The Animal Rights
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; The Declaration of Independence holds these rights to be self evident and unalienable. In the eighteenth century when these words were written they were called natural rights, today we call them human rights" (McShea 34). The issue of whether or not to grant animal rights such as those that humans retain, is a greatly disputed issue. Philosophers, clergyman, and politicians have argued the point of animal rights for years, but without success. Animal right is an extremely intricate issue that involves the question of animal intelligence, animal activist groups, and the pros and cons of granting animals their rights.Psychologists around the world, who have studied nonhuman primates, argue that these animals possess the capacity to communicate. They go on to explain that a communication barrier is all that separates humans from animals. If they bridged that barrier, then humans could talk with animals. Beatrice and Robert Gardner, two psychologists of the University of Nevada, realized that the pharynx and larynx of the chimpanzee are not suited for human speech. Since chimpanzees are far superior to humans in manual dexterity, the Garners decided to
The granting of rights to animals such as the abolition of medical research, the dissolution of commercial animal agriculture, sport hunting, and trapping would in effect have both positive and negative consequences. Positive consequences to the granting of animal rights would include lessened cruelty to animals, a greater appreciation of animals, and even a probable decline in the rate at which endangered species decline in number. These positive consequences would have an immense impact on the ecological system of the world and in the end, may even benefit society. Negative consequences to the granting of rights to animals would include not being able to test potential cures of life threatening diseases, not having pets in homes, and the entire population becoming vegetarians. Both choices would incorporate many difficulties in the way of enforcement, but both contain valid consequences worth considering. try to teach chimpanzees American Sign Language or Ameslan. The Gardners and others studied these chimpanzees, Washoe, Lucy, and Lana. These three chimpanzees learned to use and could display a working vocabulary of 100 to 200 words. They also distinguished between different grammatical patterns and syntaxes (Sagan 615). Besides distinguishing, the chimpanzees also inventively constructed new words and phrases. For example, when Washoe first saw a duck land on water, she gestured "water bird," which is the same phrase used in English. Washoe invented that gesture for the occasion (Sagan 615). Lucy also displayed her creative mind by signing "candy drink" after tasting a watermelon. The description "candy drink" is essentially the same word form as the English "water melon" (Sagan 615). Another method of bridging the communication gap between humans and animals is by computer. At the Yerkes Regional
Some common words found in the essay are:
Kathleen Marquardt, Declaration Independence, Washington DC, People PPF, Yerkish Sagan, English Washoe, Ingrid Newkirk, Lucy Lana, University Nevada, Edmonds Washington, animal rights, human rights, eastman et al, ed arthur eastman, sagan 615, ed arthur, norton reader, reader ed, arthur eastman, eastman et, reader ed arthur, arthur eastman et, et al, norton reader ed, reed 38,
Approximate Word count = 1225
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
