What are animal rights? Animal rights are often denoted as animal liberation, a concept that all living creatures should be treated equally among each other, especially animals. Animal rights activists believe that no animal should be killed for food and clothing or even used as scientific experiments and entertainment.
Millenniums ago, our ancestors had to roam the vast land to hunt for prey in order to keep their families from starving. At that time, hunting wasn’t a choice, it was a need. Today the modern hunters don’t carry the burden of their family’s survival, but only the need of the amusement that it offers. These hunters aren’t worried about their children handling guns during their hunting trips, therefore the younger generations are unconsciously taught to completely disrespect the value of life by killing sinless animals. Hunters even spend billions of dollars each year on guns, ammunition, travel and other expenses, making hunting a very profitable industry.
Nowadays, there has even begun a trend of eating shark fins, monkey brains, dog’s meat, bear paws and a growing fetish of exotics animal skins and furs like tiger fur, leopard fur, crocodile skin and snake skin. For generations, the human race has slaughtered countless helpless animals, but why?
Tigers are the largest cat species in the world. They are known to be fierce and strong, so they generally have few enemies in the form of elephants, buffaloes, bears and the worst – humans. Poachers hunt tigers for their skin, fur, meat and bones. Till this day, they still continue to poison waterholes or set steel wire snares to kill tiger’s to accommodate the ever increasing requirement of these creatures parts in society. The masculinity and strength of tigers have brought us to question that it may be the connection between their physically attributes that have humans craving for them, as almost everything related to the tiger has been sold and held in high esteem and price, be it their claws, their fur or their teeth. To worsen the matter, merchants offer high prices to obtain these rare items which in turn motivate poachers to hunt down these innocent creatures. Furthermore humans have also destroyed their natural habitats by cutting down trees, polluting the atmosphere and hunting their prey like wild deer and wild boars, indirectly forcing tigers into starvation. Tigers are gradually becoming extinct and yet their body parts like their skins are still sought for by the fashion industry to be made into clothing. Do the tigers really deserve to die for our fashion fetish?
Sharks have wandered our dark seas for more than 420 million years and have now diversified into 440 species, ranging from the smallest dwarf lantern shark to the largest whale shark. Their surpassing skills as predators still fascinate and frighten humans, even though their survival is under serious threat from fishing and other human activities. Ever since ancient China, sharks have been hunted for their fins to be made into soups and traditional medicines. It is sad to say, that this practice is still exercised in our modern day society. Sharks are hunted in the deep sea and are finned on the spot. Sharks are finned alive and in numerous cases are thrown back into the sea, the finless sharks are then left to be devoured by undersea predators, or to suffocate to death as it is unable pass oxygen over its gills because they rely on all their fins to direct them through the water. Not all sharks are left to decay at the bottom of the ocean but this is a common practice by fishermen to maximize the storage space for shark fins and not shark meat, this is because a piece of shark meat is worth a fraction of the value of a shark fin; hence fishermen regard the fin as their first priority. Nonetheless, other parts of the shark are still very useful, for example, their blood has been used as an anticoagulant, their organs as fish feed, their flesh as fertilizer, their teeth as ornaments and ceremonial weapons, their liver for its oil, and their skin for shoe leather and hand grips. Shark fins have become such an obsession to humans that they’ve put sharks on the verge of extinction.
Animals are just like humans, would you hunt down a human being for its tooth? Then again, would you wear a human tooth around your neck as jewellery? The sane mind would see the damage humans are doing to these inculpable creatures. Exploiting animals that are endangered for our own profits is irresponsible and unfair to them. Rachel Carson once quoted, until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is -whether the victim is human or animal -we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity. So do your part in protecting animal rights.
References :
Sharks have wandered our dark seas for more than 420 million years and have now diversified into 440 species, ranging from the smallest dwarf lantern shark to the largest whale shark. Their surpassing skills as predators still fascinate and frighten humans, even though their survival is under serious threat from fishing and other human activities. Ever since ancient China, sharks have been hunted for their fins to be made into soups and traditional medicines. It is sad to say, that this practice is still exercised in our modern day society. Sharks are hunted in the deep sea and are finned on the spot. Sharks are finned alive and in numerous cases are thrown back into the sea, the finless sharks are then left to be devoured by undersea predators, or to suffocate to death as it is unable pass oxygen over its gills because they rely on all their fins to direct them through the water. Not all sharks are left to decay at the bottom of the ocean but this is a common practice by fishermen to maximize the storage space for shark fins and not shark meat, this is because a piece of shark meat is worth a fraction of the value of a shark fin; hence fishermen regard the fin as their first priority. Nonetheless, other parts of the shark are still very useful, for example, their blood has been used as an anticoagulant, their organs as fish feed, their flesh as fertilizer, their teeth as ornaments and ceremonial weapons, their liver for its oil, and their skin for shoe leather and hand grips. Shark fins have become such an obsession to humans that they’ve put sharks on the verge of extinction.
Animals are just like humans, would you hunt down a human being for its tooth? Then again, would you wear a human tooth around your neck as jewellery? The sane mind would see the damage humans are doing to these inculpable creatures. Exploiting animals that are endangered for our own profits is irresponsible and unfair to them. Rachel Carson once quoted, until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is -whether the victim is human or animal -we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity. So do your part in protecting animal rights.
References :
1. Vegan Peace Home, n.d., Hunting. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.veganpeace.com/animal_cruelty/hunting.htm
2. Kyla Hume, Kyle Kacsmarik, Neill Laidlaw, Megan Lutz, and Rebecca Singleton, n.d., Tigers. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/tiger.htm
2. Kyla Hume, Kyle Kacsmarik, Neill Laidlaw, Megan Lutz, and Rebecca Singleton, n.d., Tigers. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/tiger.htm
3. Roy D'Silva, n.d., Endangered Tigers. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/endangered-tigers.html
4. Wikipedia, n.d., Shark. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark
5. SeaPics.com, n.d., Shark Finning and Shark Fishing Photos Showing This Cruel Practice. Retrieved April 30, 2011 from http://seapics.com/feature-subject/conservation-issues/shark-finning-shark-fishing-pictures-001.html
4. Wikipedia, n.d., Shark. Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark
5. SeaPics.com, n.d., Shark Finning and Shark Fishing Photos Showing This Cruel Practice. Retrieved April 30, 2011 from http://seapics.com/feature-subject/conservation-issues/shark-finning-shark-fishing-pictures-001.html
6. Bussy's California Surf Stickers, n.d. "FUR HURTS Sticker. Wear Your Own Skin.". Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.californiasurfstickers.com/servlet/the-1031/stickers,-fur-hurts-stickers,/Detail
7. Zazzle Inc, n.d. " Wear Your Own Skin Bumper Sticker ". Retrieved April 30, 2011, from http://www.zazzle.com/wear_your_own_skin_bumper_sticker-128067829180960648
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