Animal Ethics !!

With regards to the Ethical side, you might be interested in Peter Singer's work, he's a leading bio-ethicist , his views are very controversial though, which would make it excellent essay stuff (that is, if you're supposed to go at it at such a length)

ehr, well I, for one as animals don`t come even close to being persons, and besides philosophical thinking in terms of 'rights' is dodgy anyhow (Singer is a utilitarian, so he won`t have a rights-based discourse either, but that aside.)

Nonetheless singer's claim is that animals and humans can`t be ethically played off against each other as both feel pain, and in his book feeling pain is the only relevant ethical measure, and according to him you can`t say human potential trumps animal feelings. I think it's a difficult position to take , esp. as it leads to odd conclusions but he is a very prominent philosopher, and dead smart to boot, and readable as well.

And just because of your subjective dislike for gnats who only want to feed their baby you mercilessly swat them, I see... makes sense ;-)/QUOTE]

They are not feeding their babies! They are acting egoistically and feeding themselves! And I never said I swatted them...... spraying air freshener/ hair spray usually does the trick :P

Subjective?? You find me a person that likes gnats and I'll grow a beard.

The fact that six-and-a-half billion people hold a subjective statement do not make it necessarily objective that it is so *tut-tut*