Opinions regarding "Animal Rights"

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What is your opinion regarding the question of "Animal Rights?"

My own opinion is that animals do not now have any apparent rights, and should those not be granted them. I am certainly against animal cruelty and support laws addressing that (this includes cock-fighting, beating an animal, ect...), and one reason I am against animal cruelty and support animal cruelty laws is that I believe it has been properly shown that those who are cruel to an animal when they are young (although not necessarily involved, for example, the hunting of an animal) are more likely to be cruel (including involved in murders) to human beings. However, I also believe that it is apparent that those who elevate animals in those who believe, for example, meat eating, and animal experimentation for medical research should be actively discouraged or banned outright are also more likely to engage in violent behavior.

IMO the concept of "animal rights" is ludicrous. I love animals... I had chicken for lunch today and beef for supper yesterday.

We should treat our animals well. But they're animals. They're meant to be used.

well, obviously this is a wide ranging topic.
And given the amount of threads we see about dogs, cats, ducks, frogs, horses, etc. i am surprised we do not see more discussion of such matters.
I am not really in a state to kick-off such discussions at the moment. But what i will say is that i stopped eating meat around a year ago. Since then i have read some great pieces by Coetzee on the matter of animal rights. And i pretty much agree with everything he writes on such things.
I will return to this when i am more sober.

I believe animal "rights" is somewhat of a misnomer. The Bible, which I follow, teaches us to have kindness for our animals, but the same Bible gives us ultimate authority over them. It's an enlightened hierarchy. Enlightened as in: not one which is bent on cruel domination of all that is below oneself in the hierarchy, but rather, a hierarchy for the purpose of order, with the elements arranged in the order that God wanted, with mankind first of all earthly creatures, under Him. It is therefore wrong to be cruel to animals. Nevertheless, they are under our charge; we kill them for food, and that is acceptable (that is among the reasons God created them).

But when one uses the word "rights", that's moving toward a humanlike equality -- toward bestowing God-ordained human dignity upon lesser creatures.

Sopho is about to disagree.

no I am
but I'm very hippie in my beleifs
being a vegetarian, spiritual (almost wiccan) sorta guy

short of sociopathic activity like torturing animals and dog/cock/whatever fighting, animals have no rights.

yeah why dont we hijack this thread so that Ragtime can talk about the bible.

Preview
Ragtime: You are going to hell
Sopho: You go to hell!

sorry but things get sometimes a little funny