One reason that our use of animals in unjustifiable is that animals are sentient. It does not matter if the being can reason or talk, what's relevant is whether or not they can suffer. If something feels pain, it should be given moral consideration and inflicting pain upon it should be avoided. According to Louis P. Pojman, author of Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, there have been accounts of animals in labs being shocked to study the effects of insanity, drowned in oil to study effect of oil spills, and given LSD to test aggression. Obviously these practices inflict pain on the animals and we, as moral agents, have a moral obligation to consider this.

There are several theories that show evidence for animals' ability to feel pain. The identity theory defines pain as c neurons firing. In this case, all animals that have the same basic makeup as humans would also possess the neurons neces

Descartes also argues against animal rights, stating that animals are automata, meaning they feel no pain. This is quite easily refuted. If an animal is cut or burned, or has any bodily damage, it shows the same reactions that humans do when experiencing pain. For example, if a dog's paw is stepped on, it may yelp (as a human would moan or cry) and nurse its injury (as humans would theirs).

sary for feeling pain. This would include mammals, and possibly birds and reptiles, but not invertebrates. Functionalism states that anything that detects bodily damage and reacts can feel pain. In this case, all animals would be considered as sentient.

Humans are afforded certain rights, why shouldn't those rights apply, at least to a certain extent, to other species? Peter Singer defines speciesism as "a prejudice or attitude of bias toward the interest of members of one's own species and against those members of other species." There is no reason for other species to have no rights, except for a selfish desire, which is morally unjustifiable. Again, this is not to say that animals should have every right that humans have, but they do deserve moral consideration and right to life.

While there are many people that agree with the position that animals should be given moral consideration and that our treatment of them is inexcusable, there are also many people that disagree, claiming that our treatment of animals is morally justifiable.

A final argument against animal rights is that speciesism

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