Long have we believed that we are somehow superior to animals—self-conscious, free will and all; however, modern gene science has proved that we are not so different. As a matter of fact, an animal is etymologically a being which breathes, or, has a soul. The word comes from Latin anima, which means breath or soul.
But now and here, for the convenience of discussion, let’s just take the word “animal” in the layman’s sense and leave human beings out of the debate.
AnimalRights
Of all issues relating to animals, nothing is more fundamental and more controversial than animal rights. What is animal right? Do animals have right? What sort of right do they have? And where does animal right come from?
To find the answer we need to first take a close look at human rights. Firmly we have taken it for granted that we are born with certain rights such as the right to live, body autonomy, freedom of choice, so on and so forth. However, if we truly believe these right are what we bornwith, logically there should only be death that can take them away from us, which is not really the case. Your rights can be deprived by the government, by your school, sometimes even by your parents, if you did something wrong. Churches and the government can even decide on people’s right to live by sentencing infidels or criminals to death.
What we can learn from this is that, human rights are not what we are born with, not from the Mother Nature or Gods. It comes from collective super-powers such as tribes, nations, countries, governments, and churches…etc. And if our rights are being violated, these super-powers would provide protection and do the justice.
Yet animals don’t have their own social structures that are powerful enough to protect their rights. And a right without protection is no right at all. So unfortunately animals don’t actually have any rights, unless we as human societies give them some. But shall we?
The reason why the governments protect human rights is that they very much rely on people. Without us, governments and countries can’t just develop by themselves. The rights one deserves approximates one’s contribution to the government. To put it another way, you serve the country well, the country would take good care of you. So the question now is, do animals serve us?
The answer is an absolutely “YES”. The significance of animals to human beings can’t be overstated. Animals serve human beings in a great many ways:
As labor force
Oxen and horses have been used to plough the fields;
Oxen and horses are also being used for transportation, along with donkeys, mules, camels, dogs (dog sled), and elephant;
Many wild lives are trained to perform in circus;
Pigeons and crows are trained to send messages;
Dogs are being trained for police and military uses;
Eagles, hawks, cormorants, hounds, and leopards are trained for hunting.
As pets
Feline animals and canine animals are world-widely being raised aspet animals. They keep us company, safeguard our properties, and play withpeople, bringing us protection, amusement and consolation. Chinese people are alsofond of birds and fish. In recent years, reptiles, amphibians and even insectsare becoming increasingly popular in pet markets. Young people consider them as“cool”, a way of being different.
As resource provider
Like it or not, human beings are omnivores. Meat is on most people’s dining table. It provides fat,protein, a big family of dietary fatty acids and amino acid and all kinds of minerals.We farm-raise a rich variety of domesticated animals for their meat and eggs.
Animals also provide fur,wool, feather, leather and other useful parts.
As experiment objects
Sinfully we’ve been running experiments on lab rats, guinea pigs and monkeys for centuries. we insect animals for biological study; we infect animals with viruses to see how they attack tissues and organs; we test new drugs on animals to see the curing effect; we modify their genetic structures to discover the ultimate secrets of life.
Now that we can see that we can’t live without animals, it is more than obvious that animals deserve some rights. For those animals we keep for food, the least thing we can do is to not to make them suffer when they are alive; for pets, we should not abandon them since they have already lost the ability to survive in the wilderness; for circus animals, we should not torture or abuse them…etc.
But what about wild animals? They don’t seem to have been serving us, do they deserve any right?
My opinion is, not all wild animals should be protected. As a matter of fact, we can’t actually afford to do so. However, we have to protect those endangered wild animals which hold key positions in thefood chain. The extinction of those animals might cause imbalance in theeco-system, whose devastating aftermaths would finally descend on human being. We should protect them from being hunted and prevent them from extermination because they are important to us. This sounds very selfish, but, hard to acceptas it is, that’s what we are.
