Animal rights are ethical ideals founded on the belief that non-human animals should be allowed to live their lives without interference from human desires. Animal rights are centred on autonomy, which is another name for choice.
Animal exploitation, which refers to the use of animals by humans for several purposes, including food production, use as test subjects, or even as pets, is directly opposed to animal rights. The destruction of habitat is another way that human activity infringes on animal rights. Animals have fewer opportunities to live full lives of their own choosing as a result.
Why are animal rights so important?
For animals, having rights is essential. People wouldn’t be tortured, beaten, imprisoned, maimed, drugged, traded, transported, injured, or killed just so someone else might profit from it if they had rights. The amount of suffering in the world would drastically decrease if animals were granted rights.
If animal rights were recognised, the animal exploitation industries and the many environmental problems they cause- such as deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions-would vanish.
Conclusion
The ideas that support animal rights, which were popularised in the 17th century by the western philosopher René Descartes, disprove the false but commonly held belief that animals are fundamentally mindless machines. Animals being soulless and without feelings justifies using them to satisfy human needs. On factory farms, where more mammals are grown for food than are found in the wild, the bulk of these creatures are kept in unfavourable conditions.
Reference
Lin, D. (2018). What Do Activists Mean By ‘Animal Rights?’ [online] Treehugger. Available at: https://www.treehugger.com/what-are-animal-rights-127600 [Accessed 15 July 2023]
Stucki, S. (2020). Towards a Theory of Legal Animal Rights: Simple and Fundamental Rights. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 40(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqaa007. [Accessed 15 July 2023]
The Humane League (2020). Animal Rights. [online] Thehumaneleague.org. Available at: https://thehumaneleague.org/article/animal-rights [Accessed 29 June 2023]
