Peter Singer: The Mistreatment Of Animals

Many decades ago, animal rights was seen as nonexistent to humans. Animals were not considered as important creatures as humans, as their existence was solely recognized for human use only. Unfortunately, the actions of humans have led to immoral behavior and mistreatment towards animals, which have resulted to neglect, starvation, physical abuse, and participation of animal fights for money, just to name a few. With help of the formation of Animal Rights group such as PETA, created a form of social movement to help protect the rights of animals, as well as views and philosophy of Peter Singer who proclaims animals should be “liberated”. The mistreatment of animals by humans have brought worldwide attention and disgust. Neglect and starvation towards animals have been seen as immoral and considered as selfish behaviors by humans. In the views of Singer “where the interests of animals and humans conflict, the special properties of being human such as rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness accord higher consideration to the interests of human beings”. This statement reflects on the rationality and self-interest of human beings due to their indifferences of properties. However, animals are creatures who breathe and eat just like humans; therefore
they deserve the right to be treated fairly and with respect. In order for humans to survive, they require food and water. Well, animals are the same. As a result, they should not be treated with neglect and made to starve. If an owner is unable to care of their animal, the moral thing to do is to give their animal to a vet or animal shelter, so the animal does not suffer and given the opportunity to a second chance of life.
Physical abuses have been another major cause of animal abuse, which has broken the hearts of many animal lovers. The idea of one displaying physical abuse to animals show disregard and selfishness of the human mentality. Such physical abuse has become an opener for things to get done to protect animals from such danger. Thankfully, animal rights group such as PETA was formed to help fight the number of animals being wrongly mistreated. Their service have opened awareness to people of the ill treatment animals have encountered, argue that animal lives do matter, and humans should treat them with care and respect. Their movement have caused other animal rights groups to be created, which creates further openness, recognition to the need for animal rights and protection. Greed has taken over the minds of many humans and as a result, money has caused people to do immoral things to earn an extra buck. Animal fighting such as dog fight and cock fight have become a sport to many humans. The idea of whose animal is more aggressive for one to receive extra monies, shows ridicule and disrespect that humans have towards animal. Sadly, animals are being abused for the sake of money. Such sport should be banned indefinitely all around the world, which will help promote animal lives and their rights. Animals may not have the same properties has humans, but they have feelings and inherent worth.
They have the right to be loved and cared for just as humans. It is known that some animals such as dogs are “a man’s best friend”. They have a heart to love, protect, and care for their own, as well as towards humans. Therefore it is morally right for humans to equally treat animals with the same love, protection, and care towards them. Animals feel pain, happiness, sadness, fear, frustration, and motherly love, which is referred to as “negative and positive valence awareness of sentiments” based on Singer. He believes that animals have the right to live freely from any pain and suffering that may be caused by
humans. In conclusion, animals are creatures who live and breathe like humans in order to survive. It is of the utmost respect that we treat them with same respect and love as we do with others. Animals also have feelings, therefore they can also feel the different positive and negative sentiments as per Singer. It is however wrong that humans cause them pain and let them suffer unnecessarily because they are not considered same as them. Thankfully, with the help of movement groups such as PETA, they have helped reinforced the rights for animals, and have brought awareness to people that animal lives matter in our society. Singer states “moral equality theories often extend the concept of rights to animals on the grounds that they have similar physiological and mental capacities as infants or disabled human beings”. Today, we can see that many animals are treated as children where they are loved and given the same rights. The love given to an animal will be the equal love given back to one in return.