Ideas For Change: Animal Bill Of Rights
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One of the Animal Rights ideas posted to Ideas for Change in America is an Animal Bill of Rights, writen by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
It calls for a few simple rights for all animals:
The Right of animals to be free from exploitation, cruelty, neglect and abuse.
The Right of laboratory animals not to be used in cruel or unnecessary experiments.
The Right of farm animals to an environment that satisfies their basic physical and psychological needs.
The Right of companion animals to a healthy diet, protective shelter, and adequate medical care.
The Right of wildlife to a natural habitat, ecologically sufficient to a normal existence and self-sustaining species population.
The Right of animals to have their interests represented in court and safeguarded by the law of the land.
Vote for this idea here >>
Funny thing about that list: the first right supersedes the second and third. That is, if animals have an honest and legitimate right to be free from exploitation then they cannot be used in ANY experiments (not just “cruel” and “unnecessary” ones) and they cannot be used for food products of any kind (not just under conditions in which their basic needs are unmet). Any use or treatment of animals that isn’t forwarding their own interests is exploitation by definition. Were this the law of the land there might eventually be quite an interesting court case when someone eventually challenged the use of animals in experiments or on farms as violating their first right even while it is protected under the second and third.
For that matter, the first right really covers everything — treatment of companion and wild animals is well-covered by freedom from cruelty, neglect, and abuse. And if it’s a legal right then court support comes with it by default!
I welcome efforts to codify animal rights into law, in any case.
~ Recent blog post: Attn. PETA ~
“I welcome efforts to codify animal rights into law”
Agreed.
Yeah, the first right gave me the feeling that this was a radical idea, while the later rights are more gently reformist.
Great idea to my thinking, though I suppose strict abolitionists would consider it very harmful.