A Guide to Writing an Animal Rights Essay

The subject of animal rights causes a never-ending debate about how to treat animals. This subject is very broad and raises a lot of questions. What is morally right to do to animals? What actions towards animals can be considered justified? Can the animals living on the farm be happy? Are medical experiments on animals justified? The debate over this subject has not yet come to a reasonable conclusion. Since the issue is still open, it is a subject for multiple argumentative animal rights essays assigned in colleges and universities. When writing their animal rights essays, students ought to demonstrate their analytical and critical thinking patterns, as well as advanced writing skills.

All animals are living beings. They are suffering in the same way that humans do. They can feel pain, loneliness, frustration, fear, pleasure, and other emotions. When humans do something that interferes with their needs, they are morally obliged to take into account this issue. Unfortunately, many people misunderstand the animal rights subject. They mistakenly believe that it means providing animals with equal rights as humans. This idea is illogical and irrational. In its essence, the subject deals with the rules and regulations allowing fauna to live without human interference. The current paper is not going to take any position. It has to help you understand how to write an essay on animal rights building strong arguments and supporting them with solid evidence. By following our suggestions, you will be able to create a good-looking piece that will bring you the best outcome.

Why Animal Rights Are Important?

In a nutshell, animal rights are an idea that says that the fauna representatives are entitled to basic rights, including possessing their life, maintaining their health, and others. In accordance with this idea, all animals were born free, as well as humans. Thus, they ought not to be an object for human exploitation. Unfortunately, billions of animals are killed or tortured for various purposes. Before you start working on your animal rights essay, you need to come up with a detailed animal rights essay outline that will include the key issues that you may emphasize in your essay.

The animal supporters claim that all the fauna representatives deserve a certain kind of consideration. Thus, people have to consider what is best for animals` interests. People have to recognize that animals cannot be used for food, entertainment, experimentation, and other purposes. As well as humans, animals deserve to be free. We cannot take for granted that animals are weaker than humans. Having more power, people are to protect the rights of fauna representatives by different means. After all, fauna is an integral part of the whole ecosystem and people are to be conscious of its protection. A good animal rights essay for students is a detailed, engaging, and comprehensive piece corresponding to the professor`s guidelines.

Main Pros and Cons of Animal Rights

The idea of giving rights to animals becomes more and more popular nowadays. A lot of companies become more conscious and stop making their cruel testing experiments. People supporting animal rights believe that a brand-new approach is to be established in treating fauna. They claim that animal rights ought to be legally enshrined whereas all animals should be liberated from exploitation. At the same time, we cannot deny the fact that our life still depends on animal-based industries. As such, the problem cannot be solved easily. Unfortunately, animals are still used for testing cosmetics to make sure it is safe for people. Since the topic is pretty broad and controversial, it provokes active debates. When addressing this problem in essays about animal rights, one ought to consider a lot of aspects. Let us discuss the most obvious pros and cons that you can focus on in your animal rights essay:

Pros

• Animal rights protection can enable people to save the lives of many animals. No doubt, animals are suffering from enormous exploitation in various industries, including the medical one. Whereas some products do not cause direct damage to animals negatively affecting their habits and lives, others may lead to deaths and other terrible consequences. The thing is that not all products tested on animals can match human needs. Thus, it is reasonable to stop testing at least some kinds of medications. Since animals are different from people, the results may be far from being accurate;
• Animals` deaths do not bring any benefit to humans. When the particular animal dies, the whole ecosystem is harmed, which may lead to severe consequences. People have to face the fact that the ecosystem is very delicate. Thus, people have to protect the environment at all costs;
• Testing is a direct violation of animal rights. At the same time, it does not always result in trustworthy outcomes. Even though some medical experiments lead to the advancement of the medical field, the hurt caused to animals overweight all the benefits. The horrible conditions and stressful environment can result in severe modification of the testing results. As such, people have to consider alternative solutions.

Now, let us tell you about the main cons that may be discussed in your animal right essay:

Cons

• As for the main arguments against fauna protection, they reasonably state that animals are very helpful in research. Thus, they can be used in medical advancement. Some people believe that humans, as well as their comfort, are more important than animals. It is impossible to deny the fact that the development of new medicines and vaccines greatly depends on testing. Since there are no alternative ways to test new medicines, testing cannot be stopped. As such, it can help cure serious diseases, including diabetes, HIV, cancer, etc.;
• Another argument against animal rights protection is that testing reduces risks for people at the expense of animals. If something goes wrong during testing, the chances are high that something will go wrong with humans too. As a result, testing can save many lives and numerous diseases can be avoided;
• Finally, experimentation ensures the safety of testing. As such, people can find it easier to understand the influence of certain drugs on the human body.

