Animal Guardians on Animal Rights
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An Introduction to Animal Rights
The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it. What happens to them matters to them. Each has a life that fares better or worse for the one whose life it is.
That life includes a variety of biological, individual, and social needs. The satisfaction of these needs is a source of pleasure, their frustration or abuse, a source of pain. In these fundamental ways, the nonhuman animals in labs and on farms, for example, are the same as human beings. And so it is that the ethics of our dealings with them, and with one another, must acknowledge the same fundamental moral principles.
At its deepest level, human ethics is based on the independent value of the individual: The moral worth of any one human being is not to be measured by how useful that person is in advancing the interest of other human beings. To treat human beings in ways that do not honor their independent value is to violate that most basic of human rights: the right of each person to be treated with respect.
The philosophy of animal rights demands only that logic be respected. For any argument that plausibly explains the independent value of human beings implies that other animals have this same value, and have it equally. And any argument that plausibly explains the right of humans to be treated with respect, also implies that these other animals have this same right, and have it equally, too.
“BUT FOR THE SAKE OF SOME LITTLE MOUTHFUL OF FLESH...” (Regan)Most people like animals. Cats and dogs are favorites. But the good feelings many people have for whales and dolphins, baby seals and elephants show that even wild animals can come within the mantle of our affections. Animals don’t have to live with us to be liked by us. Children reveal how generous we are in our natural love of animals. Any grade school teacher knows that nothing gets the attention of youngsters like a class visit by an animal, whatever the species. Children’s bedrooms are veritable menageries of stuffed creatures, and the stories young people eagerly read, listen to, or watch are as much about the travails of bears and rabbits as they are about the adventures of human beings. On the one hand, people naturally love animals; on the other, they eat them. How is it possible to eat what one loves?
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Take action for animal rights
Deprived of legal protection, animals are defenseless against exploitation and abuse by humans. Through the Animal Bill of Rights, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is working to show Congress a groundswell of support for legislation … Read More
The sixth international animal rights conference in Luxembourg will take place on September 8th until 11th 2016 at the Kulturfabrik in Esch, Luxembourg. We welcome all animal rights activists and all people who care about … Read More
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News and noteworthy about animal rights
The government estimates that about 10 million people in the country raise some 4 million pets. Exact figures are not available. According to a survey on 2,096 households by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and … Read More
It’s unfortunate that cosmetic animal testing is still legal in the United States. Some countries banned the practice long ago (in fact, in 2013, the entire European Union made it illegal to sell any products … Read More
China has released its first national standards governing the treatment of laboratory animals, and scientists hope the guidelines will improve both conditions for animals and China’s prospects for international research collaborations. The draft standards were … Read More
China is not famous as a place where animals are treated compassionately. Despite the traditional Chinese philosophies of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism promoting compassion towards animals, the country receives more attention from the animal rights … Read More
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Facts about the rights of animals
Animal rights is the idea that some, or all, non-human animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives and that their most basic interests — such as the need to avoid suffering — … Read More
It should be noted that one of the purported justifications for human slavery in the United States was that many of those who were enslaved would not have existed in the first place had it … Read More
The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. … Read More
Animal rights is the philosophy of allowing non-human animals to have the most basic rights that all sentient beings desire: the freedom to live a natural life free from human exploitation, unnecessary pain and suffering, … Read More
Speciesism involves the assignment of different values, rights, or special consideration to individuals solely on the basis of their species membership. The term is sometimes used by animal rights advocates, who argue that speciesism is … Read More
Historically Chinese philosophy has placed importance on compassion for animals. However some think in recent decades China locate its priorities elsewhere. Others see Animal welfare and rights in China is a topic of growing interest … Read More
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Articles and commentary about animal rights
Let’s get something out of the way first: The Yulin Dog Meat Festival in Southern China is a disgusting, cruel, and indefensible event — thousand of dogs and cats are inhumanly killed there each year. … Read More
The rights view, I believe, is rationally the most satisfactory moral theory. It surpasses all other theories in the degree to which it illuminates and explains the foundation of our duties to one another — … Read More
Activists have crusaded for decades for better treatment of animals around the world, but there are certain watershed moments in popular culture that have sparked widespread debate over how we treat animals in the twenty-first … Read More
Those of us who have known and loved dogs can understand the hate that boils up when we witness such acts of violence. We can understand fantasies of vengeance against the people who perpetrate such … Read More
The word speciesism came to me while I was lying in a bath in Oxford some 35 years ago. It was like racism or sexism — a prejudice based upon morally irrelevant physical differences. Since … Read More
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Resources in the struggle for animal rights
Dog meat consumption is an evil custom that doesn’t belong in a modern society as well as a vice harmful to the mental health of our citizens. In my opinion, the fact that our society has been wasting national resources on utterly divisive internal conflicts in all walks of life, such as politics, economy and religion from ancient times is a natural result of evil practice of betrayal and a loss of trust in humanity through the slaughtering and eating of dogs which is then applied in human interactions consciously and unconsciously.
Beopjeong Buddhist Priest South Korean NationalLEGISLATIONThroughout civilization, nations have codified the basic and essential rights of their people—rights that must not be infringed upon by the government or other individuals or entities. In the United States, our Bill of Rights … Read More
