should we treat animals equally with humans????

What is your opinion on this? Do animals have rights? Do they feel pain?
Why should we treat animals equally with humans?

Also, what is speciesism?

any help will be appreciated! thanks :smile:

Reply 1

A5ko

3

I'd like to see animals get more respect. The biggest change I'd love to see is harsher punishments for animal cruelty.

Being able to microwave your cat and get a slap on the wrist pisses me off no end.

Of course animals can feel pain, that's a slightly odd point.

As far as animals for meat however, I can't say too much being a meat eater.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by A5ko

I'd like to see animals get more respect. The biggest change I'd love to see is harsher punishments for animal cruelty.

Being able to microwave your cat and get a slap on the wrist pisses me off no end.

Of course animals can feel pain, that's a slightly odd point.

As far as animals for meat however, I can't say too much being a meat eater.

I think the OP was referring to emotional pain rather than the physical pain. Such as "why would a human being put me in a microwave and let me die alive?" sort-of-thing.

I think animals should not get treated equally simply because they don't live the same as humans and as far as I'm concerned, they don't have the same consciousness as humans to know the difference in many things such as we do.

I also believe we condition animals that are pets which I sometimes don't agree with.

Reply 3

NeverTooLatte

9

Original post by jesuislorenzo

What is your opinion on this? Do animals have rights? Do they feel pain?
Why should we treat animals equally with humans?

Also, what is speciesism?

any help will be appreciated! thanks :smile:

Yes, animals should have rights. I don't think "equal" to humans is the right term, though, as animals aren't equal to us in terms of awareness, culture etc...They should be respected, definitely. Of course they feel pain, haha, who said they didn't :curious:

I suppose this is for your report or essay or something. You could mention arguments about meat eating, so some say that's animal cruelty, others say as long as the death is quick and humane, it's a part of our natural diet. You could say animal testing also helps other animals (so pets when they go to the vets), but you could also say how new testing has come about that doesn't need animals. You could say a human life should be saved over an animal life, if it came down to that, therefore saying they shouldn't have "equal" rights. Some food for thought :smile:

xx

Reply 4

A5ko

3

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

I think the OP was referring to emotional pain rather than the physical pain. Such as "why would a human being put me in a microwave and let me die alive?" sort-of-thing.

I think animals should not get treated equally simply because they don't live the same as humans and as far as I'm concerned, they don't have the same consciousness as humans to know the difference in many things such as we do.

I also believe we condition animals that are pets which I sometimes don't agree with.

Well we know from various scientific studies, and just living close to animals that they can and do feel emotional pain. It's apparent with how many dogs you see pining for their deceased owners.

I don't see them being treated wholly equally, it's just not possible when we farm them for meat. But just a little more respect would be nice.

Reply 5

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by A5ko

Well we know from various scientific studies, and just living close to animals that they can and do feel emotional pain. It's apparent with how many dogs you see pining for their deceased owners.

I don't see them being treated wholly equally, it's just not possible when we farm them for meat. But just a little more respect would be nice.

Grief and perhaps excitement is what we can see when dogs react to certain human events. However, that's when you take an animal out of it's natural habitat and put it into ours.

Who can say if that dog was in a pack, without the knowledge of humans, that that dog would experience grief for one of it's own?

Reply 6

A5ko

3

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

Who can say if that dog was in a pack, without the knowledge of humans, that that dog would experience grief for one of it's own?

I find it very difficult to believe that wild animals are incapable of feeling grief. Maybe not in the exact same way as we understand grief, it would not be particularly scientific to shoehorn animals to fit our understanding of life and death.

Just doing a quick search shows some recording of wild animals exhibiting stages of mourning but I suppose we can't be completely sure. I'd like to think they can and do.

Reply 7

SH0405

15

Animals for food - fine.
Animal testing for cancer etc. - fine.
Animal testing for cosmetics etc. - not fine.

They don't have rights per se - humans just have the responsibility to 'care' for them. Interesting debate.

Reply 8

TurboCretin

20

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

Grief and perhaps excitement is what we can see when dogs react to certain human events. However, that's when you take an animal out of it's natural habitat and put it into ours.

