Do Animals Have Rights - Thesis Proposal Example

• Introduction

Animal rights are some basic benefits that people provide animals including the protection of animals from being abused or killed. Animals have played extremely important role in the life of humans since the beginning of civilization. The existence of humans greatly depends on the survival of animals. Animals should have some rights, which could protect them from the greed and wrath of humans. Although, it is known that animals have been proved to be very essential during scientific experiments especially for medical research however based on the ethical stand, the experiments on animals is inappropriate. The use of animals in scientific experiments is an old concept and it has been very useful because it has not only saved the lives of many people but also animals who could share similar kind of diseases.

There are many people who support animal rights and they believe that animals are not owned by a humans, therefore they should not be tortured or killed for self-benefits. The animal rights supports consider the best interest for animals and they support the freedom of animals because it ensures morality in the world. This essay supports the thesis statement.

• • Thesis Statement

“Animals are sane creatures and basic animal rights can prevent unnecessary tortures on them.”

• Discussion

The following discussion will help to make argument in support of developed thesis statement.

• • Background

Animals have been used for experimental purposes since 500 B.C. The concept of rights was distinguished initially by an English philosopher, John Lock. According to Lock, every people in the world were entitled to some basic rights that could determine their freedom, property, life and liberty. In the past, rights were rarely given to the lower class of the society, which caused several revolutions. However, in the modern world, there are several debates among people regarding the position of animals in the society. People in favor of animal rights believe that animals are very important and they are in many ways similar to humans. Animals are conscious creatures and they feel pain, happiness, sorrow, pleasure etc. This shows that animals have emotions and they should also have some rights that could protect and ensure their existence. The development of arguments towards animal rights emerged during the 19th and 20th centuries in several cultures (Tolle 185). It has been evident that neither animal are being treated equally as humans nor they can be considered similar because of their inability to speak or express views and think rationally. However, the protections of animals have been deemed to be necessary in almost every civilization in the 21st century.

There are many people, who have presented their views against the animal rights by stating that, animals are not similar to humans because they cannot be placed equal before the law. Since animals do not have the potential to speak and express their views similar to that5 of humans they cannot be treated equally in a society. There are some important rights that people enjoy including voting rights, fair taxation rights, and freedom of religion and speech rights which cannot be applicable to animals. Due to this factor animals have been refrained from giving similar rights in the world dominated by humans. The expression of people against animal rights also exists because animals do not possess the ability to think rationally and they have different type of characteristics which are extensively different from that of humans. These factors have developed opinions among people against the existence of animal rights (Scully 238). On one end the observations and opinions of people against animal rights are correct by ethically this attitude is not appropriate.

The supporters of animal rights have continuously presented their views in favor of the development of animal rights. The supporters of animal rights have stated that animals might not have the potential to think or behave rationally or similar to humans but they have life and have emotions. Animals are not similar to rocks or other living organisms such as plants. Animals feel pain and they can express their feelings towards some actions. Animals can move and they have life, which makes them important. These factors have been extremely important to consider the minimum rights that animals could enjoy while struggling with their survival in the world. There are several animals that are different from each other. Not all animals such as insects could be given equal rights but mammals and birds could fall under the umbrella of basic rights that could be provided to animals. The basic rights can be limited to the access to free living in a natural state. Unlike humans, the animals are treated as commodities rather than living beings (Anderson 69). Due to this factor they are reared and possessed by people wherein the animals are exposed to great risks and under the ownership of humans. Animals could be left to live in their natural habitat in order to avoid any harm against them.

Majority of the researchers and individuals in the modern world have raised their concern against the animal rights because they believe that humans could be exposed to great amount of risks, if the human dependency on animals was reduced. Many people have claimed that animal rights could not be assigned because even insects and pests would fall under the criteria of animal rights. Currently animals are being used for dairy products, protein enabled food, experimental purposes to fight against diseases and development of medicines, scientific expeditions etc. The role of animals in the life of humans is extremely important and vital. Any reduction in the dependency of humans towards animals would risk the existence of humans in the world. Furthermore, the provision of animal rights would make huge changes in the world because it would forbid humans from extracting necessary items such as milk, wool, meat etc from animals (Singer 47). The survival of humans depends greatly on the products available from animals and animal rights could restrict humans from access to such items.

