Animal Farm By George Orwell

Animal rights are claims that animals should get the same humane treatment and protection from exploitation and abuse as humans. First off, in Animal Farm George Orwell makes it clear early in the novel that he means to talk about animal rights and the treatment of farm animals. Secondly, animal rights is still a problem that is going on in modern times with many large scale farms treating their animals inhumanely. Lastly, the things George Orwell writes about make it obvious to the reader that he wrote to criticize how animal rights is an issue in modern society. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, in its own right, a war on animal rights. Very early in Animal Farm it is clear that the animals are being treated inhumanely by Farmer Jones. In
Over the course of 70 years, almost everything has changed in our everyday lives, and yet animals are still given the horrendous treatment that they were given 70 years ago. In Sam Vaknin’s animal rights article Whether a Right or Not, Animals Should Be Treated Morally Vaknin talks about famous ancient philosophers that “Rejected the idea of animal rights. They regarded animals as the organic equivalents of machines, driven by coarse instincts, unable to experience pain.” (1) Despite all of the advancements that have been made since the times of Descartes, Malebranche and Aquinas, animals are still treated as the same way that we treat the robotic machine that puts the label on water bottles. For example, if a farmer has pigs on his farm he will buy them in the spring and excessively feed them, just to slaughter them before winter ends. Vaknin also wrote that these ancient philosophers were likely wrong: “Kant and Malebranche may have been wrong. Animals may be able to suffer and agonize.” (2) Which just proves that we as a society are well aware of how much has changed since the times of these philosophers, and yet we still treat farm animals as if they are machines created to do our bidding and make our lives easier. This gives insight as to how animal rights is still a problem in modern
Orwell writes about the quality of life for the animals as hopeless and tireless: “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old.” (7) Orwell writes about these animals being used solely to make the farmer’s job easier or to just be butchered, once they reach a certain age. Orwell also makes a point in mentioning that after animals reach the maturity that they need to do the work on the farm that they’re supposed to, they never know happiness or relaxation. Vaknin writes about it is the individual who gives oneself authority: “The saying implies that it is the individual who is the source of moral authority. Each and every one of us is allowed to spin his own moral system, independent of others.” (2) Vaknin is trying to showcase the fact that humans have so authority over animals because of our own feelings of superiority over other species, and because we see ourselves as superior to all other species. Looking at other animals, there is nothing similar to how humans control other animals. For example, you would never see a wolf in the wild leading a pack of coyotes just because it is the superior animal because the coyotes are able to revolt against their leader and live their lives as free beings. But farm animals all over the world are controlled by humans and have no say in what they