Essay/Term paper: Animal rights

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Definition Essays

Many people feel that animals have no rights and are here solely for our use. Humans are animals too, we shouldn't take advantage of other animals just because they can't reason like us.
Animals are used in medical research labs as experiments. These experiments are meant only to benefit humans. I'm not totally against testing,some good can come of it. But when are tortured
and abused in the process then there is something wrong with it. For example in the early 1980's baboons were involved in experiments to find out more about comas. There was no care given to whether or not the animal would be hurt by this procedure. They just strapped the baboon to a metal device, which would force it's head upward at a sixty degree angle and then crush it with violent force. The baboon would then writhe and moan before falling silent.
This experiment meant to simulate what happens to human beings in a car crash or a violent head injury.
It isn't right to cause pain, suffering, and certain death to animals just for our benefit. Many scientists also agree that this experimental procedure was wrong but only because primates have higher intelligence. I don't think it is right for any animal of high or low intelligence, to suffer that way. In other laboratories animals are confined to small cages or locked up so that thay can't move. They are then used to test cosmetics and household chemicals. They have chemicals poured on to their eyes and skin to see if they cause irritation. These experiments would hurt the animals by causing burns and evn blinding them sometimes.
I don't think it is right to hold these animals, caged against their wills and hurting them repeatedly. Nothing is done to ease or prevent their pain and suffering. There must be a better way to test substances without in iflicting suffering on innocent, bewildered animals. Some scientists feel that animals are just that, animals. They lack the feelings that humans have. But if you have ever owned a pet dog, cat, etc., you know they have feelings and are sensitive to their surroundings just as we humans are.
We are also abusing animals rights by destroying their habitats. We lose thousands of animal and plant species each year. we are only hurting ourselves by doing this. There is so much to be learned from these habitats, even the possibility of cures for diseases. As a result from destroying animal's natural habitats we are having to depend on zoos to keep species of animals from becoming extinct. Zoos have done such agood job of breeding the animals that they have produced a surplus. When zoos have a surplus of animals they are sometimes sold to circuses and hunting farms. Animals don't belong in circuses where they are paraded around
and forced to perform unnatural tricks. The animals at the circuses are sometimes forced to live in squalid conditions and are mistreated. When the animals get mad and try to get away they are often killed because they are said to be dangerous. They are just trying to get away from they mistreatment and abuse. it didn't want to jump through a hoop of fire or walk on it's hind legs. Merely providing food and shelter is not adequate treatment for an animal that has been taken from it's natural enviromnment.
The hunting farms that buy older and surplus animals from zoos let people hunt them. People pay money to kill an animal for fun. Some farms allow the hunters to torture the animals before killing them. They have dogs to chase the animals and attack it, and other weapons such as spears. These animals are trapped. They have no hope of escape. People pay to take home a trophy, in one way or another they get their so-called trophy. These animals meet a merciless death. How can people consider this a sport?
I firmly believe in animal rights. God created the world with both animals and humans. To both coexist peacefully. Each bringing benefit to the other, but not at the expense of pain and suffering. Animals do have feelings. They may not experience life as we do but they have their likes and dislikes, they are aware of their own needs and their environment. God gave man the ability to think and reason. We should put our abilities to better use when it comes to animals and the world that we share.