The supporters of human rights have claimed that the use of meat products from animals by slaughtering them is completely unethical. They have also claimed that humans should try to emphasize on eco-friendly diets because it would enhance morality in the world. There are several claims made by supporters of animal rights which suggest that people would need to make small compromises in order to make effective changes in the world. For example, the unnecessary killing of animals could be controlled easily in the world. Hunting of wild animals for amuse should be stopped completely in order to ensure wild-life preservation. The most essential claim towards animal rights is the usage of animals towards scientific experimentations. It has been observed that animals, especially monkeys have been constantly used in medical researches, wherein they have been kept on closed boxes and given unknown drugs to check the effect of the drugs in their bodies (Poletti 83). Although, it is important to understand and study metabolism and impact of several drugs in order to ensure the disease-free survival of humans however the steps involved in the entire mechanism is completely unethical. Animals should not be used for experimental purposes because they have the right to live a healthy and natural life without any interference created by humans. Unnecessary killing of animals and random experiments on animals should be stopped because animals have the right to live with liberty without being abused.

Animals can experience pain and suffering, therefore they should be treated appropriately. As per United Nations Convention of Children Rights, every child has the right to be treated appropriately in any mental or physical disability cases. Similarly, it is important for people to understand that animals are also living organisms with lower mental development or functions due to which they deserve to have some basic rights, which could ensure their safety and freedom. Although, the use of animals for experimentation has reduced in recent times but the numbers are still very high. The statistical data presented below describes the number of animals that have been used for experiments till 2010.

(Salt 57)

Based on the above data it is evident that animals are widely being used for experimental purposes due to various reasons. Currently, animals are not only being used for development of drugs but also for the development of cosmetic products. Undoubtedly, the experiments conducted on animals have helped in several medical researches but using animals randomly in such experiments is unethical because animals suffer and lose their life for these purposes.

Apart from animal experiments, there are several ill-treatments that animals experience on a high scale in the world. Animal hunting has reduced largely in the contemporary era however animal abuse has increased on a high scale in the world. Animal abuse includes, beating animals, leaving them to starve, making animals work more than their ability etc. Animal abuse is a serious concern and it is an offensive act because it can lead to pathetic death of the animals. The animals that are kept in zoo are generally not treated properly and their natural habits are challenged by people. Similarly, there are several animals such as tigers and bears, which are used in circuses to amuse people however their numbers are very low in the world (Harris 112). When wild animals are captured and kept in artificial homes, the life-span of the animals reduces automatically because they cannot cope with the body metabolism appropriately. These animals are also not taken proper care due to which they lose their life very often. There are several Asian countries wherein these practices of animal abuse are still in picture.

Several researchers in this field, such as Dr. Michael DeBakey have stated that animal abuse and animal experiments in laboratories reduce the dignity among animals and they are kept vulnerable to diseases and loss of life. Currently, most of the animals used for medical research are used by breeding especially for the purpose and they are clinically tested for successful application of vaccines before experimenting on humans. The experiments conducted on lab animals are very dangerous because there are high chances for loss of animals and failure of experiments (Phelps 79). It has also become clear that the current practices cannot be controlled or abolished instantly because scientific researches and pharmaceutical experiments are necessary for survival of both humans and animals in the world. In order to reduce the dependency on animal experiments, scientists should try to incorporate stem-cell researches for medical purposes and reduce the usage of animals that are currently used for the same. Furthermore, animals cannot be given equal rights as humans but they can be treated properly and given freedom in their natural habitat. Animal abuse could be reduced and it should be the fundamental responsibility of humans to protect animals from being abused or mistreated. The rights of animals should include freedom of wild animals, restriction against animal abuse, and limitation of animal killings to obtain food products, reduction in the conduction of experiments especially in the cosmetic organizations. Animals cannot be given freedom of speech rights or freedom of expression rights but they can be given rights to move freely without any fear of humans.

• Conclusion

Based on the above discussion it is possible to state that, animal rights are important for their protection because the life of animals continuously subjected to risks without some basic rights. There are several arguments and debates on the animal rights, which has occurred in the past however it has become clear that without some basic rights animals are in grave danger. The supporters of animal rights have stated that animals must not be used for experimentations or for amusement purposes. Since animals are sane organisms, they must have rights of freedom according to ethics. There are many people who believe that the use of animals for medical research is essential in order to prevent deadly diseases from spreading in the world. Undoubtedly, medical research is important but it can be done on lab animals those have been selected specially for the particular purpose. The number of animals used for medical research could also be reduced in order to save huge number of animals from being sacrificed unnecessarily. Furthermore, animal abuse should also be checked because it puts the life of animals at great risk. Therefore it is evident that, animals are sane creatures and basic animal rights can prevent unnecessary tortures on them.