Animal Rights
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It
needs change. It needs action. Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning
organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the
environment and to promote peace.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 1.6
million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the
world.
PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of
animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory
farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry.
We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers,
birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.
Topic 1: Can animals be property?
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the movement to protect
non-human animals from being used or regarded as property by humans.
You are saying that every human and every other animal has the same rights, which is
absurd. Chickens cannot have the right to vote, nor can pigs have a right to higher
education. If animals have rights, then so do vegetables, which is absurd.
Topic 2: Can we wear animals?
The fur ads you might see in magazines and commercials portray fur coats as a symbol of
elegance. But these ads fail to show how the original owners of these coats met their
gruesome deaths. Millions of fur-bearing animals including foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes,
bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters, and others are killed each year
on fur farms by anal and vaginal electrocution and in the wild by drowning, trapping, or
beating.
Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, becoming widely used as primitive humans
left Africa and entered cooler regions. Modern cultures continue to wear fur and fur
trim, as dictated by fashion trends. Although it was once one of
the most common forms of clothing many people consider fur a
luxury item.
Topic 3: Can we experiment on animals?
Animals are routinely cut open, poisoned, and forced to live in barren steel cages for years,
although studies show that because of vast physiological variations between species, human
reactions to illnesses and drugs are completely different from those of other animals. Today's
non-animal research methods are humane, more accurate, less expensive, and less timeconsuming than animal experiments, yet change comes slowly and many researchers are
unwilling to switch to superior technological advances. Animal experimentation not only is
preventing us from learning more relevant information, it continues to harm and kill animals
and people every year.
The Council on Animal Experimentation on Sunday approved extending the status
quo on allowing animal experimentation by lecturers for teaching purposes.
The decision is still not official because the vote was held without a quorum, and it
will be brought before the council for a revote in about six weeks.
Experimentation for teaching purposes, unlike experiments for research, adds no new
knowledge and is only done to illustrate known principles to students.
As reported in Haaretz on Sunday, several alternatives to animal experimentation for
this purpose exist. In most American medical schools, simulations and videos are
used instead of live animals. In Israel, however, unknown numbers of animals still
undergo procedures and are killed for this reason at colleges and universities.
Topic 4: Can we exploit animals?
Tiny, adorable hamsters—who can feel pain just as keenly as any dog or cat—are frequently
bought on impulse when parents can't resist their child's pleading to bring a small animal home.
The hamster may not cost much, but supplies add up quickly. Cages, bedding, food, and other
paraphernalia—as well as future supplies (as long as the little animal stays alive)—amount to
millions of dollars in annual profit. But these tiny animals victimized by this business mogul often
pay the ultimate price—forgotten and neglected in a messy back room where they depend on
untrained employees to guess what ails them, hamsters and other tiny beings suffer horribly and
often die, unseen and untreated.
Noah was four years old in 2000 when Erica Austin decided to enroll him
in the novel program at Washington State University's College of
Veterinary Medicine. Austin, who teaches communications at
Washington State, said she had previously taken Noah to a therapy program that
used negative reinforcements, like scolding, to try to change her son's behavior
and didn't want to subject him to that again. ``It was around that time that we
saw a spark of creativity in Noah, something we had never seen before,'' she
said. ``He was making up stories – we had never seen that kind of thing. He
seemed to be gentler with our own animals.''
Topic 5: Can we eat animals?
Billions of fish are killed each year so that people can eat their flesh, while millions more are ripped from their
homes for "fun" by anglers. The quilters wanted to come together to make the statement that fish deserve
compassion because they are intelligent animals who feel pain. Consider the following:
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Fish have nervous systems that comprehend and respond to pain. Scientists tell us that fish's brains
and nervous systems closely resemble our own and that fish are just as able to feel pain as cats or
dogs.
Fish are intelligent animals who observe, learn, use tools, and form sophisticated social structures.
They also have impressive long-term memories.
Fish talk to each other with squeaks, squeals, and other low-frequency sounds that humans can only
hear with the help of special instruments. Some fish even woo their potential partners by singing to
them!
 Some fish tend well-kept gardens, build nests, and collect rocks for building hiding
places where they can rest.
Humans need protein to stay alive. Plants, as a whole, are very poor sources of
protein. Rice, for instance, the staple food of most of the world only contains
about 5% protein. Moreover the need is not just for any protein, but protein
containing the essential amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of
protein; the body needs more than 20 of these to keep everything working
efficiently. There are at least 8 which cannot be synthesized by the body and
which therefore must be in the food we eat. Some of these are available in
plants, but some are not. Conversely they are abundant in milk, eggs and fish.
So the immediate result would be signs of malnutrition, particularly in those
parts of the world where they don't get much meat anyway. Lack of protein
can cause hair loss, growth problems, loss of muscle mass, decreased
immunity, weakening of the heart and respiratory system, and Alzheimer disease.