Where do animals get their rights?

Question

Some argue that animals only have the rights
that humans give them.

Fellow animal rights advocates, where do you
believe they come from? I'm really looking
forward to hearing answers from Matt H.,
Lyllian, Max Marie, V&P, Greenhouse and
Psychocola.

Again, anti-vegites, I dare you to refrain from
answering and show some restraint and
decorum.

Wow, I've seen some really
great thought provoking answers
so far. You've given me a lot to
think about.

I Didn't Do It. Thanks for not insulting
me and giving me the best laugh I've
had all day.

Max Marie-
Although we are of different faiths I
share your belief that all life on this
planet is of equal value and importance.

V&P
I agree that we have a moral obligation
to end cruelty, murder and torture.
However I ask? Are we superior?
Do we as a whole make a mistake in
making this claim? When you take
away tools and machinery and stand
face to face with another animal who
then is weak and powerless? I'm not
trying to start an argument, just trying
to provoke some thought.


PC and Lyllian
I totally agree that rights
are artificially assigned privileges that
we humans have assumed due to
self-indulgence.

Matt H.- still waiting to here from you.

G.G. - sorry for referring to you as
Greenhouse earlier. BTW- I use
the handle (acille1jo) because it's
easy to use on every site I go to.
No one else tries to use this name.
Just try calling yourself Dharma Bum
and see what happens.

Answer 1

Sorry it took me so long to reply, but I kept thinking about this question over and over again, and I couldn’t really think of any good answers. I have nothing profound to offer. I am along the same line of thought as these other people in that they are living, thinking feeling, wanting, fearing, suffering beings who have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness just by being born.

… Overall that was quite odd for me because I don’t really sit around thinking of American documents.

But I don’t think those men made or invented those rights, I think they just found a writer capable of capturing the desire of living beings into simple words. I don’t know if I was actually going to be tacky enough to talk about our inalienable rights, but then I saw GG already was tacky enough for me (LOL G, jk). I actually had to stop reading his because he was touching so much on things I was going to say.

I have no profound thoughts on the issue because it all seems so simple: I think, therefor I am, and I deserve to be so.

Also, I don’t think people give any rights at all. We are born with all the rights allotted to us by existing. Humans greatly reduce rights and then create mini-rights by saying what specifically we can and can’t do. In many ways that is good; it takes things like rape and murder out of the “can” column. But we have “given” animals no rights at all. They perhaps have the right to no-die-at-this-moment, but that is subject to change on a whim.

To see humans as the special, ‘giver of rights’ is absurd. That would be like seeing a slave-master as giving rights when he gave his slaves booze to hang out on Sundays instead of working in the fields. No, he was in fact drugging them up so they could never have time to think of a way out.

Sometimes I look at our species and am so amazed by how far we’ve come.
Other times I look at us and am so horrified by what we have become. We have not become more advanced or civilized, but have only found more efficient and disgusting ways to be primitive beasts. We are no better than a caveman swinging a rabbit into a tree… in many ways, we are indeed far worse.

I know a lot of people will hate this, but I see vegetariansm as a step toward understanding life, the right to life, and how to focus our primative brains slightly beyond ourselves.

When we as a species have come far enough, realized enough and/or evolved far enough to start backing away from the eating of flesh except for times of the utmost survival, only then will life-forms begin to have the freedoms we have stripped from them back.

I think people will feel more free and peaceful as well because they wont be living with the constant cognitive dissonance of loving animals/killing animals, being peaceful/killing without need etc. etc. etc. etc..

Sorry I don’t have anything more to offer. And I am sorry that, as a language person, I have taken a lot of space to not say much.
:)
Thanks for the great quesiton, AC.

Answer 2

Animals are more than ever a test of our character,of man's capacity for compassion and standard of morality,honorable conduct and faithful stewardship.... We are obligated to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don't; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us.I don't hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality, and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the lives of animals.

Answer 3

Animals don't have rights any more than we have rights. No higher power came down from the heavens and gave us the right to bear arms, the right to free speech, the right to vote, the right to a speedy trial, etc.

We have rights because the people in charge of our governments choose to give us rights. The animals (or at least the ones we keep as pets) have rights because the people in charge of our governments choose to give them rights.

I'm sorry if this wasn't the answer you expected from me (:p), but my point is rights are what we make them.

You want to know why animals SHOULD have rights, though? I think it's hypocritical to outlaw killing, torturing, enslaving, eating humans because we feel pain and then totally ignore what the animals feel.

Raise billions of animals a year just to slaughter and eat? Sure, great, we need protein LOL! Embryonic stem cell research? **** no! We as a nation shouldn't create life to destroy it! (to quote George W. Bush)

Slit a horse's throat and leave it to bleed to death so some guy can eat it? Sure, it's not like the horse is a sentient being LOL. Turn off the life support of some brain-dead woman in a permanent coma? WTF! She's a living breathing human who can think and feel pain!

Test cosmetics and drugs on monkeys and end up killing them even though they can't give consent? Anything to make my eyelashes look longer and prettier LOL. Test cosmetics and drugs on humans that give their consent even though they know what might happen? You're crazy! That would be unethical!

