English 12
Period 5
October 10, 2014
Dear Editor,
Ed Yong informs us according to the right and dignity of animals . He questioned his readers if great apes are deserving to have their own rights as a person and if so, might as well give other animals too. Animals shouldn't be mistreated or used as experimentations, but at the same time they should not have human rights.
All animals deserve our respect, not human rights. No one can deny that the social behavior, abilities, and mental capacities of apes are comparable to humans. As time comes, great apes can catch up on our evolutionary ladder and will eventually start to have the same intellectual as us as the development will advance. One reason of this great ape rights movement is because of the harmful scientific experiments and abuse to primates. Animals can feel pains too. These practices inside the laboratories can be view as torture to them. If we don't protect and care for them, species will slowly disappear. Instead of giving them rights as humans, why don't we just be their guardians and treat them our own family. They don't need to have to be like us, they just need to be treated right. All animals are not capable at everything that humans can do. If ever they are given legal human rights, are they also allowed to vote, drive, work and get pay too? I just can't imagine what's going to happen to everyone of us. This is just too much. Ethics of caring and respect is what they need, not to consider them as fully human.