Animal Liberation Essay Research Paper Animal LiberationFor — страница 2

affect me. I eat meat and hunt and have never really had a problem with it. I’m appalled at the thought of testing our products on animals but have no problem going out and shooting a deer. This brings up an argument that can at first be seen to agree with animal rights but at closer inspection violates the idea behind it. Hunting has always been a part of human existence, especially here in Montana. I have always thought I was being a good animal rights supporter by hunting. This feeling came from the knowledge of what goes on in places that raise animals in order to mass-produce hamburger and store sold meats. I have always felt I was being fair to the animal by giving it a life outside of captivity and cruel conditions. Yet in order for there to be total animal rights we

would have to abolish hunting. Each and every animal has the right to live and we have no right to decide when that life is to end. Doing so only implies that they are inferior to us. But aren’t there a great many people that are inferior to others. Does that mean we have the right to hunt them for pleasure, sport and food? Almost all of society would say definitely not! But what is it that makes the animal life so much less valuable than that of a human. One of the largest and most frequently used arguments against animal rights is the rationality argument. It simply states that a human being is of greater value than an animal because it has the ability to perform rational thought. This argument fails to recognize the fact that there are many humans that lack the ability for

rational thought while there are numerous animals that have shown signs of this very ability. If we allow ourselves to use these animals in tests and research then what is to stop us from using mental retards, infants, and people in vegetative states in these same procedures? I am not against hunting even though it is taking the life of another species. I feel that if you eat the meat then it is justified. I believe the only reason I don’t eat and hunt humans is that it is illegal. Of course if it were legal there would be utter chaos and we would return to the survival of the fittest. Perhaps that is what we need, a return to the times when you took only when you needed and the life you took was in order to sustain your own. Or perhaps we need to turn to vegetarianism. After

all it is much healthier and humane. In the long run I think the argument for animal rights can be broken down into two sentences. Every creature has the right to life. We do not have the right to take that from them, no more than we have the right to kill a mentally retarded human being. 329