Giving animals the same rights as humans?

People who kill animals for fun or poaching, including trophy hunters, should be sentenced to life imprisonment. Until animal abuse/murder is treated the same as murdering a human, then the system will continue to be unfair.

Reply 1

NameUserer

I think killing animals for fun is disgusting, but life imprisonment is a ridiculous proposal. Imagine trying to round up everyone who's ever shot a deer or deliberately run over a hedgehog. Our prisons are already overcrowded. It'd be a logistical nightmare. Besides, ruining someone's life over killing an animal... the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime? Life sentences are supposed to be a last resort. Prisoners aren't banished to the shadow realm the second the sentence is handed: they've got to deal with the consequences for the rest of their existence, denied freedom, forgiveness and any sense of normalcy until the day they die. America's dealing with a mass incarceration crisis because they've implemented minimum sentencing laws. They're spending $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to keep people caged.

On the other hand, considering virtually every Tory's bludgeoned a fox or two to death, perhaps it's not such a bad idea.