Aimal Rights

Abstract

By defining the difference between animal rights and animal welfare, this paper seeks to explore the ethical and moral arguments from past and present regarding both rights and welfare as they are applicable to various types of animals in society.

This paper will explore the difference between animal rights versus animal welfare, Immanuel Kant’s perspective on animals in society, Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian views of animal rights, the US Animal Welfare Act (AWA), euthanasia of animals in shelters, military use of animals, puppy mills, and the rights of those animals in each situation.

It is through this broad based study of animal rights and animal welfare the authors hope to educate the reader, and allow him/her to make his/her own opinions of rights and welfare as it applies to animals.

Since the introduction of animals into society people have long argued the animals’ purpose: is it to provide companionship, safety, food, or are they simply to be used as a means to an end? Perhaps it is, or has been, all of those things, but for hundreds of years people have argued what rights an animal, if any, should be afforded. People have varying opinions on each end of the spectrum, but for the most part society sees fit using animals for our benefit in some way. Even animal rights advocates, who claim to reject all animal use, no matter how humane, find themselves a bit hypocritical when they rescue a puppy and take it home to love it – they are using that animal for companionship, which is, by definition, the use of an animal. However, in order to understand the difference between animal rights and animal welfare, one must first understand the definition of each, and only then see how animal rights and welfare ideals have formulated throughout history from the philosophical beliefs of Kant and Bentham, to the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 in the United States, before being able to apply these concepts to animals in modern day situations such as euthanasia in rescue shelters, use by the military, and the business of puppy mills.

According to the National Association for Biomedical Research (2011), animal rights are based on the philosophical view that animals have similar, or the same rights as humans. Animal welfare, on the other hand, is the desire to implement humane care and use standards for animals in research, testing, teaching, and exhibition. The animal welfare philosophy is different from the animal rights philosophy because it endorses the responsible use of animals to satisfy certain human needs. According to Fur Commission USA (2014), animals provide a plethora of uses to society, from companionship and sport, to providing and sustaining life for people through food, clothing, and medical research. While some insist that having animals caged in a zoo, or using them to test cancer drugs, or hunting them for sport