Do Our Four Legged Friends Have Rights?

Since the beginning of civilization animals have played a role in human society.In the beginning they were mainly hunted for food, their skins used for clothing and their bones used for jewelry and tools. In modern times animals have been domesticated and anti-cruelty laws have been put in place to ensure that they are treated humanely.

A large animal rights movement has risen demanding that animals not be used for medical research or product testing. Many believe that using animals in research is morally unacceptable.

Animals are entitled to certain rights simply because they do have an understanding of the world and show in many ways what they want and need from it. The truth is that we as humans are dependent upon animals for our life and our livelihood. It only makes sense to treat animals with compassion.

Animal rights like many important issues has a variety of positions. If you make a spectrum you have animals rights on one end, animal welfare in the middle and the belief some have that animals do not deserve any moral consideration on the end. Because many find that their beliefs do not fit completely into one box or another we find animal rights changing with each new issue.

To state that animals should have rights is to believe that animals have intrinsic value separate from any value they have to humans. To endow them with animal rights states that they are worthy of moral consideration. Animals are living souls that in general feel the same emotions we do. They share happiness when we give them love are grateful for food and water and show pain when they are hurt. Like humans animals show trauma and lasting effects from abuse.

Animals are living beings that have the right to equal consideration. Or maybe it is not so much that animals have rights, as that we have duties toward them.