Why Animal Rights?
In his book Animal Liberation, Peter Singer states that the basic
principle of equality does not require equal or identical
treatment; it requires equal consideration. This is an important
distinction when talking about animal rights. People often ask if
animals should have rights, and quite simply, the answer is
“Yes!” Animals surely deserve to live their lives
free from suffering and exploitation.
Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the reforming utilitarian school
of moral philosophy, stated that when deciding on a being’s
rights, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’
nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they
suffer?’” In that passage, Bentham points to the
capacity for suffering as the vital characteristic that gives a
being the right to equal consideration. The capacity for
suffering is not just another characteristic like the capacity
for language or higher mathematics. All animals have the ability
to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do.
They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and
motherly love. Whenever we consider doing something that would
interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take them
into account.
Supporters of animal rights believe that animals have an inherent
worth, a value completely separate from their usefulness to
humans. We believe that every creature with a will to live has a
right to live free from pain and suffering. Animal rights is not
just a philosophy, it is a social movement that challenges
society’s traditional view that all nonhuman animals exist
solely for human use.
Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect
to have for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender,
sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is morally
unacceptable. If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why eat a pig?
Dogs and pigs have the same capacity to feel pain, but it is
prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal
as a companion and the other as dinner.
From ‘Why Animal Rights’ (abridged) at www.Peta.org,
© Peta, 2009. Used with permission.
© The Hollywood
Sentinel, 2009.