Animal Rights and helping to make a difference

Animal rights - a thorny issue. There are those who would argue that animals are not entitled to any 'rights', that they are here merely to make our own existence more comfortable. Well, any one with an iota of common sense will agree that those who gleefully torture animals for fun are extremely likely to turn their attentions to their own kind at some point. How often have we heard about serial killers who started out torturing and killing small animals as children?

Vegetarians regularly have to defend their decision not to eat meat. As a vegetarian, I've lost count of the amount of times I have been verbally attacked because I've asked for a vegetarian option in restaurants, or declined to eat the ham sandwiches on offer at buffets. People who have never met me think it's perfectly ok to ridicule me for not wishing to eat flesh. I don't lecture people for eating meat, I merely choose not to, and that seems to make some people very defensive.

But animals do not need to be treated badly in order for meat to be produced. In this day and age unfortunately factory farming is major business and so many farm animals never get to even see a blade of grass, let alone graze in meadows. Pigs are kept in pens that they can't turn in, chickens are housed in their thousands in large buildings with no room at all to move, the males often being crushed and added to the feed because they're deemed as worthless. Cattle are given cheap feed that contains animal bone, even though they are herbivorous. Is it any wonder that these animals contract diseases such as BSE and we in turn then are in danger from the human variant, CJD and of course, let's not forget the swine flu.

Farmers like to keep their costs down by offering as little comfort to their animals as possible and this includes when in transit, travelling long distances especially from country to country. The European parliament recently voted on whether conditions for live animal stock being transported should be improved. Farmers, particularly in Ireland, protested that this would hit them where it hurts - in the pocket. Perhaps making a living from the suffering of others is not something that should be embarked upon..of course, there are farmers that do care about the welfare of the animals in their care and they are to applauded. It's just such a shame there are not more of them.

One of the most hotly debated animal welfare issues is that of experimentation. Opinion is pretty much split on this one. The argument usually comes back to 'What if someone you loved was dying and could only be saved by a drug tested on animals?' Fact is, drugs must be tested on human 'guinea pigs' before they are put on the market. Sometimes the drugs prove safe and sometimes it's back to the drawing board because unforseen side effects have shown up. Humans are very different to animals and something that cures a chimpanzee of AIDS could kill us. Just as concerning, a drug that is lethal to an animal could be the long-searched-for cure of cancer. What if it gets binned because it killed rodents? In fact, penicillin was proved lethal when first tested on rats...

Both people and animals suffered greatly in the past so that today's society could have the brilliant medical advances that we enjoy. These advances have given us alternatives to the reliance we have until now placed on animal experiments. It's time to show how far we have come.

Circuses and zoos have been in the spotlight for a while now, due to concerns that the welfare of the animals in their care is not always a priority. Arguments are made that zoos are important so that we can get to see these wild animals up close - without zoos only a very small number of people would ever have the opportunity to see these animals in the flesh, so to speak. But surely seeing a magnificent creature like an elephant in a tiny enclosure with a chain around a back foot is hardly to be compared to seeing it in the wild. There are sanctuaries and safari parks where animals have much more freedom to roam and the onus is on the survival of the species. Zoos that keep their animals in cages like criminals need to be re-designed or closed down.

Circus owners insist that animals enjoy performing. Maybe some of them do, and maybe they don't. But it has been proven over and over again that these animals are often being beaten and intimidated in order to perform their 'tricks' and dances. Dancing bears and lions on horseback should not be considered entertainment by a modern society.

Different countries have different blood sports. In Spain and Mexico for instance, they have bullfighting. Some tourists wish to see a bullfight as a traditional part of their holiday in that country. Many want no part of it and that includes a lot of the natives of the country themselves. A few years ago hunting on horseback was outlawed in Britain. The streets of London were filled with protesters denouncing this attack on the way of country life. 'Townies' just didn't understand how important hunting was to the rural community and anyway, did people not understand that if wild animals are not culled, their numbers will increase until they are unmanageable??

These hysterical cries failed to explain how hunting a loan fox with a pack of dogs and a couple of dozen easily bored country dwellers on horseback, culminating in the tearing apart of said-fox by the hounds could be considered a better way of culling a creature that is rapidly running out of countryside to live in, as opposed to simply taking a gun and shooting it quickly and more humanely (if their claims of over population are to be taken seriously). God forbid anyone should suggest it is merely to satiate their own bloodlust. The same goes for badger baiting, hare coursing, stag hunting, seal bludgeoning..the excuse rolled out every time is that of culling. Unfortunately the chosen method always seems to be the most brutal.

Some people treat pets like members of the family. They even get presents for christmas! At the other end of the scale are the animals that are not so fortunate. Sometimes they're neglected and don't receive enough food; their bedding isn't changed regularly. Sometimes they are beaten, tortured. Sometimes they are abandoned - at the side of the road or, even worse, locked into a house or apartment unable to find food or water and dying a slow, lonely death. Bitches are often used as money-making machines, churning out as many puppies as nature will allow. These puppies get sold to the highest bidder, often as presents that lose their cute-ability factor as they grow and end up on the streets or in dog pounds awaiting execution for the crime of being in the way.

Any one who cares about the welfare of animals can do something to help the cause. Eating free range eggs, organic meat. Donating money to health charities that do not support animal experiments. Refusing to buy products from cosmetic companies that still test on animals. Going to animal-free circuses instead of the other kind, staying away from zoos that keep their animals in poor conditions. Going to a pound for the next family pet instead of buying privately and taking care of that animal once it is part of your family.

Join one of the many organisations set up specifically to further the cause of animal rights. Animals do not have a voice. They rely on us to speak for them.