animal rights

Animal Testing: Unnecessary Cruelty Ever since 1970, when an Australian philosopher brought up the idea of animal rights, it has been a difficult topic with many different views and opinions on whether or not non-human animals have the required set of qualities to be entitled to rights protecting them from cruelty. What many don't know is that the roots of the movement date back way much further from a handful of Greek philosophers and thinkers(The Animal Rights Debate). All stating that humans may be superior to animals but they deserve rights too. As the italian artist Leonardo da Vinci stated in a notebook: "The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."(The Animal Rights Debate). It took decades for organisations to be set up to fight for animal rights, many wouldn’t listen, therefore new animal clothing lines came out and animal-tested cosmetics showed up on store’s shelves. My view is that animals; all shapes and sizes, are valuable and should not be wasted. If they must die, (for example: for food) they should not die in vain and should at least enjoy a pleasurable life without having to suffer a traumatic end. My argument is that they should not be allowed to suffer, be tortured or extorted for unnecessary reasons. Their lives should not be sacrificed for human lives, nor are they any less valuable than human lives. The first point I would like to make in my argument over the issue of animal rights is that humans are highly evolved, complex creatures. We are accorded rights due to the fact that we are able to think and feel pain. Animals of all species are able to think to some extent, even if they are not able to think at the same level of human beings. All animal species are also able to feel pain. This concept shows that animals are capable of, to some extent, what humans are in terms of thought and feeling(The Animal Rights Debate). Following this logic shows that therefore, both