As part of our basic human rights we expect others to treat us with minimum standards of care and respect, and in return we try not to harm to other people. Fundamental human rights are concepts that most people can understand, including not exploiting others, the right to live peacefully and free speech. It’s a sad fact that these basic human rights are flimsy or non-existent in many parts of the world. However, in most countries animals do not enjoy anywhere near the same degree of care and consideration – in our human arrogance we neglect and ignore their rights as if they are not even sentient beings.
A summary of animal welfare and animal rights is defined in the PDF attachment to this post.
Michael Kern is committed to the promotion of animal rights.
Equal Rights
Animals should enjoy at least the same rights that we as humans require and expect. There can never be justification to wilfully cause pain to animals, even if the effect of such abuse brings benefit to human society. This includes the widespread abuse of animals in medical experimentation and testing.
The same weight of consideration should be given to animals as is given to humans, and we should not inflict any pain on animals that we would not inflict on our fellow human beings. It is nothing short of hypocritical to keep one rule for one species and other rules for all other species.
A legal definition of animal abuse is outlined in the embedded short video.
Animal Activism
Some animal rights activists attract criticism for direct actions such as destroying laboratories or fur farms. However, most activists are peaceful protestors working hard to change policies and viewpoints through education and the dissemination of information. Thankfully, there is increased interest in animal rights and veganism as a lifestyle choice in many parts of the western world …. but we still have a way to go.
The infographic attachment contains some facts and figures from the RSPCA.
