mice were given daily doses of the mineral
for 2 years." Not
one mouse was adversely affected by the fluoride, but the
rats experienced
health problems . "As test data cannot be accurately
transferred from a
mouse to a rat, it cannot be argued that data transferred
from either species to
a human (internet). Some other reasons to oppose
vivisection is the deliberate
infliction of burns on animals, and research in
psychology. In a study, guinea
pigs were for 3 seconds in 100 degrees Celsius
water (Bender 56). How would you
feel if somebody immersed you for 1 second
in hot boiling water? Would you feel
any pain? In psychology research,
countless animals have been "surgically
dismembered, drugged, starved,
fatigued, frozen, electrically shocked, infected,
cross-bred, maddened, and
killed in the belief that their behavior would shed
light on human behavior
(Bender 57). These things mentioned are morally wrong
because they are evil
in nature. As evil in nature as animal experimentation
sounds, so is the
entertainment business involving animals. I believe that
animal circus is
perhaps the most cruelest entertainment of all because the way
animals are
treated. I don't understand what kind of charm or fun people get out
of
watching animals do humanly acts. Why do we want animals to be more like
us
when they are perfectly fine being themselves? When we watch the circus,
we only
see what goes on in front of us, but what goes behind the scenes is a
completely
different story. Some animals are beaten to perform better, they
are chained to
iron poles so they won't run away. These animals are wild, and
they need their
space, and if they don't get their space, these animals react
in a negative way.
We often see on T.V. elephants running on the streets
if kept under confinement
because animals like elephants do have emotional
feelings. Elephants also mourn
for the dead and are observed to be around the
dead for several days which
proves that elephants have emotion. Other
entertainment involving animals are
also immoral such as bull fighting, hound
racing and cock fights because it is
unnecessary and causes much blood-shed
to the animals (Disilvestro, 90) Another
example of immoral behavior towards
the animals which also causes blood-shed is
hunting for pleasure and
conservation. It is cruel and inhumane to kill animals
for fun because they
have pain, they have families. Many elephants are hunted
down just so the
poachers can make money with their beautiful ivory tusks. Some
hunters even
try to take their tusks while they are alive (Dicilvestro 96). Just
try for
one-day to put yourself in the animals position. See how it would feel
if a
hunter tried to take your nose or fingers or hair etc., just for the sake
of
money. Hunting is one of the major causes for extinction in animals.
Another
example of extinction is the destruction of animal habitat. Imagine
if one day a
bull-dozer pulled up right in front of your beautiful
serene-looking house, and
in a blink of an eye, destroyed your house
completely without any warning. How
would you feel? What kind of emotions
would you be experiencing at that
particular time? What if your whole
community (city) was destroyed in this
manner without any explanation or
warning? Ok so it was an order for the
government to build a new highway, and
your house just happened to be in the
way. The government probably will say
"hey, it is our right to do so, it is
for our economical development of the
society." Well just because it is
their right and for the benefit of
economical development, dues not mean that it
is right! Just because the
government has more power than you, doesn't mean it
is fair to destroy what
you call home. This act would be considered highly
immoral due to the fact
that it was wrong. Now imagine yourself in an animals
shoes, whose homes are
destroyed everyday by the minute. Hundreds and hundreds
of acres are
destroyed by the minute, leaving the animals homeless. We say that
animals
don't have emotions or don't feel pain, but that is to the contrary.
Just
because they are of lower intelligence then us, that does not give us
the
right to destroy their homes. In conclusion, we have to become more aware
of the
significance wild-life has on us we have to educate ourselves about
why animals
have to be treated kindly. The issue of animal rights is most
definitely a moral
issue because morality deals with what is right or wrong.
Being cruel and evil
to animals is simply immoral.