Argument about animal rights and welfare - Essay Example

Every living thing has rights and we need to respect those rights. I think animals must be protected. Animal rights are a way of thought that advocates that one should treat animals like one treats a human being. This way of thought asks to explore all the avenues by which the rights by which animals can be protected. Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposed in Discourse on Inequality in 1754 that animals ought to be part of natural law, not because they are sane, but because they are conscious. For Kant, cruelty to animals was erroneous solely on the basis that it was terrible for humankind.

He argued in 1785 that humans have responsibilities only toward other humans, and that "unkindness to animals is opposing to mans obligation to himself (Thomas A. Mappes, 2002 ).We have the ethical obligation to take care of the rights of animal and need to work as much as we can, for their welfare. We need to ask ourselves about what kind of legacy we would leave for our children. What impact would it have on our future generations? Animals have an equal right to live on this earth with us. When we do give our efforts for the promotion of animal rights and welfare, we are doing our part in their protection and preservation(Richard H.

Corrigan & Mary E. Farrell (eds.)). Jeremy Bentham, even though deeply opposed to the idea of natural rights, argued, following Rousseau, that it was the aptitude to suffer, not the skill to reason, that should be the standard of how we treat other beings. If sagacity were the criterion, many humans, including babies and disabled inhabitants, would also have to be treated as though they were things.We must be ready to be the saviors of animals, inform and educate people about the rights and the welfare of animals.

The best way to start this is by giving lectures in educational institutions, on the neighborhood level, on the city level, and on the larger level, by both going to places personally, and also by using all the methods of media and communications technology that we have developed so far. We need to train people and impart knowledge of animal rights and welfare, to pass on this knowledge about animal rights and welfare, so that people know the facts, and are able to separate facts from fiction (Orlans, 1998 ).

Following the perception of Peter Singer who argues, are predicated on the aptitude to suffer, and nothing more, and once it is recognized that a being has interests, those interests must be given equal contemplation. The degree to which animals can suffer is consequently a key issue.We need to inculcate the love of animals in our young and tell them the importance of animals in the world, our eco system, our environment, our economy and our well-being. The livelihoods of so many people in the world are directly or indirectly related to animals, there are so many products that are out there, which come out of animals, imagine what would happen if something happened to animals, we would be incomplete without them (Taylor, 2009 ).

Tom Regan wrote in 2001 that theorists had written more about animal rights in the preceding 20 years than in the 2,000 years before that. Regans and Franciones approaches are not driven by the evaluation of consequences. Regan is of the opinion that animals are what he calls "subjects-of-a-life," who has ethical rights for that reason, and that moral rights must not to be overlooked, this is his Rights based approach.We need to see them as friends and not enemies, for man has for far too long persecuted animals, and due to this reason, many species of animals either been wiped out from the face of earth, or are going on the path to extinction.

We need to protect what is left, it is somewhat that we must do, it is something that is inevitable for us to do right now. It is our moral obligation to save these beautiful and wonderful friends of ours, before they are wrong. We must think and act now (Palmer, 2008 ).Works CitedOrlans, F. Barbara. The human use of animals: case studies in ethical choice. Oxford University Press, 1998 .Palmer, Clare. Animal rights. Ashgate, 2008.Richard H. Corrigan & Mary E. Farrell (eds.). Ethics: A University Guide.

Progressive Frontiers Pubs., 2010 .Taylor, Angus. Animals & ethics: an overview of the philosophical debate. Broadview Press, 2009 .Thomas A. Mappes. Social ethics: morality and social policy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.