Animal rights thread

[seireikhaan]

Animals have the right to remain tasty...

[Ja'chyra]

I find myself agreeing with some of the views here and disagreeing with some, shocker eh?

Tribesman doesn't think that animal rights should equal human rights, I disagree but have enough common sense to realise that it's never going to happen. My view is that if they aren't the same doesn't that mean that the only rights are the ones you take? Which makes a mockery of human rights as a whole, which I find a laughable concept anyway so who knows.

I don't believe that animals should be used for testing anything, partly because it is legalised torture and partly because there are enough people who are willing to be tested on if they are paid and if not there are always paedo's.

Should we eat animals? Of course we should, they taste great and that is how we are designed, if we decide eating animals is cruel would we then have to forcibly convert lions to eating grass? Therefore is whaling cruel? Not in the generic sense, poeple have been hunting and eating whales since they figured out how to do so, what is cruel, and stupid, is hunting them to near extinction or not using all of the useable parts.

And what about pets? I think to be able to keep any pets should require a licence the difficulty in obtaining a licence should be proportional to the difficulty in keeping the pets properly. I also think all hunting should be strictly controlled and not allowed if someone justs wants to have a stuffed head on their wall.


In the end animals are an extremely valuble commodity and should be treated as such but it all comes down to might makes right.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Surprising as it may be, I agree wholeheartedly that animals have rights that need to be respected.

I am not a vegetarian (although I did think about it), however animals should never, never be treated in a cruel manner when they are being prepared for the slaughterhouse. I had previously been of the "if we eat them then why does it matter" school of thought, however having seen the way these animals are treated I realise how horrific it can be. Every chicken or whatever animal should have plenty of space to walk around so its limbs are not deformed, and should get to see outside of a factory, and run around like animals should. To cause them a life of misery and pain just so we (presuming most here are in the developed world) can grow obese is shameful.

Hunting is another sick matter. I don't care if its a tradition, animals shouldn't die for our sport. And as for eating the animals you hunt, that seems pretty pointless since its not like you can't just buy the food like anyone else.

Using animals for testing in laboritories is the most horrific of them all. I don't think I need to go into that to explain why.

Endangered species are the matter I'm not so much on the side of the activists with. If there was one panda left in the world, I would rather it died than two common brown bears. Disproportionate attention shouldn't be given to endangered species - are their lives really more important than another creatures?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I agree entirely with Frag's take on the issue. I have only one thing to add.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Hunting is another sick matter. I don't care if its a tradition, animals shouldn't die for our sport. And as for eating the animals you hunt, that seems pretty pointless since its not like you can't just buy the food like anyone else.

This I must strongly disagree with. I'm sure somebody else will debate it, but hunting is certainly not sick.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Well, I don't agree with all hunting, but I see that it is necessary for many around the world. I'd rather people eat animals instead of starving.

However, hunting for sport is cruel for the following reasons;

1. Target practice can easily be done against stationary and moving objects that can be shot over and over without harming anything or causing suffering.

2. A good game of paintball with some friends should satisfy the need for sport, hunt, and competition, without wounding/killing the innocent.

3. If a person goes around killing animals, or wounding them, then leaving them to rot or mounting them on a wall, merely for the thrill and fun of it, doesn't that strike you as unnecessarily destructive, cruel, and inhumane? Perhaps if you've done it before, you must defend yourself and nothing I say could convince you, but objectively speaking; why cause death and suffering merely for sport or pleasure?

These reasons are incomplete, but they are a good start.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

However, hunting for sport is cruel for the following reasons

Hunting for sport is unnecessary and waste - but he didn't talk just about hunting for sport, but also about hunting and eating the meat, which is - and should be - considered perfectly acceptable and normal.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Hunting for sport is unnecessary and waste - but he didn't talk just about hunting for sport, but also about hunting and eating the meat, which is - and should be - considered perfectly acceptable and normal.

Much agreed.

[Xiahou]

Animals have the right to remain tasty...

That reminds me of a bumper sticker:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Animal rights are as important as human rights ......what a load of bollox

Gotta agree there.
In fact, I don't know that I'd be prepared to say that animals have any rights at all (other than the right to being tasty ). However, that doesn't mean it's ok for wanton brutal treatment of animals. We can and should be humane towards animals when possible- it's one of the things that separates us from them. A lion doesn't care if the zebra it's eating suffers, we do.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

"Cruelty is the tantrum of frustrated power." -- R.G.H. Siu


I eat meat. I spend enough so that other people do most of the yucky part for me. If I had to, I would do it myself. My continued life involves the destruction of other lives -- circle of life and all that.

I don't think cruelty to animals is ever justified -- it demeans the humans involved and inflicts unnecessary harm on the animals.

Tribesman is perfectly correct on his "rights" assessment.

[Strike For The South]

Who here has ever gutted something or been in a butchers shop? Just asking.

[Hooahguy]

i have. a kosher one, so it wasnt that gross.....
less gross than mpost horror movies....

[HoreTore]

Who here has ever gutted something or been in a butchers shop? Just asking.

Yes to both.

[Banquo's Ghost]

*reluctantly applies can-opener to large tin of worms*

Let me start out by saying I agree with Tribesman's assessment of animal "rights".

However, at the risk of steering this off at a tangent, hunting for "sport" should be examined more carefully. Not all creatures that are hunted are necessarily edible. In rural areas, animals may be hunted to protect far more valuable livestock. This activity has evolved in some places into a community tradition, which creates valuable bonds between people.

I hunt, shoot and fish. By hunting, I mean fox-hunting (yes, the "unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible"). This activity is a very important community action, and more to the point, the most effective method of pest control. It is also a lot of fun and great sport. Hunting like this is practical and preserves a natural balance - it is very hard to over-impact the fox population by chasing it. They banned it in the UK and now farmers there have to hire clowns with guns to wound the animal so it can bleed to death in a hole for hours whilst the urban middle-class sit smugly over their "freedom farmed" eggs at breakfast.

Shooting (mainly grouse and pheasant) has an additional benefit in the conservation of large tracts of land that would otherwise not be stewarded - or a burden on tax-payers to maintain. The result of a day's shooting can of course, be eaten.

Fishing of course, never gets a bad press.

Strangely enough, in many parts of the world, controlled hunting is the best way to conserve wild areas. The income generated gives local peoples a stake in conserving species and habitats that otherwise would be a nuisance or prospective farmland.

It has always amused me that many of those who scream cruelty at the chasing and killing of a fox (which when caught, dies immediately) happily go home to feast on their economy chicken burgers made out of long-tortured fowl.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I should point out, I meant hunting for sport, naturally native populations still rely on hunting to survive.

I would however be somewhat hesitant about someone in the developed world hunting for food, although technically it is acceptable.

I wouldn't delve into the animal rights debate though. At the end of the day no creature has inalienable rights - even human rights are made up and our ideas of them can change all the time.

[Yoyoma1910]

Who here has ever gutted something or been in a butchers shop? Just asking.

I grew up seasoning a rather large amount of animals. My father really enjoys hunting, but doesn't like to dress his kills. I also used to raise rabbits, from cradle to market. Tonight I'll be peeling 10 Lbs of shrimp.

[Kralizec]

Who here has ever gutted something or been in a butchers shop? Just asking.

I've worked in a factory where they made sausages, steaks etc. I don't think it qualifies as a "butchery" because the pigs were butchered elsewhere and delivered to where I worked. The smell of 150 dead pigs in a cramped room is truly abominable.

EDIT: it didn't make me a vegetarian, though. Pork is just tasty