Animals are a major part of the environment. To protect the rights of animals is must to every human in the environment. Animal rights are also known as “Animal Liberation”, meaning that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be treated the same way as the similar interests of human beings. Animal law is taught in 119 out of 180 law schools in the United States, in eight law schools in Canada, and is routinely covered in universities in philosophy or applied ethics courses; still we are far behind in understanding the animal rights.
I agree with Utilitarian approach, which states that animal ethics should be morally considered. It means that this is the duty of humans to protect animal rights. If a community is rejecting animal rights it suffering from ‘speciesism’, which means the community is following racism and is sexiest (Louis, 2008).
All the major religions prevailing in the environment like Islam, Christianity and Buddhism also recognizes the rights of the animals. These three major religions teach us about animals and help humans to know about the rights of the animals (Louis, 2008).
Canada and United States of America has strict laws against animal cruelty. In Canada there is zero percent tolerance towards animal cruelty, which is written in the Contemporary Canadian Criminal Code.
ANIMAL CLONING - IS IT REALLY ETHICAL
Every country, religion and community has laws for animal protection but still animals are treated in an in human manner. The first thing which is the most important issue in the current market is the experimentation on animals. Many scientists base their experiments on animals like cloning. Animal Cloning refer to the process by which an entire organism is reproduced from a single cell taken from the parent organism and in a genetically identical manner. This means the cloned animal is an exact duplicate in every way of its parent; it has the same exact DNA. The ethical issue raised here is that are animals really treated in a way they should be treated? No, animal cloning is the worst thing one can do to a living being. One of the biggest reasons of not carrying these type of experiments is that number of animals are being killed in the experiment and those experiments took us nowhere. The history of cloning tells us that scientists were trying to clone animals from 1800’s and the first successful experiment took place in 1996, which was on Dolly the sheep. In the books it says that the experiment was successful but was it really successful? According to Ethics and Animal Rights it was not. The sheep lived only six years where she should live at least 12 years. Abnormal reproductive behavior was seen like the sheep gave birth to twins and triplets. Just at the age of five the sheep developed Arthritis and was not able to walk properly. Dolly died because of Lung Cancer, which was developed because of the artificial environment. Sheeps normally live outside and in natural environment; Dolly was kept inside the laboratory because of security reasons and developed Cancer. Animal Cloning is against animal rights and actually kills the animals in a very painful manner.
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ANIMAL TESTING - IS THAT THE ONLY WAY LEFT
Animal testing is also known is as Animal Research, Animal Experimentation and In-Vivo. In-Vivo refers to as experimentation within a living being. From its very basic definition we can see that how cruel this process is. These types of experiments hurt animals as a whole or damage them where they became useless. Animal Testing is done in various fields such as cosmetic testing, clinical testing and pharmaceutical products. According to an estimate almost 20 million animals are tested and killed annually. Out of these 15 million are tested for medication and 5 million for other products. According to medical experts, animal testing is must for medication, otherwise it’s nearly impossible to tell the side effects of certain type of medications. During these testing procedures animals are not given proper pain killers to save them from the intense pain the animals bear and hence a number of animals die every year because of these experiments. The question of which we all should think is that the only way left? Is it really justified to kill millions of animals to make medicines? There should be alternatives that can protect the animals from undergoing through such a painful process. It is really hard to replace animal testing in medical field but yes animal testing can be replaced with non-animal models in other fields like cosmetic testing which is not required by law. In medical field as well testing of various medicines should be done in a manner in which animal bears the minimum pain and are not killed. Proper painkillers should be given to the animal and medical scientists should treat the animal as a living being. Animals are treated as if they don’t breathe and don’t have feelings. Our society never wants to find alternatives to animal testing, as it is the easy way out.
