Jeanne Nagle - The Fight for Animal Rights

Published in 2020 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2020 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nagle, Jeanne, author.

Title: The fight for animal rights / Jeanne Nagle.

Description: First edition. | New York : Rosen Publishing, 2020.

| Series: Activism in action : a history | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018015267| ISBN 9781508185383 (library bound) | ISBN 9781508185376 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Animal rightsJuvenile literature. | Animal welfareJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC HV4708 .N34 2019 | DDC 179/.3dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015267

Manufactured in the United States of America

On the cover: As long as creatures such as rabbits are subjected to testing, or exploited for their skin and fur, animal rights activists will speak out on behalf of their nonhuman counterparts.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

H umans have had a complex relationship with animals for centuries. Some twenty thousand years ago, peoples ancient ancestors had only two choices when it came to animals: they either hunted the creatures for food or became the hunted/food themselves. Eventually humans domesticated several species. These tamed animals offered humans protection, companionship, labor, and an easily obtained source of meat and material for clothing. In return, domesticated animals received food and shelter, yet were considered little more than owned property for humans to do with what they pleased.

The lives of animals have intertwined with humans in many ways that have been beneficial to the latter, although not the former. Abuse of pets and farm animals is one such case in point. In the name of sport, animals have been hunted or pitted against each other in fights to the death. They have been taken out of the wild and put on display in zoos and circuses. Experiments have been conducted on live animals by those seeking better ways to treat humans.

Humans have long hunted animals for food, and sometimes for fun. Animal rights activists have been known to object to all forms of hunting.

In the 1800s, people began to advocate on behalf of mistreated animals. In the United States, animal welfare organizations, such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society, focused on protecting animals by reducing or alleviating their suffering. In the 1970s, some animal advocates took things a step further by also campaigning to win for animals some of the same rights that humans enjoyed. Chief among these were the freedom from suffering and the right to be worthy of consideration as living beings, not just things to be owned. Thus the animal rights movement was born.

Animal welfare is defined by humans as having compassion for what they consider lesser living things. On one hand, animal welfarists try to ensure that animals are treated well as they serve or otherwise benefit humans. The animal rights movement, on the other hand, also believes that animals are living beings that are other than instead of lesser than humans. Animal rights advocates believe animals deserve to live free from the threat of harm at the hands of humans, no matter what form that harm might take. Members of the animal rights movement argue that just as humans cannot legally use or take advantage of other people, they should not have the right to harm or use animals for their own benefit.

Some factions of the animal rights movement have used destructive and illegal means to make their case. Many others, however, have stuck with methods that have proven effective for other social justice causes, such as the civil rights movement and a host of human rights efforts. Working to pass favorable laws, enforcing existing legislation, publishing scientific findings that support their beliefs, protesting, and speaking out are some of the more common ways animal rights advocates have gained support for their cause. Anyone who chooses to join the animal rights movement should be ready, willing, and able to participate in these, and other peaceful yet effective means, in order to make a difference.

CHAPTER ONE

HUMAN AND NONHUMAN ANIMALS

B iologically speaking, people and animals are actually a part of one big family. Within the scientific classification of living things, which groups organisms according to their similarities and differences, humans are listed in the same kingdom as animals. That means that at the highest cellular level, human and nonhuman animals have a lot in common. It is only by going deeper into the classification system, called taxonomy, that one can see how science separates animals one from the other. Discussions concerning animal rights often hinge on such similarities and differences that run through the animal kingdom.

Science is not the only avenue for the animal rights debate. Philosophers have weighed in on the matter for ages. Their concerns revolve not so much around biological makeup as around ethics and morality. Deciding what is morally right or wrong when it comes to the treatment of animals is also the approach taken by various religions and spiritual groups.

HIGH AND MIGHTY

Within the taxonomic system, humans are among a group of animals known as primates, which comes from the Latin word for chief or first rank. Primates receive such a high rank because they possess many helpful adaptations, including brains that are large for their body size. Human brains also have a vast number of neurons, which allow the brain to function at a very high level. Additionally, the complex way in which all these neurons act in the human brain increases cognitive ability, meaning being able to understand and learn.

With all these great things going for them, naturally humans would think that they were superior to other animalseven other primates, such as gorillas and chimpanzees. Animal rights advocates claim that this feeling of humans being greater than has led to what they call speciesism. Coined by philosopher Richard Ryder and studied by animal rights icon Peter Singer, speciesism is an important term in the language of animal rights. By virtue of believing themselves to be the most important, or even the only important, species, humans have given themselves an excuse to basically do whatever they want to all the animals that are below them. Using nonhuman animals for their own benefit and treating them poorly is justified in their minds. Animal rights advocates maintain that speciesism is the same as racism and sexismand it is just as wrong. The argument is that the differences between animals and humans qualify the former to be considered other than, not lesser than.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

Humans might put themselves above the animals, but genetically speaking, they are not so different from their fellow members of the animal kingdom. As fellow primates, humans and the great apes are closely related through DNA. Testing has shown that people share more than 98 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, gorillas, and a type of chimp called bonobos. Orangutans and monkeys share less DNA with humans, but the percentage is still significant96 and 93 percent, respectively. Various studies have hinted that other animals beyond primates also are genetically similar to humans. In order of the highest to lowest amount of shared DNA, other mammals include cats, mice, dogs, and cows. As for birds, people are most closely related to chickens. Their 60 percent DNA similarity with humans is equal to that of a surprising member of the plant familybananas.