However animal equality is easy to dismiss as ‘there animals,’ however Jeremy Bentham ‘The founding father of Utilitarianism’ said the question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk? But, can they suffer?
Bentham goes on to explain that suffering has no boundaries, it has no barrier. Pain can be felt through every species from a new born baby to a horse as, if you slap a baby it will cry, however you may think if you slap a horse it will also be fine as its got tougher skin, however if you equaled the force of the babies slap to pain a horse would feel then it would feel pain. The view by some people is that humans know the consequence of pain and can understand mental anguish, which surely must be worse, however if we make reference of a wild animal, we can see that when we capture the wild animal, pull it out of its natural surroundings, it cannot understand what is happening to it. It cannot define help from a threat to kill. This therefore will cause the animal more terror. This kind of cruelty can be seen at our enjoyment for example in circuses, rodeos, and zoos.
Speciesism in practice
In this paragraph, im going to be looking at animals, being used as food Meat is seen as common in people’s everyday diets, a form of contact with a non-human. This can be described as the view that we see animals as only existing for our pleasure and convenience.
I myself am a meat eater, and like to think I stand behind my argument that, if everyone became a vegetarian, animals would die for no reason. I am firmly against the use of fur as a fashion accessory, though however believe it is deemed right for an Eskimo to wear it, as they are living in an environment wear they will eat the meat, so why not wear the fur that to them is\an essential in keeping warm. Meat flesh is not necessary for us to live on; we will not starve if we go without. In today’s society we have enough substitutes to excessively decrease the amount of meat eaten. Feeding the animals grain and corn is senseless as we will get more nutrition eating it directly ourselves.
Experimenting on animals
When it comes to experimenting, I believe that people always have a view. When I opposed this idea to a group of friends, one said, ‘If my mum was dying of cancer and it could be cured, by testing it on a dog, it would be worthwhile, however if it was another lipstick for L’Oreal I would think it was wrong.’
Drug companies test new shampoos by dropping concentrated solution in rabbit’s eyes, to see if they’re safe for human use. I am firmly against the fact, that by doing this to test the safety standards is ridiculous, as why worry about a new shampoo being unsafe, when we already have thousands of perfectly good, safe products on the market, that enough animals have had to suffer. Su to create, why do we need anymore?
In answer to this question I believe in the utilitarianism answer. If one or even a dozen animals has to suffer in order to save thousands of lives it is correct. A controversial point could be made, as if non-human animals are so easy to destroy, what about highly disabled people, as surely they wont know what’s going on?
We see this last statement with disgust, as were all human beings surely, but we don’t ask the question, ‘what makes a human being?
Surely a newborn baby is not a human being, however it has potential. It won’t recognize you like a dog or a cat, but it will lie there cry and sleep. So it’s got potential.
The difference between humans and animals.
For years people have tried to draw a line between humans and animals. Theories that have come up though have been thwarted time and time again.
Humans can communicate. We can talk, sing, and hold a conversation. Gorillas and chimpanzees, have learnt sign language, and can now communicate. But, humans can only use tools! Then it was observed that the Galapagos woodpecker used a cactus thorn, to dig insects out of crevices in trees. Well humans are the only tools making animals. Jane Goddall found that chimpanzees, in the jungles of Tasmania, chewed through leaves to make a sponge, for sopping up water, and trimmed the leaves of branches, to make tools for catching insects.
In conclusion to the question, I believe that animals have feelings, they have values, they all have mothers. They all feel pain, hunger and fear. As a human I understand why people don’t treat animals with equal equality, however the quality they do receive is simply unsatisfactory. Yes I think its just to save thousands at the cost of an animal which makes me look as though im against equality, but that’s not true I believe that animals needed to be treated better, But believe we will have a long wait until animals are treated equally with animals, as peoples views can be stubborn, so I believe its something that will one day happen in years to come.
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