Animal Liberation. Good, Bad or Pointless?
...an can use his influence for such things as placing himself beyond the law. To give equal rights to animals because they suffer does not mean that this policy will not be quickly circumvented by those who chose to do so. Animals cannot file complaints about mistreatment, they will not even be aware that this treatment is illegal. Suffering is a part of life and the necessity of animals as sources of useful organic compounds such as leather, glue, gelatine etc., as medical and scientific diagnostic tools and as food requires that they undergo some measure of suffering. It is not currently feasible to feed every person in the world using only vegetable matter, meat plays an essential part of most human’s diets providing iron, protein and vitamins less commonly found in other foods. The products that animals provide society with help fuel employment and economic growth, as well as increasing our standards of life. What should be focused on currently is the reduction of suffering for animals, the extension of human rights to species that can’t even understand the concept is ludicrous, it would be analogous to allowing two year old children to vote, they would have the right, with no way to understand and no concept of how to utilise that right effectively. Despite being unsure of their rights the suffering that animals feel is real and their stress should be avoided as best as possible. Even though animals are necessary for our studies of biosciences and medicine, and they are treated very well, they are still subjected to unnecessary pain. Each animal that is entered, against its will, into a study, will be killed on conclusion of the experiment, even if it is a control (non-dosed) subject. The diseases, including diphtheria, cancer and typhoid, that these animals are subjected to are excruciating in the extreme. These experiments were never and will never, be performed on humans, simply because they are too horrible. With technology at the stage that it is, simulated human systems (SHS) should be developed in order to phase out this experimentation on animals. SHS would also reduce the amount of time taken for drug development and save many animals in our modern world much agony. The environment that we have constructed for ourselves is tailor-made to humanity so it is reasonable to assume that all other species within our biosphere are suffering as we expand our ever growing empire and bend the world to our whims. As our standards of life are increased, however, our sensibilities al...