(August 22, 2011 at 11:37 am)Skeptic Wrote: I think you'll find animals do have rights, at least here in England if you mistreat certain animals you go to jail. As for living in the city my whole life, not that it should make any difference but I have only lived in a city for about a year, before that my whole life was spent living in the countryside.
I totally agree with you that it's our responsibility to treat animals with care and without suffering though, that's all I'm trying to do.
It would seem that you took my rantings rather personal, even though they weren't directed at you.
Animals have exactly one right, they have the right to live, because they have the obligation to die. I'm not against punishing people who can't take care of their livestock, but for me it's a matter of compassion and high work morale and ethics, not about animals actually deserving anything. As for people of the city who speaks out about farm animals etc., I can't take them seriously when they barely can tell a pig from a cow and know nothing about the psychology of such a beast. Too many times the animal rights people project their feelings onto the animals, without realizing that the animals' minds just don't work the same way and that their desires might differ a lot.
Quote:My take on this is that we don't release all the domesticated animals in to the wild but that a gradual shift in society towards eating less animal products would result in the slow decline of the mass breeding of these animals until there's no longer a need to breed them on mass.
Well this just shows that you've thought it through better than most people who are for animal rights. I like to eat meat, but for the sake of sustainable development I could shift my eating habits. Actually, when alone I usually eat veggies, but when I cook for my boyfriend there's usually meat involved. The process of liquidating the meat industry would be slow though, and the economical impact could be quite severe.
When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura