My friend Audrey posted this on her blog ( http://audreydanielle9.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-do-you-think.html ) :
"I am working on my research paper right now (Yeah, I know, blogging is very efficient) and I want to know what my readers think. My questions are: Is animal captivity considered slavery and do animals have the same rights as humans? This came up because of PETA. Here is what they have to say: "Slavery is slavery, and it does not depend on the species of the slave any more than it depends on gender, race, or religion," says general counsel to PETA, Jeffrey Kerr. I want YOUR opinion. Is it considered slavery? Here is a link to their blog post about the lawsuit: http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2011/10/25/peta-sues-seaworld-for-violating-orcas-constitutional-rights.aspx"
And my answer :
"I do not believe it is slavery. Humans are above animals. That is how God intended it. Now do we go an torture all the animals and abuse just for fun? No. Animals are God's creation, just like nature, just like humans, and because of that we should respect animals. Also animals in captivity most of the time were born in captivity, and that is the only life they know. If released into the wild, they would not survive. Also in captivity, the animals are fed regularly, cared for, cleaned up after, and loved. Captivity is not slavery, it is an adoptive home."
I address this issue in my new book DON'T FEED THE BOY. Your opinion is pretty much main character Whit's opinion! (There is also a PETA-type character in the book to offer the alternate opinion.)
ReplyDeleteI read in a book recently THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate that zoos are the way humans "make ammends" for the awful things they do to animals, which is an interesting way to look at it.
Slavery is taking a living thing from its home and family and not allowing it to return. Most of the animals in zoos are born in captivity being bred to keep their kind from becoming extinct or they are removed from abusive environments.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you. Don't you think PETA should worry more about the mustangs that has called the western plains their home for hundreds of years? Should they be hunted, killed and captured for slaughter to feed spoiled humans dogs and cats. Why do they worry more about animals that are cared for and forget these beautiful free animals of our heritage? Because mustangs are problems for the ranchers, oil fields and it's too much trouble and expense to six foot fences along interstates instead of four foot. Animals were put here for man... we are their care givers, their keepers. How a human treats an animal show their heart and soul. Some are bad and some are the many shades between black and white.
Am I allowed to reply to a comment? I am responding to the comment that zoos are man's way of 'amending' for the injustices done to animals. It is, I admit, a very intriguing line of thinking. Personally, I would never think to look at it that way, as I do not think animals have the ability to comprehend that injustice is being done to them or that reparation is being paid to them. They suffer, certainly, and they don't like it when they suffer (proof of that is how some people train animals by inflicting pain on them when they do wrong rather than rewarding them when they do something right). But do animals have the extra-temporal viewpoint to be able to understand all this?
ReplyDeleteMeh. Ignore me and my philosophical ramblings...
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
First of all, animals do NOT have the same rights as humans. God tells Adam and Eve to have dominion over the animals setting humans apart as the highest in the zoological chain. Humans were made in the image of God, nothing else was. To say that animals have the same rights as humans would be to make everyone a vegetarian (I don't know about you, but I certainly don't eat other humans!) in short, I think that in this case PETA can go attach itself to board using a threaded nail-like fastener, if you know what i mean.
ReplyDelete