Topic > Animal Rights: Understanding the Importance of Keeping Animals Safe

For the introduction of these animal rights, I will first provide the definition of rights as a whole. Right is a moral or legal right to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way. Because people's rights are something we deserve, especially when we talk about human rights. Human rights are rights that every person is born with and maintains throughout their lives, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. These rights include things like freedom of speech, the right to marriage and family, freedom of belief and religion, and many others. Human rights have been something that people have fought for throughout history, and they have been something that people have given their lives for because they believed in equality and that everyone deserved to receive these human rights. But do rights stop at human beings? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Rights are something that most people know as things that everyone deserves, but there are multiple types of rights; two of them gained rights and human rights. Acquired rights are rights that are granted or acquired. An example of this would be some licenses like the ones hunters receive. This license gives them the right to hunt as long as they follow the law. People think there's nothing wrong with hunting as long as you don't hunt the animal to extinction, but they're not exactly wrong. Hunting is acceptable when it is necessary to obtain resources or when there is an animal that is overpopulating a certain area and hunters help keep that population low. Many times, however, hunters compromise the habitat in which they hunt by killing the animals needed for those places. There are animals all over the world that suffer because they are not treated correctly. There are people who believe they can treat animals however they want just because they are not people. Animals are unable to communicate and defend themselves, but they are still capable of feeling emotions, pain and suffering. Pet owners also have rights when it comes to owning an animal. They have the right to sell or keep their animals. The problem is, depending on who they sell the animal to, the animal may not be treated or cared for as it should be. Many people simply give animals away when they don't want them as a way to get rid of them and often don't double check or see if the person they give their animals to is capable or cares for the animal or if they have had a history of hurting them. The owners of these animals are the first step in making sure these animals are taken care of. Animals are creatures that have sensitivity and are unable to defend themselves, so it is our job to defend them from abuse and cruelty. Animal rights have been a constant issue in society for as long as I can remember. They became prevalent at some point in the past and have never gone away. The issues only seem to interest people whenever a big story of animal abuse emerges, a company is accused or tried for something involving animal abuse, or when it is announced that an animal has become an endangered species or has become extinct. . But after people see what is happening, they take no action to stop what is happening; and so the topic of animal rights and the topic of how animals are not treated properly disappears until next time. Nowadays people love to define themselves"woke up". This makes them aware of social justice issues or things that other people aren't aware of. People like to be seen as social justice warriors, but many times they let the topic of animal rights go over their heads. Animal rights should be something more widely discussed in terms of social justice because at the end of the day these are living creatures too. This topic, as mentioned before, has been and is being raised constantly and because of this things have been done about animal rights, but we are far from finished solving the problem. Animals are no less than humans just because they are not "evolved" like us and have the right to live without being abused or killed. Animal rights are currently seen as an ethical issue because there is disagreement about how animals should be treated. The argument for animal rights is that animals should be treated well and with respect, animals experience pain and suffering and just like humans they do not deserve to be subjected to this for any reason because all types of life should be respected. Some may think that the animal rights movement is trying to give animals the same rights as humans such as marriage and voting, which is ridiculous, it's just a matter of the treatment they receive. Animals, just like humans, have some of the same rights as us. . These rights concern how they are treated. Animals should be respected and cared for as they live created and deserve to live just like us. Animal rights should be supported just like other causes, even though it may not seem important, but even if it isn't, it cannot be something that is left by the wayside because at the end of the day there are living creatures that are being mistreated, tortured , abandoned and killed. Advances made in the field of animal rights include the Humane Slaughter Act, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law and animal welfare. The term animal welfare is used to describe the welfare of animals and the way they are treated. This has different views depending on the person because everyone has their own definition of how animals should be treated. Jennifer Everett explains in her journal that, although everyone has a different understanding of the term, most people agree that "all members of some class of animals are properly treated as direct objects of moral concern, but they differ as theories on the right or wrong of actions that affect members of that class.” Continuing, animal rights laws and regulations have been passed. However, when looked at, they may seem rather useless since most of the time these laws and legislations are little enforced According to the NAVS (National Anti-Vivisection Society), the Welfare Act is a law that was “established in 1966 in response to growing concern about dogs and cats used in research, particularly regarding a large number of reported thefts. of dogs and cats for use in research institutions.” The problem with the welfare law is that the animals protected by it are so specific and it excludes many more animals used in research institutions. Since the law was promulgated, the number of protected animals has grown but at the same time exclusions, such as that for farm animals, have increased. The Welfare Act can also be compared to the Humane Slaughter Act. The Humane Slaughter Act was originally known as the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, "Originally passed in 1958, the law enforced today by the USDA Food Safetyand Inspection Service (FSIS) was passed as the Humane Slaughter Act of 1978. This law requires the proper treatment and humane management of all food animals slaughtered in USDA-inspected slaughter facilities.” The law, although it seems useful, also provides many exclusions, such as the slaughter of poultry, this being one of the only laws that protect the humane slaughter of animals so that they can die without pain, it fails not only on chickens but also on other animals that are excluded or ignored. Another law that exists to protect animals is the twenty-eight hour law. The University of Michigan's Animal Legal and Historical Center explains the law as: “This federal law regulates the transportation of animals, including those raised for food or in food production, across state lines. The statute provides that animals shall not can be transported by "rail carrier, express carrier or common carrier" (except by air or sea) for more than 28 consecutive hours without being discharged for five hours for rest, water and food. While the law is helpful in protecting transported animals, it makes no effort to control the conditions in which animals are transported, which sometimes results in animals being transported in poor conditions. However, these laws try to help to a certain extent they are not enough to keep animals safe. That's why there are people who still fight for animal rights. These people are very helpful and part of a great movement, but it takes more people to make a point and get the things we feel are not only necessary but deserved. There are many ways to help the movement and many organizations can join together to do so. Unfortunately, many people are scared or nervous about joining these organizations because in the past these organizations have been called extremist for doing things to bring attention to the cause. Although they do so with good intentions, their actions are seen as offensive or unnecessary because there are multiple ways to do things and instead of doing things peacefully to get attention, these organizations usually choose the latter and they do things that will get people's attention. even if it causes people to disagree with what they are doing. Two examples cited in an essay titled Earth Wars: PETA, Sea Shepherds, Greenpeace and Ethics by Kim Pewitt-Jones are the linguistic choices made by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and the actions taken by The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. to stop the Japanese from killing whales in the Southern Southern Ocean in 2000. The reason PETA's language choices in their ads got them in trouble is because they compared animal abuse and leather use to events terrible events in history. “Holocaust on a Plate” and “End Slavery” were used to rally support from African Americans and Jews globally, but these phrases failed because those minority groups claimed they belittled the horrific events of slavery and the Holocaust.” . Even if PETA was just trying to evoke emotion in people by relating what these animals are going through to events that could affect people seriously in real life, it can be seen as insulting. On the other hand the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society used more extreme measures to prevent the Japanese from killing the whales. The Japanese were doing it legally for research purposes and Sea Shepherd discovered that they were canning the meat for profit and to stop them from doing so they use a more extreme strategy. “The strategy used by.