I guess what I'm saying is that we place a massively disproportionate value on humanity. We give more "rights" to humans than animals even in cases where the animal in question is obviously "higher up", so to speak, than the human in question.

Answer 4

I think most people consider a pecking order with respect to rights.

Domesticated animals have a different set of rights than wild animals. Among domesticated animals, pets have higher rights than animals raised for food production. Among wild animals, endangered animals have more rights than non-endangered.

I eat meat and hunt. Yet I don't appreciate people who shoot game for sport and don't eat the meat. Also, I don't think animals raised for food production should be mistreated with cramped conditions or abuse ala the KFC chicken suppliers.

Answer 5

Hello my friend.

I believe God gave them their rights.

In the Garden of Eden we were equals. Man and animal. In Isaiah, the end of times prophecies say the lion will lie down with the lamb. So we will begin and end as vegans.

God breathed life into the animals just the same as he breathed life into us.

I am a Franciscan. St. Francis, and many other saints, believed that animals are our brothers and sisters. Just like people. You wouldn't consider a feeble minded person as less than human. So why consider a simple animal as such?

Animals fear death just as we do. Animals grieve for the loss of their loved ones just as we do. I have seen animals give their lives to save their owners. A small cat who showed firemen where her owner was trapped in a building. Then they left kitty behind and she died. A pet pig who broke away from its leash to save a drowning boy. No one thanked the little pig. If he'd been a dog he would have made the papers. Many farmers use goats and chickens as watch dogs because their much more attached to their families and dogs tend to wander. I've seen a horse cry.

Years ago, when I dated, boyfriends wouldn't come near me when I was sick. But my two cats would not leave my side. Who there is more loving? More "human?"

Answer 6

Animals have an inborn right to live and reproduce and continue their species until they become food for someone higher up the chain or sucumb to the elements. Natural selection and supply and demand come to mind.

People being reasonably dominant on earth should take mind and avoid being cruel to them because we have that ability. We cant however expect wolves to respect the right of rabbits however.

Answer 7

Unfortunately I agree that animals only have rights that we allow them to. I am a vegetarian and very against the mistreatment of animals but I think that until people realize that they are not the most important species on Earth, animals will suffer and lack the rights they should already have.

Answer 8

Greenhouse? You wouldn't happen to be referring to me would you. Maybe you haven't noticed that I gave in and replaced the generic avatar?

Anyways, on to business! In no particular order (of those whose answers I've seen before starting this answer) I really like the answers from V&P, PsycoCola and "Halle?" (quotes around her name so as to prevent confusion with the "?", not my usual subtle quote mark insult). I think those three pretty well cover the topic as stated. I'd really, *really* like to include MM on the list but sadly can't because of the heavy reliance on G_d. (no offense meant MM)

This kind of question perturbs (Hi Buzz!) me because of it's heavy emotional and political connotations.

The US Declaration of Independence speaks of inalienable rights endowed at birth (yes I DID change the phrase!). *ALL* life IMO has the right to exist in as best a manner as it can manage. Adding the human animal (and anyone who says humans aren't animals is a self-aborbed fool!) to the equation adds serious complications. This is why I appreciate "Halle?"s answer, it cuts straight to the chase without excessive elaboration (which you ain't gonna find here).

Humans are the only animals on this rock with both the capacity to destroy it (which we choose to use) and the knowledge, ability and capacity to improve it (which we choose largely to ignore).
PC and V&P touch on different aspects of this 'talent' which is why I singled them out. (no offense meant to those I don't mention with two exceptions)
[Side note: let's see how things look in a few weeks and after that in a few decades]

I disagree with the notion that humans or anything else created the concept of rights! What we refer to as "rights" is merely a human tip of the hat towards the underlying concept of allowing life to proceed without screwing it up. That's not worded right but it's as close as I can come in English, other than to guide you toward Lovelock's Gaia theories and hope you catch the underlying drift.

What's more important to me is that Homo Sapiens Sapiens (the guy that came up with that name was surely full of himself) grow to understand that *ALL* life has an essential quality and value all it's own and for us to truly merit the name, we must recognize that underlying fact and use our talents to not only preserve all life but to improve the condition and quality of life for all lifeforms!

Sadly, we not only aren't close to that state but are instead regressing away from that principle! True, a few humans work to save a few endangered species but it's nothing compared to what we're doing to destroy and devalue life as a whole.

I'd continue, but after half an hour of pondering the novel I spent two hours writing, I nuked most of it and decided to quit here. Maybe I'll add more in an edit later...

Edit:

Nobody else wants to answer? Not even any edits? Did I break the question?

Edit:

Oh good! I didn't break the Q! I am also glad to see L's post that has a glimmer of hope for the future of 'the wise ape'. I don't have a positive outlook for any of our future timelines (and our childrens' either).

Maybe our questioner would like to extend the question?

Answer 9

I believe that animals are creatures of God, just as humans are, and should be treated as such. They are born with rights.

Answer 10

They get rights for being alive
And they get rights for having feelings and being eaten
They get rights from everything we do <3