The Issue Of Animal Cruelty: Should Animals Have Rights

Billions of animals are killed and hurt every year for the sake of our own benefit. Even though animals deserve to have rights just like us, they are subjected to so many inhumane things such as; testing, breeding, slaughter, cruelty and abuse. We need to come together and improve animals’ rights because us, humans are not the only thing on this planet, nor are we more important than any other living thing.

Animals have the same capacities as humans. Just because animals can’t talk to you and say “Hey, it hurts when you do that, can you please stop?” does not mean they do not feel pain and suffering like we do. They have different ways of letting us know like, loss of appetite and escalation of vocalization. Some people believe that animals don’t feel emotion, but they are wrong. If you have a pet you know how happy they get when they get a new toy or a treat, but they also experience pain, fear, sadness, and anxiety (What is Animal Cruelty 12). Animals also have desire and awareness; they can show jealous and territorial behavior. Dogs mark their territory with their pee, they may become aggressive if someone is hurting their owner, and may beg for attention if the attention isn’t on them.

Products you use everyday are from companies that still test on animals. Procter & Gamble, Gain, Kotex, Johnson & Johnson, and Clorox, all test their products on animals. Using animals to test harmful chemicals and substances is unethical, as it can cause burns, pain, itching, and many other uncomfortable issues for the animal. “Imagine spending your entire life confined to a hospital bed — one that has no mattress or blankets. You’re constantly receiving “treatments” that cause discomfort, and you can’t have any visitors. That’s a close analogy to the animal cruelty involved in laboratory testing.” (What is Animal Cruelty 8). We are in 2020 with our scientific developments’ animal testing is absolutely unnecessary. There are quite a few alternatives to animal testing that are better because 95 out of 100 drugs that pass animals fail humans (Animal Testing is Bad Science 1). No matter how many animals we test a product on someone will always be the first human to be tested on.

A lot of people don’t think that animal breeding is bad especially if they are buying from a ‘reputable’ breeder. Despite the fact that people are making thousands off making their animals reproduce there are 70 million homeless dogs and cats in the US alone, and only 20% of people adopt their dogs from shelters (Henn 1). Stand alone breeders are a problem but puppy and kitty mills are far worst. Animals that come from these mills most of the time have health issues and or deformities. These animals are taken from their mother as soon as they are able to eat on their own, live in tiny cages with no access to play and sometimes beaten and abused. Animal shelters everywhere are over capacity trying to save all of the homeless animals because people want to pay money for a purebred when you can find them at shelters and rescues.

Everyday farm animals are inhumanly being raised for eventual slaughter. I’m sure we all would love to imagine that the livestock we eat are raised in beautiful big pastures and fed a healthy free-range diet unfortunately, most of the meat you buy at grocery stores are from factory farms. These animals are viewed as objects and are crammed into a small space with tons of other animals with little veterinary care. A lot of cows, pigs, and chickens die from exhaustion or diseases or until slaughtered for meat. Sometimes even slaughter doesn’t end the cruelty these animals endure. Some are slit in the throat, boiled, or electric shocked to death (What is Animal Cruelty 23). You have probably paid money to visit a zoo, circus, or rodeo before and didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, and maybe you still won’t but animal exploitation is wrong and cruel.