Animal+Rights

Animal Rights

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 Animals should not be killed for selfish purposes. These include making food, skinning for hides, furs, plucking of feathers, ect. Animals are part of the moral community along with human beings and should not be slaughtered for the mentioned items above. Human beings are not allowed to kill each other. So why is it legal to kill other animals? It is also not moral to test products on animals, because human beings rarely perform drug trials upon themselves. Therefore, drug testing and experiments on animals should not be aloud to continue. Congress also found that mandating humane slaughter not only smoothes and hastens business transactions involving livestock and the food products that come from them, it also "results in safer and better working conditions for persons engaged in the slaughtering industry."
 * Animals Should have rights:**

The so-called "animal rights" movement is relying upon a logical fallacy which is based on mutually exclusive premises.
 * Animals should NOT have rights:**

"Animal rights" premise #1: Human beings are no different from other animals, with no divine or elevated nature which makes us distinct;

"Animal rights" premise #2: Human beings are ethically bound not to use other animals for their own selfish purposes.

If human beings are no different from other animals, then like all other animals it is our nature to kill any other animal which serves the purposes of our survival and well-being, for that is the way of all nature. Therefore, aside from economic concerns such as making sure we don't kill so quickly that we destroy a species and deprive our descendants of prey, human animals can kill members of other animal species for their usefulness to us.

It is only if we are //not// just another animal -- if our nature is distinctly superior to other animals -- that we become subject to ethics at all -- and then those ethics must take into account our nature as masters of the lower animals. We may seek a balance of nature; but "balance" is a concept that only a species as intelligent as humankind could even contemplate


 * What rights do animals have now?:**

Between 2000 and 2005, agribusinesses funneled more than $140 million to politicians, who helped to ensure that laws that might protect consumers, animals, and the environment did not pass.
The preamble of the Humane Slaughter Act (HSA) lists several justifications for legally regulating the killing of food animals, beginning with the acknowledgment that "humane methods in the slaughter of livestock prevent needless suffering." Section 2 announces that slaughter procedures must be humane

Types of Cruelty/Abuse- Puppy Mills, Animal Hoarding, Blood Sports, Chains Dogs, cats, horses, sheep, and tethering, Farm Animal Cruelty, Animals in Entertainment, Exotic Pet Trade, Fur, and Animal Experimentation Passive Cruelty (commission)- act of neglect, lack of action rather than action itself Active Cruelty (omission)- malicious intent, where a person deliberately and intentionally causes harm to an animal goats are treated like crap all the time. Especially at farms.
 * Animal Abuse/Cruelty:**

The SPCA is the only organization with the authority to investigate but doesn't have an obligation because it's not publicly funded.


 * Factory Farms:**

Factory farms can be described as the practice of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory.

16 billion animals who are killed for food every year in the U.S. have little legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on companion dogs or cats.
The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs, which are all distributed for human consumption.



Pigs have their tails and scrotum cut off while being raised on the farms. Chicken eggs are collected every day and at the same time, the chickens are fattened up to fulfill the appetites of people. Cows are slaughtered in a smoke house.

There have been recorded incidents that show the mistreatment of animals in factory farms in which the workers have been seen openly abusing the animals they raise, often for sport. Sickly or injured animals are left untreated, and they are often abused for no apparent reason. When workers physically remove certain parts of their mass produced livestock, they will rarely use anesthetics. In large factories, there are often sections devoted to the mass production of newborn livestock. These are called "congestion crates" and are almost identical to the set up used in puppy mills. In these crates a female animal is kept in a cage that is too small to allow her to turn or even lay down. Her only purpose is to give birth over and over again, producing as many litters of offspring as she can until she dies. The mother is separated from her offspring to make her susceptible to impregnation again. In animals such as pigs the maternal instinct is very close to the human equivalent and therefore the mother experiences a deep depression when separated from her newborns.

