animal rights
...ore suffering than you think before they are actually put to death. Chickens are packed into very small pens that are clearly unsuitable for them to be able to live comfortably. All animals are treated poorly before eaten. Humans do not take into consideration the suffering that these animals must go through just so we can eat them. Humans do not even think about the fact that animals could have rights just as we do. We only think about what our needs are. This is clearly a form of speciesism. This is when one species feels they are more dominant or better than another species; extremely similar to racism and sexism. To avoid this speciesism, human beings must stop the killing of animals for food. It would surely be a long, difficult process, but it should still be done. The third and final point to be discussed is the use of animals for laboratory experiments. Animals are often put through extreme suffering while humans experiment with new products such as shampoo or hair spray. People believe that experimenting with new things is for the good of the human race and that in that case it must be alright since animals are not as intelligent as we are. Some people know about the use of rats in experiments and think, “well it is just a rat what harm will that do?” The rat feels suffering from what scientists do to it. Therefore, there is no justification for why we should continue with this practice. In many cases, the animals used in these experiments are not even referred to as animals but as mere laboratory equipment. They put them in the same category as a test tube or a hot plate. Animals are living things and this suffering that scientists put them through should be stopped. B. Bonnie Steinbock From Bonnie Steinbock’s essay, I was particularly interested in these three points; the differences between racism, sexism, and speciesism, why should the interests of all humans be considered equally, and the argument she brought up about rats and humans. The point about the differences between racism, sexism, and speciesism is the first subject to be summarized. Just because an animal has hair all over its body or doesn’t walk upright are not the reasons that humans treat animals the way they do. Animals, however, are different from humans in more significant ways, which are morally significant. A person cannot keep an African American away from education because they feel it will not benefit them. However, when it comes down to animals, one can say that education will not benefit them. This is one of the differences between humans and nonhumans that is morally significant. The second point, which is actually a question, is why should the interests of all humans be considered equally? To answer this, people must consider the phrase, “all men are created equal”. Humans are not noticeably equal. Many humans differ greatly when it comes to intelligence and virtue. Bernard Williams believes, “The only respect in which all men are equal is that they are equally men.” Just being a human isn’t significant enough to cause harm to nonhumans. However, human beings have characteristics that are morally significant. This keeps us above nonhumans. The third argument that Steinbock brought about was the information about rats harming humans. Most people when they find a rat or mouse in their house, they set traps to kill them and rid them from the house. Rats can carry diseases and can harm people. Humans cannot try to talk it over with the rats. We cannot tell the rats not to bite children or eat our food. The only thing left to do is to get rid of them permanently. This is what makes them separate from humans having a lower moral status. Rats carry harmful diseases, which gives us the right to get rid of them before harming us. However, when humans have diseases we don’t go killing them because we have the same moral status, which gives us good reason not to. If the only way that we can free all human beings from pain and suffering is by experimenting with nonhumans, then this is a justifiable reason to do so. Part 2: Personal Analysis The animal rights issue is probably one of the hardest issues to take a side in. On one side, people believe that animals should have the same basic rights as human beings do. This side of the argument believes that eating animals is a form of cruelty, not because we kill them to be eaten, but because we pretty ...