Animal Rights Sample

Introduction
There is a lot of misunderstanding in relation to the meaning of “animal rights”. It doesn’t mean that animals deserve more rights than people or they have to be treated better than people. This paper will conduct a study on animal rights and what our society should pay attention to in regard to protecting animals.
History of the animal rights movement
The first attempt to prevent acts of cruelty to animals became part of an important movement in England in the early nineteenth century. With the advancement of human rights movement, which included the movement for woman suffrage and the anti-slavery movement, the first anti-cruelty bill, was introduced in the British Parliament in 1800. In 1822, Richard Martin managed to pass an act in the House of Commons that prevented cruelty to larger domestic animals. And it was two years later that he founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in order to help enforce this law.
The animal rights movement was founded on benevolent sentiments toward animals.  This issue was first touched upon by an English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who spoke about the suffering that animals have to go through when dealt with by men. However, the philosophical foundation for describing human relations with animals was still undeveloped.  In the 1970s, the animal rights movement found its first profound intellectual expression in the work of philosopher Peter Singer, who published his book “Animal Liberation” in 1975. Singer came back to the foundations of thinking given by Bentham and presented the case for animal rights based in the tradition of natural rights.
Since the advancement of the women’s liberation and civil rights movements attracted more attention to human rights, it was anticipated that the principles of those rights would be developed by analogy when applied to animals.  Groups for environment protection like the Sea Shepherd Society and Greenpeace drew attention to marine animals and other endangered species. Animal protection organizations working in coalitions had some significant victories in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1980, PETA was founded as an active representative of the new movement targeted at defending the right of animals. PETA is the largest organization of the world that deals with animal rights protection. It has more than three million members and supporters. PETA puts its efforts into areas, which are associated with the most intense animal suffering: laboratories, the entertainment industry, the clothing business and factory farms. PETA is also involved in a number of issues dealing with the cruel killing animals and birds as well as cruel treatment of domestic animals. PETA operates in through special events, research, public education, animal rescue, protest campaigns and other special events.
Present situation
Together with more moderate campaigns to protect animals there is the so called Abolitionist Approach based on total termination of animal exploitation for food and for profit as well as brutal treatment of animals. The followers of this approach explain their motives by history examples taken from abolition of slavery. They assert that as race-based slavery in the USA was finally outlawed, the same should be done regarding animal exploitation. They debate that the refusal to support slavery in the nineteenth century should be expressed in the twenty first century by showing moral and legal opposition to the mistreatment of animals.
If the doctrine of animal rights were accepted, it would mean that the following would not be allowed:

• No use of animals for hard labour
• No selective breeding for any reason other than the benefit of the animal
• No breeding and killing animals for food or clothes or medicine
• No zoos or use of animals in entertainment
• No experiments on animals
• No hunting

Conflicting Views
The supporters of the Abolitionist Approach draw their arguments from the ideas based on the case against sexism and racism. The term “speciesism” has come into practice by analogy with the above terms. It is explained as biased attitude in favor of one species members against others. The adherents of this approach refer to Thomas Jefferson and his statements made against racism and sexism. In their opinion, “speciesists” function in the same way as racists, showing heartless attitude to animals whom they exploit for food and profit.
At the same time, the critics of animal right protection explain their views. Carl Cohen insists: “A right, properly understood, is a claim, or potential claim, that one party may exercise against another”. He further develops his core argument that animals do not have any ability of free moral judgment. Therefore, they can not respond to any moral claims or exercise any right. They do not have any rights.
The critics of animal rights movement also state that human bodies require protein contained in animal and bird meats and in fish. They insist that the need of our organism in meats, minerals and vitamins is confirmed by North American health authorities. They assert that our bodies need animal meats to operate effectively.
Others insist that it is traditionally and legally incorrect to compare animal right movement principles to those of the women’s rights and slavery abolition movements. They say that the latter movements were initiated by oppressed individuals who strove for equality.
Conclusion
Regarding the above discussed issues it is important to note that the animal rights movement was organized with the noble intentions to protect animals from cruel treatment by men. As any other movement, it can take any direction and may go to its extremes. Thus, it is very important to ensure that all the adherents and opponents of this movement have the opportunity to present their ideas and retain their right to eat animal meats or abstain from eating them.

When working on an animal rights argumentative essay, you need to consider opposing viewpoints and suggest solid arguments. If you have never worked on such an assignment before, you may take advantage of reading the animal rights essay example written by our team.

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