Confinement at high stocking density is part of a systematic effort for producing the highest output of products at the lowest cost. This effort requires the use of antibiotics and pesticides for mitigating the spread of disease and pestilence created by these crowded living conditions. In addition, antibiotics to kill intestinal bacteria when stimulating for the growth of livestock.

There is a continuing debate over the benefits and risks of factory farming. The issues include the efficiency of food production; animal welfare; whether it is essential for feeding the growing global human population; and the environmental impact and the health risks.

Ninety-four percent of animal testing is done to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products leaving only 6% for medical research! Cosmetic testing is banned in Belgium, Netherlands and the U.K.. Europe has been phasing out all products related to animal testing since 2002 and they plan to completely ban all products by 2009.
 * Animal Testing of Consumer Products:**

More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, medical training exercises, and curiosity-driven medical experiments. -

Product testing is the use of animals in tests to determine the relative toxicity of the chemicals that constitute the consumer products that are used in our homes everyday. Dish detergent, laundry soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, oven cleaner, etc. are often the result of barbaric tests that poison, burn, and torture hundred of thousands of animals every year. Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, mice, and other species of animals are used in cruel tests that subject them to high levels of caustic chemicals. Several kinds of tests are performed for consumer products. Skin irritancy, eye irritancy, and oral toxicity testing all cause severe suffering for the unanaesthetized animals victimized in these crude tests. Modern technology has given us many methods of assessing the toxicity or irritancy of a chemical without relying on animal tests. It is also possible to simply make consumer products out of chemicals which have already been thoroughly studied and require no new testing. The fact is that many companies including: Avon, Revlon, Aubrey Organics, Tom’s of Maine, Paul Mitchell, Nexxus, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Food Lion (house brand products only), Bon Ami/Faultless Starch, Bath & Body Works, etc.-- literally hundreds of companies produce laundry detergents, cleaning products, cosmetics and personal care products without killing animals for testing. Some Companies Still Torture Animals and to get the message out don’t support companies that test on animals. Companies include: Procter & Gamble, Clairol, Colgate Palmolive, Lever Brothers, L’Oreal, and Clorox.

489,262 animals that were used in research in 2002 (not including mice, rats, and birds—no one knows how many of these animals are used in research) were used in research that was either painful, distressful, or both. Most of these animals were given something that either helped take the pain away or helped them get over the pain quickly.

Animal testing is a big issue in animal rights. The FDA does not require testing on animals for many of the products this occurs with, including make-up. Over 100 million animals are used in product testing, including medical testing, worldwide annually. Legislation that is introduced to reduce this number does not affect all animals either, and mice are still legal subjects for product testing in the United States.

 The US-based Foundation for Biomedical Research says that animal testing for medical purposes has helped humans from many diseases such as vaccinations, organ transplant, cure and control of disease, and even joint replacement. Without the testing then the thousands of people that had their lives saved would be dead. There are also no great alternatives to turn to. There should not be animal testing because the animals they don’t represent the human body completely and can cause some problems and change some of the medical results.
 * Animal Testing for Medical Research:**

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Largest animal rights organization in the world Over 2 million members Founded in 1980 Won first case in 1981 Four main areas of focus Factory farms Laboratories Clothing trade Entertainment Industry Movies Circuses etc.
 * Peta:**

media type="youtube" key="VTZQnQeAPJc" height="390" width="480" []- watch this video

Tilikum the Killer Whale (Sea World Killer Whale) Videos: 1. [|The Loneliest Whale in The World] 2. [|Sea World Killer Whale Tragedy]
 * Animals Used for Sports/Entertainment:**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming [|http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/science-technology/animal-testing/ - comments] http://www.petfinder.com/how-to-help-pets/legal-rights-animals.html http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/fact-product.html http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-animal-testing http://animalrightsfacts.com/ http://issues.abc-clio.com/Analyze/Display/1371038?cid=13&terms=animal+rights http://www.peta.org/
 * Resources:**