So, do animals have rights? Let's look at the reasoning of why animals have been looked at as inferior to humans. One outlook is that humans have a higher intelligence level than that of an animals, and this gives humans the right to use them in any way needed. As L. Neil Smith states in his essay "Animals Are the Property of Humans", "Animals are groceries. They're leather and fur coats. They're for medical experiments and galloping to hounds. That's they're purpose" (39). Another outlook that's been given is that animals d

The medical community continues to feel that experiments using animals have played an important role in modern science. Studies, though, have found important discoveries have been made through human observations and studies. A major problem also found is that with animal experimentation, results frequently do not apply to humans. Dr. Irwin Bass, a former researcher for cancer, saw that complicating results from the animals delayed discoveries for cancer in many cases. Peggy Carlson defends this her article "Animal Medical Experimentation is Unjustified", by stating "The practice of using non-human animals to mimic or study human disease is often unreliable and occasionally misleads scientific investigation" (73).

Some people say that animals are different because they cannot think. But that is simply not true. We know that mammals and birds, for example, have very complex mental faculties. And besides, there are human beings who cannot think. Some people were born without parts of their brain, and they have less cognitive functioning than a healthy rat. Some people say that animals cannot talk. But animals communicate in their own ways, and besides, some people are unable to talk. (28)

This statement clearly shows that the excuse given to the debate deals with a factor of intelligence is irrelevant. Those that lack the intelligence level of the average human being is not denied rights. So the question is why is an animal's rights denied?

Why has animal experimentation become such an issue? Twenty million animals, on average, are used a year in experiments and this research has been funded by billions of U.S. health dollars. Though, most animal laboratories have improved their conditions, in the past and still in the present, animals have been mistreated. Extensive nerve damage done to monkeys to see how their bodies would "repair." Substances poured into rabbits' eyes called the draize eye test, which tests what products can hurt human eyes. This test still continues on even though a study has been done that the irritation in a rabbit's eye compared to a human eye is differed by a factor of 18 to 250. Hundreds of other mistreatments of animals have taken place, which has caused an upbringing of advocacy groups for animal rights. These groups have received praise, as well as complaints. These complaints are coming from medical communities that believe that these advocacy groups distort facts and exaggerate abuse on animals in research. One critic, L. Neil Smith, goes as far as to state in his article "Animals Are the Property of Humans" that, "Those who profess to believe in animal rights usually don't believe in human rights"(38). These activists for animals want equali

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Approximate Word count = 1817
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)