Animal Rights versus Human Rights
Animal Rights versus Human Rights Currently, the state of California is going through a severe drought. Almost all of California is in this state of drought, with 70% suffering from an “extreme” case of drought. Farmers have very little water for their crops, and their methods for getting more water are being blocked. A bill proposing that water be diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to provide the much needed water for drought-ridden farms was shot down because it would potentially harm salmon in the river. Environmentalists claimed that taking water from the delta would limit the breeding grounds for the salmon; therefore it should not be done. The water from the delta would have enabled farmers to produce a large amount of crops, thus feeding the people of California and providing income for the farmers facing increased debt. The action of the environmentalists poses a highly debated question: Should animals have the same rights that humans do? While animals should not be mistreated or abused, they should not have the same rights as humans, but animal rights activists and environmentalists are trying to push this movement to the extreme. When considering the basic needs of humans, animals should not be given equal consideration. From the beginning of time, animals were hunted, their pelts used for clothing, their bones used to make tools, and their flesh eaten as a source of food. Then, as technology developed and people became more intelligent, animals were domesticated and kept for their meat, eggs, and milk. Keeping the domesticated animals in one place meant that they could reproduce and there would be a somewhat limitless source of food. These practices were not achieved through the cooperation of man and beast, it was accomplished by humans becoming the top of the food chain and establishing dominance over lesser animals. As populations increased, the demand for food outgrew the small farms and pastures of earlier times. In our not so
Cited: Phillips, John C. "Activism and Trust: Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare in the Food Supply Chain." Journal of Food Distribution Research 41.1 (2010): 91-95. Web. Irvine, Rob. "Bioethics and Nonhuman Animals." Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 10.4 (2013): 435-40. Web. Dowie, Mark. Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1995. Print.