There are people that take good care of their pets and other animals, but there are still the ill-fated animals that are used for testing or left behind by previous owners. Sure we can say that there’s no way to move forward in medicine and technology without animal testing, or that the animals were better off left behind in the wild than traveling with the family to the new home. But deep down I think we all know there is something more we can do. Thinking of new way to test our treatments is a step forward in itself. So instead of whining let’s put our heads together and support animal rights because they are abused in many ways even though they are smart and on this earth for more than just to be poked and prodded by us.
Animal abuse is most often thought of as something a person or persons do on purpose to physically harm a carnal being. But that’s not always true. Actually there are numerous other ways of harming the sensual things around us, and some of the times we may not even realize we are wounding them. For example there are an estimated 1 billion stray cats and dogs left by their owners that think someone else will care for them well thier gone. Instead people revere and slay them because they are terrified of catching a disease the stray might carry. Often authorities don’t have laws protecting the strays from poor treatment by humans. Therefore, people are allowed to poison, shoot, or do whatever they want to these once happy household pets. Likewise animals are hurt because citizens of third world countries can’t take sufficient care of their working animals, such as donkeys, horses, or mules. In this way, these beasts are pushed past their limits because they don’t have rest or water. The human race is indeed quite intelligent we have a highly developed brain and are capable of many things; however, homo sapiens are strangely practiced in using systems of complex social structures creating an extremely wide variety of values. In this compound social structure we tend to think to highly of ourselves, beating down and mistreating the other creatures around us. Being so complex and analytical seems to me that we’re not as bright as we make ourselves out to be. Actually animals may not have such a high Tec language but they do have fairly simple and adequate way to live with each other.
Even though there are some people today that think animals don’t have rights because they’re not as clever as us humans, there are studies that show they are indeed quite cagy. In 1971 the chimp called Washoe was the first to memorize and respond to human sign language and since then there have been several more chimps that followed Washoe’s lead. Another example takes place at the University of Hawaii, with Professor Lou Herman, the first to teach dolphins to understand, interpret, and respond to hand gestures. Scientists have also found animal groups and species around the world that communicate through posture and motions as well as different sounds. These are a few examples to show that the existing opinion, a person might uphold, that animals are dim is indeed quite wrong.
Peter Singer, philosophy professor and director of the Center for Human Bioethics at Monash University in Australia, argues for animal rights saying “Animals have nervous systems and can suffer just as humans can, which makes it wrong to use them for research, food, or clothing.” There are reptiles and mammals that are very different, from humans. Charles Darwin, though, has proven that even though we are different we are also really alike. He asserted a genetic linkage between man and other primates such as apes. It has been proven, by studying fossils, that humans did evolve from apes. So why do we treat them so badly? One philosopher, Tome Regan states “ animals deserve respect, not because its good to be kind but because as sentient creatures they satisfy the same criteria humans possess for being valuable subjects of a life.”
Animals are abused all over the world by people that don’t believe they should have rights. But why shouldn’t they? As I stated in the previous paragraphs, some are smart enough to understand sign language, while others have their own language. Certain animals have been proven to be our early ancestors, and others are here now to keep us company. In place of wounding let’s help them so they can help us.