Who can say if that dog was in a pack, without the knowledge of humans, that that dog would experience grief for one of it's own?

When Lawrence Anthony, an elephant conservationist, died, a group of wild African elephants which he had rescued and rehabilitated travelled to his house and stood around it for two days. This is what they do for other elephants when they die.

Elephants express grief, compassion, altruism and self-awareness. They can use tools. Their intelligence is thought to be comparable to Great Apes.

And we kill them for ivory.

Reply 9

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by A5ko

I find it very difficult to believe that wild animals are incapable of feeling grief. Maybe not in the exact same way as we understand grief, it would not be particularly scientific to shoehorn animals to fit our understanding of life and death.

Just doing a quick search shows some recording of wild animals exhibiting stages of mourning but I suppose we can't be completely sure. I'd like to think they can and do.

How can you find it "very" difficult? I don't think it's a common thing. I don't think they necessarily do exhibit the same grieving stages as pet animals do for their pet owners when they have died. I do believe cats are less prone to show bereavement than dogs?

Also, in the wild - for instance big cats are known especially male ones such as lions are known to kill cubs if they feel threatened. Usually the mother wouldn't do anything to stop the pride's leader because he would shun her out of the pride, leaving her to fend for her and her cubs. I've seen before when this has happened and all the lioness has done was lick it to see if was alive. If not, she'd keep on walking. Surely if it was suffering from grief, it would have expressed some kind of mourn?

I don't think wild animals experience the same grief as pet animals because pet animals come accustomed and start to rely on their pet owners as a source of life. If you were to put a dog out on the streets after, what - let's say 5 or 6 years from being in a loving home; I bet you, that all it would do is wonder the streets looking for scraps of meat or going up to people and beg and whine. Now, if a wild animal was kicked out their group; they would know that they would now need to learn how to hunt for food and not scavenge. All I'm saying is that wild animals and pet animals are wired in a different way to experience and handle things differently.

Reply 10

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by TurboCretin

When Lawrence Anthony, an elephant conservationist, died, a group of wild African elephants which he had rescued and rehabilitated travelled to his house and stood around it for two days. This is what they do for other elephants when they die.

Elephants express grief, compassion, altruism and self-awareness. They can use tools. Their intelligence is thought to be comparable to Great Apes.

And we kill them for ivory.

That is all good and stuff, but I think because there is so many species of animals it's hard to collectively put them in the same box as the same animals. For example, big cats do not do that. I just think little study is known for animal grievances.

I don't agree with killing animals esp, wild animals for their features. I am one million percent disagree with that!

But I do accept we need to eat, so killing bi-products as in cows, pigs and etc is necessary. That's the way of life, which is why I don't believe in vegetarians!

Reply 11

hellodave5

19

We're practically the same as every other animal. Just with cooler brains that can manipulate ****e

Reply 12

Daenerys...

2

But men already have rights? :dontknow:

Reply 13

gabzy

2

Original post by Daenerys...

But men already have rights? :dontknow:

omds stop.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 14

TurboCretin

20

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

That is all good and stuff, but I think because there is so many species of animals it's hard to collectively put them in the same box as the same animals. For example, big cats do not do that. I just think little study is known for animal grievances.

I don't agree with killing animals esp, wild animals for their features. I am one million percent disagree with that!

But I do accept we need to eat, so killing bi-products as in cows, pigs and etc is necessary. That's the way of life, which is why I don't believe in vegetarians!

Meat eating is a tricky one. But I do think that animal rights should be taken more seriously.

Reply 15

Shaney96

7

Triple any prison sentences associated with animal cruelty.
Introduce a policy which ensure a very minute percentage of GDP is used for animal protectionism or some related form of animal-cruelty prevention (appreciate that 0.7% is spent on foreign aid).
I do not feel they should be treated equally; survival of the fittest remember? We must feed off of them in order to grow etc.
On the other hand I feel they should be equally respected as humans, they are life forms just as us. Just because we are superior, in terms of evolution, does not mean we should respect them any less.