Animals Have the Same Rights

¶ … Animals have the same rights as people?

The argument presented while in support of animal rights does not assert that animals should have the same exact rights as people. However, animals do have feelings, they have emotions, and there is empirical science to back up the contention that animals to grieve like humans. It is the position of this paper that animals' emotions are closer to human emotions than has been previously known, and that animals should have more rights and more respect than they do now.

Animals Deserve Respect and Should Have Rights

So many instances of animal cruelty are available in the news these days, from the gruesome slaughter of millions of animals on "factory farms" (where chickens, cows, and pigs stand in their own excrement and are pumped full of antibiotics to keep them healthy enough to be slaughtered) to the brutal, inhumane use of animals in testing labs that do research for cosmetics and other frivolous products.

Specifically, one point that can be made that links animals' emotions with human emotions is the fact that animals do grieve. Journalist Courtney Langley writes an interesting story in the Virginia Gazette regarding animal research by anthropology professor Barbara King at the College of William and Mary. King's recent book, How Animals Grieve, points to a poignant story about two ducks. These ducks has been rescued from a foie gras factory; foie gras is a controversial method of force-feeding ducks with far more food than they would ever eat normally and the point is to fatten up the liver of the duck for people to eat.

King reports that these rescued ducks were "…decimated and traumatized" but they bonded with each other in a farm animal sanctuary. Their names were Harper and Kohl, and with loving treatment they lived for a few years. But eventually Kohl became seriously ill and had to be euthanized. The supervisors at the rescue farm allowed Harper to be present while Kohl was put down. "When his friend was lying still, dead, on the ground, Harper came over to his friend and put his neck over top of his friend and laid there, and just sat with the body" (Langley, 2013). But that was only part of this sad scene; for weeks, Harper had what King called a "sorrow response," because Harper would not eat, he avoided other ducks and "became afraid of people" (Langley, p. 1). The behaviors Harper showed were "…specific about the loss of his friend," King explained.

King has discovered other evidence about animals and grieving that is compelling; for example she discusses Eleanor, a Kenyan matriarch elephant in Africa, who died and was visited by her calf along with "…a parade of female elephants, some of whom stood guard over her body" (Langley, p. 2). In fact elephants from five different families visited Eleanor's body and stood by; they likely never knew Eleanor and this indicates to King that elephants do mourn.

Crows, too, mourn their dead, according to a story in Mother Nature Network. It is known that crows form life-long bonds, and it is also known that when a crow dies, other crows "…flock to the bodies of their deceased, diving and swooping and emitting a call that summons other birds" (Moss, 2013). In another instance, scientist and primate researcher Anne Engh collected fecal samples from baboons in the African country of Botswana; Engh gathered those fecal samples following the killing of a baboon by a predator (Moss, p. 2).

Those samples were tested for "…increased levels of glucocorticoid (GC) stress markers" and Engh discovered that the stress in those baboons was elevated for nearly a month after the one baboon had been brutally attacked and killed (Moss, p. 2). The baboon feces that tested out for the highest amount of stress were from those baboons that had either family or other close ties to the baboon that had been killed. Hence, it is reasonable to assume that the baboons were hurt emotionally by the killing and they showed that through their stress following the death.

Meanwhile there is a growing movement of citizens worldwide who believe that animals have feelings and that they should not be abused especially when it comes to the entertainment and amusement of the public. There are ongoing protests about zoos and about displaying wild animals in public places; for example students at Somerville College, Oxford, are planning to boycott a college party / ball if the plans go ahead to display "…a live shark in a tank as entertainment" (Rustin, 2013). The event is billed as "…one night of decadence, debauchery and indulgence," and history graduate Matthew Hawkins objects to having a huge tank at a ball with a shark in it for entertainment (Rustin, p. 2).

"It's worrying that a leading educational institution such as Oxford college would allow that view of nature to be perpetuated, of animals as an extravagant, gaudy show." He went on to say that many students are trying in their everyday lives to "…do our little bit to save the planet" and meanwhile the college they attend is "…going in the opposite direction" (Rustin, p. 2).