Animal Rights - The Compassionate Fight

What exactly is meant by the term "Animal Rights"? Does it mean that all animal life should have the same rights and privileges as humans? No, of course not. But it does mean that all creatures should be allowed to live their natural lives without interference, exploitation or cruel treatment from humans. Humans do not need to exploit other creatures. We have the intelligence and ingenuity to live in this world without relying on the other animals who share the planet with us. The only ways in which we do need to rely on other animals is in such matters as needing bees and other insects for the pollination of many food plants. Without the bees doing their job there would be famines and starvation. We also rely on other animals to keep down the numbers of insects that would eat all our crops. Better to rely on these animals than to spray poison everywhere. Apart from a few cases like these, where there is no exploitation by us, we have no need for other animals to help us - we have no need to use or abuse them.
We don't need animals for food - we are healthier on a vegan diet. And the planet would be in a far better state for us too if we adopted a plant based diet, because animals raised for meat and milk consume enormous amounts of food and water and produce vast lakes of slurry and clouds of methane and carbon dioxide which are climate-changing green house gases. Land has to be prepared for them and the millions of tons of food that is fed to them could be used to feed starving humans. Huge tracts of the Amazon forest are being cut down to grow soya beans and other plants to feed cattle, and this loss of trees is helping to accelerate global warming. With a plant based diet, every country could grow enough food to feed all its citizens. Some of the land that farm animals take up could be set aside to provide wildlife habitats for all the animals that have been displaced to make way for 'livestock'.
We don't need animals to help us find medical products. The history of experimenting on non-human animals in the hope of finding drugs for humans is one of a huge waste of time and resources. Most drugs that pass the preclinical stages, and seem to be effective and safe in the animals used to test them, fail when tested on humans. Despite the cruelty and suffering involved in this fraudulent research, one of the reasons the practice is allowed to continue is because the researchers have learnt no other way to do their work. It is what they have been trained to do. They are used to and comfortable with it. And when the drugs harm and kill humans - as they often do, the drug companies can plead innocence to charges of negligence because they tested the drugs in dogs and rats and monkeys, and they seemed to be safe. Despite all that testing, 100,000 Americans die each year due to the effects of medically prescribed drugs. Two million others suffer serious but non-fatal side effects. The same pattern is seen in other countries. No, we do not need to use other animals to find cures for humans. After a century or more of testing on rats, monkeys, dogs, cats, rabbits and a whole menagerie of beasts, all the biggest killer diseases and conditions of ill health in industrial countries are no nearer to being cured.
We simply don't need to use and abuse other animals. Cruel practices and abuse continue because people don't care about all the suffering they cause. They would rather please their taste buds than give a thought for the chickens, sheep and pigs that are killed so they can fill their bellies. They would rather take another pill, that probably won't do any good - and often for self inflicted diseases - than question the science behind the experiments on laboratory animals when better methods are already available and more are waiting to be discovered. The use of these animals in research is fake science and it has never been validated as an accurate means of finding drugs. Hundreds of scientists and physicians, some of whom were formerly involved in this inhumane research, have publicly announced their opposition to it and have pointed out how cruel and useless it is. Humans have the right to not be experimented on. It is time other animals were given that right. They suffer as much as any human. They feel pain and fear like we do. We have no right to use them even if such use were beneficial to us - which it isn't.
It is sometimes thought that Animal Rights campaigners care nothing for humans. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people who campaign for rights for other animals also have a deep compassion for humans. Indeed, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the UK was started by members of the already-existing Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Earlier, in the 18th Century, Benjamin Lay, a vegetarian and Quaker in Pennsylvania who hated cruelty of any kind, campaigned for the abolition of slavery. These are just two of many instances where those interested in protecting non-humans have extended their compassion to suffering humans too. Compassion knows no barriers of class, race, sex or species. Most campaigners for animal rights believe that all animals - including human ones - should have basic rights. Many are involved in political and social justice movements as well as campaigns calling for an end to cruelty towards non-human animals.
The main argument in favour of animal rights is that of morality. It is wrong to exploit others. It is wrong to do cruel things. It is wrong to slaughter animals. If it's wrong to do something to humans, it is also wrong to do it to other animals. Can non-humans be treated badly because they lack the intelligence of most human adults? If so, there are human adults who lack the intelligence of some other animals. But no sane person advocates that they be used to discover and develop drugs or that they should be treated in the cruel ways that are allowed for animals on farms, in circuses and in the wild.
By showing respect to all animals in this world and allowing them rights, we humans would benefit. We would have better health from better research methods. Enough food to feed every human many times over. More water, as it would no longer be used for farm animals which currently need millions of gallons a day. More land for recreational use - including places to watch wild animals. Less pollution - including the pollution that adds to global warming. Clearer consciences. And perhaps respect and compassion for each other.