Viewing Thread:
"Animal Rights"

It may seem quite controversial to argue against animal rights but I have a raging feminist girl in my college class who argues about absolutely everything and she has pushed me to the psychological limit and provoked a bit of deep thinking on my part.

Since the dinosaurs perished and mankind became the dominant species on Earth, we have remained unchallenged. Well over 2000 years have gone by and we haven’t had a challenge to our power, a single species (namely us) has pretty much unlimited power. People talk about how intelligent dolphins and dogs are and how they are almost as clever as humans and even show human traits so should be treated equally. A few hundred years ago before the slave trade was abolished, black people were treated worse than animals despite the fact that they were in fact human.

Before the world decides to give animals all these special rights I think we need to sort out human rights before. Racial hatred is at an all time high and before animals start getting treated the same as humans, other humans need to start respecting each other and treat each other as equals.

If animals are smart enough to understand they aren’t treated equally then why don’t they go ahead and do something about it? Why, because they aren’t that smart. I am against animal cruelty for sure, I love animals and hate so see battery farming, fox hunting and animal testing going ahead but we need to develop a perspective. Our fellow man is more important than any animals. No matter how much you love your little pet hamster, a human life is more valuable.

I’m interested to listen to your views on the matter, so go on, discuss.

monkey_man wrote:
> Taking a life is going above the natural order of events.


Hmm. Food Chain ?

Taking a life to preserve your own is a cornerstone of evolution.

Whether that's good or not is debatable, but surely it's 'natural' ?

Bouncer wrote:
> No matter how much you love your little pet hamster,
> a human life is more valuable.

I'm sorry but I totally disagree. Animals have just as much right to live as humans, if not more. No single animal has brought more suffering or destruction to others and the planet than the human being.

Lions kill things. Why? To eat and therefore survive.
Humans kill things. Why? So they can wear their skin and look good down the pub.

"Man is the only creature that can blush, or has reason to."


And as for your comment about time: we use the Gregorian calendar which was backdated to start from somewhere near Jesus' birth and it's simply because Christian/Catholic/Protestant countries are more or less dominant in the world that we use it. There are other countries that don't use our calendar and are therefore on a different year to us.

Bouncer wrote:
> Dr Duck, I made it clear I was against animal cruelty and paralelling
> that in humans in also wrong.

Yep, but I was just suggesting that for the same reasons you found it 'wrong but acceptable', the same arguments could apply equally to humans.

And I was just trying to draw out some more of the finer reasoning behind your views with the other questions.

If it lives and breathes it has the right to live by nature's decree. Taking a life is going above the natural order of events. So going by that idea, animal testing is wrong. But as humans we have always eaten meat and killed animals to clothe ourselves, so it's more a matter of necessity.

Bouncer wrote:
> I meant the date that we live our lives by. 2003 is 2003 years since
> jesus's death.

Sorry to correct you again, but it's not. 2003 is 2003 years since Christ's birth. Hence B.C. - before Christ.

I can't be bothered to argue this out, these topics always end up the same;

Some believe in more rights
Some argue animals are the same as humans
Some don't care
etc

Me ? We have laws which adequately protect animals in the UK, I'm more bothered about looking after people than animals. Animals are not the same as people, they are not equal. My neighbours dog frequently places itself behind my neighbours car as he reverses. Across the close, someone else's cat has to be let into the house by the door because it can't figure out how to use a cat flap. That's smart...

Other countries have different laws, because shock horror they have different cultures. The right we give animals are not natural laws, but laws brought about by our culture. We have no right to impose out cultural norms on people of other nations. Just because some Koreans eat dogs does not give us the right to tell them to quit it, and so on.

There are far more pressing issues than animal rights right now.

mikelar wrote:
> "Readyyyy.....GO!"

"Right, you stab him in the side to make sure and I'll start the egg-timer going."

They have the right to remain silent. :D

I meant the date that we live our lives by. 2003 is 2003 years since jesus's death.

Dr Duck, I made it clear I was against animal cruelty and paralelling that in humans in also wrong.

"Readyyyy.....GO!"