Do animals really deserve rights?
I have always thought so. However, a very popular radio host that I listen to regularly raised the point that made me rethink the term, “animal rights”.
For the past 3 plus years I have been intimately involved with a cause that what I feel helps to prevent cruelty to animals. But is that really, “animal rights”? I have been thinking over the past couple of days what defines the term. I can tell you, it is a deeper topic than what I have been thinking all along.
Do animals have rights? We as people definitely do, but do our rights transcend the same to our beloved pets? The answer is no. Pets do not have the same rights as humans. As humans we have the rights to do, say, think and go as we please. That is because we can logically manuvour through the world using our inherent logic. Can our pets do the same?
Well, if so then why aren’t all pets free to roam and come and go as they please? Why are they property of an “owner”? The answer is simple: our pets cannot logically observe the rules of life like we can as humans. Thus our animals have to be protected by their logically thinking owners. Under that level of protection that is necessary and needed, do animals give up their rights?
Animal rights is a term that someone coined. What is the definition? I think that we need to understand it so that we can place in perspective what we strive to do for the benefit of our pets.
Take this scenario: you and I have the right to be protected against vicious acts aimed against us. However, what about the rights of the zebra on the African Plain that gets attacked by the lion? Does the zebra have the same rights as you and I? If so, who is going to bring the lion up on charges?
Our pets have the “right” to exist in an environment that is free from intentional harm. Our pets have the “right” to live in an environment that is free from distress, an environment that is healthy and an environment that is free from intentional acts of violence. If you can not or do not provide a healthy environment for your pet, that pet has the “right” to be removed from you and placed in an environment that is healthy. So, under these legal pet “rights”, do pets gain the same rights as humans?
If we believe that pets are free to come and go as they please, granting them “animal rights” just as we humans have, then those of us humans that contain and own pets can be considered as slave masters. Right?
What I have gathered through contemplation of this topic is:
Pets do not have the same “rights” as humans because they rely on humans to protect them.
Pets exist for the mutual pleasure of both the owner and the pet. However, they have the “right” to be treated with kindness, protected against evil and the right to exist in an environment that is healthy.
When our pets are mistreated or abused, then the law has the “right” to throw your ass in jail! I like that “right”!
If these conditions and mandates to us as pet owners are considered “animal rights”, then I am all for it!
Thanks for reading
Darren Usher
President and CEO, Aim To Beginn, LLC
http://twitter.com/vickchewtoy