Animal rights vs. animal welfare
If you were given the option to engage in a practice that could bring pain upon you, would you participate? If you were given a choice of housing, would you choose a beautiful home or a tight cage? Most people will choose to refrain from the pain and living in a cage, so why do some people think that an animal would choose any differently? Animal rights and welfare usually are put into the same category or on the same side of an argument, but they do have a difference in the fact of the rights of humans using animals. According to Abigail Geer, an easy way to define the difference between these two ideas is that “animal rights advocates are campaigning for no cages, while animal welfarists are campaigning for bigger cages” ("Animal Welfare and Animal Rights"). There are very many approaches that one can take on animal issues. Often people find their views change regarding the specific situation in which the animal is placed. Is the idea of animals’ rights more sensible in the society we live in today or is the idea of animal welfare more rational? In order to know this, one must know the definition and meaning of both of these. Animal rights are the rights that are free from human services that can potentially or certainly hurt them. Animal rights supporters believe that animals have the same value to the world as humans do. On the PETA website, members “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” (PETA). Animals all fight for their lives just as humans do. Animal rights activists believe that we are all in this world together and that we are obligated to the same rights. Animal rights advocates usually tend to think differently than animal welfare activists. Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals. The science
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