animal rights_stute Essays (557 words) - Bioethics, Animal Rights

Richard Heredia Ms. Stute ERWC-4 23 September 2013 Animal Rights In the article "A Change of Heart about Animals," by Jeremy Rifkin , he starts by stating how researchers are finding that many animals are very similar to humans. Rifkin states , "What these researches are finding is that many of our fellow creatures are more l i ke us than we imagined. They fee l pain, suffer and experience stress, affection, excitement and even love- and these findings are changing how we view animals." I agree. Rifkin is not trying to make animals have a human rights he i s just stating that we should treat them fairly and humane. As a dog owner, I believe that it is important to treat animals the way we want to be treated. Animals are not just for accessories, we must learn to share this earth with them. He gives several examples in his article arguing on how animals have human characteristics. For example, he mentions an experiment that was done on two birds named Abel and Betty. This experiment consisted of putting meat in a tube and observing if Betty and Abel were smart enough to figure out a way to take out the meat of the tube. They were given two wires one hooked and one straight, both of them chose the hooked wire. But then , " Abel, the more dominant male, stole Betty's hook leaving her with only the straight wire. Betty then used her beak to wedge the straight wire in a crack and then she bent it to produce a hook. " This proves that animals go through a thinking process just like we do. In another stud y, Koko, a 300-pound gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation in California has been taught American Sign Language. She has acquired a 1,000 word vocabulary and, "On human IQ test, she scores between 70 and 95." To learn a sophisticated language is remarkable for any anima l, let alone sign language. It has been thought to be impossible for any animal to communicate to humans through a legit language, this shows that animals have the right to be treated fairly and humanely. When it comes down to core of what being human is, grief is what separates humans from animals. Mourning our dead is the important because it shows our emotional attachment to that individual. Observations show that, "Elephants will often stand next to their dead kin for days, occasionally touching their bodies with their trunks." This period of standing shows that animals make deep connections with one another. They bond with each other, a characteristic that had long been thought that only humans could have. Animals deserve to be treated better, after all we do share this world with them. Why should humans be the only a nimals in this world that are treated somewhat decent ? I strongly agree with Rifkin w hen he states that we have to t reat our animals more humane and we should stop mistreating them in painful laboratory experiments. We should treat animals the way we want to be treated. Work Cited Rifkin, Jeremy. "A Change of Heart about Animals." Editorial. Los Angeles times [Los Angeles] 1 Sept. 2003: n. pag . Print