“What do you mean by ‘animal rights’?” People who support animal rights believe that animals exist for their own reasons, not for our benefit, and that animals’ best interests should be considered—whether or not the animal is cute, useful to humans, or endangered.
“What rights should animals have?” Animals should have the right to equal consideration of their interests. For instance, a dog has an interest in avoiding pain, so humans should take that interest into consideration and respect the dog’s right not to have pain inflicted upon him or her. Of course, animals shouldn’t always have the same rights as humans because their interests are not always the same as ours, and some rights wouldn’t make sense, like the right to vote, for example.
“How can you justify spending your time helping animals when there are so many people who need help?” There are very serious problems in the world that deserve our attention, and cruelty to animals is one of them. We should try to alleviate suffering wherever we can. Helping animals is no more or less important than helping human beings—they are both important.
“Animals are not as intelligent or advanced as humans, so why can’t we use them?” Being smarter than someone else—another person or an animal—doesn’t give you the right to harm them. People have the intelligence and ability to choose between behaviors that hurt others and those that do not. When given the choice, it makes sense to choose compassion.
“What do you mean by ‘animal rights’?”
People who support animal rights believe that animals exist for their own reasons, not for our benefit, and that animals’ best interests should be considered—whether or not the animal is cute, useful to humans, or endangered.
“What rights should animals have?”
Animals should have the right to equal consideration of their interests. For instance, a dog has an interest in avoiding pain, so humans should take that interest into consideration and respect the dog’s right not to have pain inflicted upon him or her. Of course, animals shouldn’t always have the same rights as humans because their interests are not always the same as ours, and some rights wouldn’t make sense, like the right to vote, for example.
“How can you justify spending your time helping animals when there are so many people who need help?”
There are very serious problems in the world that deserve our attention, and cruelty to animals is one of them. We should try to alleviate suffering wherever we can. Helping animals is no more or less important than helping human beings—they are both important.
“Animals are not as intelligent or advanced as humans, so why can’t we use them?”
Being smarter than someone else—another person or an animal—doesn’t give you the right to harm them. People have the intelligence and ability to choose between behaviors that hurt others and those that do not. When given the choice, it makes sense to choose compassion.