ANIMAL USED FOR MAKING PRODUCTS - DO WE STILL NEED IT
From the very beginning animals are being are used to make clothes and are used for dairy products. In olden times when people don’t have clothes they used to kill animals and make clothes out of the skin of various animals. But this was case hundreds of years back; we are now much better with the latest technology. Animals used for dairy products are ethical if the animals are treated well. But this is not the case. Animals are given artificial feed with which they grew in size quickly and give milk and lay eggs in larger quantity. Due to this reason animals do not remain healthy and the dairy products, which humans get from them, is not healthy. This practice is harmful for both the humans and animals. Moreover leather business is really famous and is one of the highest revenue generating business. Leather comes from animals, people kill animal take their skin and make products like leather jackets, leather luggage among other products. Leather is produced by treating suitably prepared animal hides or skins with certain chemicals called tanning agents. To get the skins or hides of animals such as horses and cows, hunters hunt the animals manufacturers take the skin and make goods out of it. Is this treatment with animals is really justified? Can’t people live without pure leather products and fur jackets? As a matter of fact yes, humans can live without leather products and fur clothes. Leather jackets and fur coats are luxuries of life and not a necessity. Only a specific group of people can afford pure leather jackets and fur coats. Poor people who live on their pay checks are not able to buy these products, so cant we all accept synthetic products and save the wildlife. The word “Wild Life”, one can read the word life which means that animals are species which breathes and have feelings like hunger, pain, among others. Business men should try to thing ethically and save animals which will contribute a lot to a much ethical environment.
ANIMAL RIGHTS ACCORDING TO RELIGIONS - ARE WE REALLY FOLLOWING IT
The three major prevailing religions in the society that are Christianity, Islam and Buddhism also recognize the importance of the wild life and teach humans how to deal with animals.
According to Bible, Man is to take care of and use the earth. Humans have been given the authority over all the creatures God has created. All the resources of Earth are created for the use of humans. God also included some animals in the diet of humans, which means one can use animals for his use. Still animal cruelty and over killing of animals is prohibited in Bible. Man is asked to take care of the animals and protect them from diseases.
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Islam is very close to Christianity in respect of Animal Rights. Muslims are allowed to eat meat which comes from animals and they can use all the dairy products. In Islam animals are slaughtered in such a way that the animal bears the minimum pain and all the blood of the animal flows away. This slaughtering of the animal prevents humans from diseases and bacteria. Example of such kind of meat is Kosher Meat. But still Islam tells its followers to be kind to animals. If one is raising a pet like a cat, dog or any other animal, one should take care of the necessities of the animal. Islam doesn’t allow anyone to be cruel with animals.
Buddhism religion was started with the birth of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama who was born in 5th century BCE. Buddhists follow the teachings of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama who was a preacher in Ancient India. Buddhists are the followers of Buddha and base their lives on his teachings. According to Buddha all living beings have equal rights. Earth and its resources are not made specifically for the use of human beings. Humans are not allowed to kill animals and eat them. In Buddhism any living creature has equal rights and every being has the right to live. This explains the importance of animal rights. This explains the importance of animals in our environment. Now lets take a look at our lives, as a Christian, Muslim and a Buddhist are we really following what are our religions are asking us to do?
ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN RESPECT TO ANIMAL RIGHTS
Canada and United States of America has strict laws regarding animal rights. In fact there is zero tolerance for animal cruelty. According to Animal Cruelty Law (Canada) if anyone harms or kills an animal without proper justification is committing a crime and is entitled for a punishment. This law states that no one can kill animal until they are a threat to the society like having a disease, which could be harmful for the society. North American governments are making an effort towards the implementation of animal rights, but what about other countries. If we see
Asian countries especially India, Pakistan, China among other countries animals are humiliated and used as labor. Governments of these countries do not really care about what is happening with the animals.
CONCLUSION
Animals are a part of our environment and are living creatures. They breathe; need food, shelter and love. As a good human and a member of this environment we should take care of the animals and put every effort forward to protect them from abuse and over killing. The use of animals in experiments, testing and clothes should be minimized. Research should be done to find alternatives to animal parts like skin.
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