Do Animals Have Rights?

             Throughout time, animals have been used by humans in several capacities: faithful companions, hard labor, food, transportation, product testing and medical experimentation. We as humans view animals as existing only to serve us as a means to an end. Sure humans look at animals and think they are cute and cuddly and even take up animals as pets and treat them as members of their own family, but in the end, we tend to look at animals as being put on this earth to serve our needs when need be. But, do we have a certain obligation to treat animals as more than just a means to an end? Do animals have certain unalienable rights that humans have been denying them after all these years? There are many people that believe that animals do have rights and that we should treat them in a humane way, just as we are expected to treat other humans. Others, like Immanuel Kant, believes that we have no direct duties to animals, meaning they should be treated as a means only, but that our duty to animals is an indirect duty towards the whole of humanity.
             Kant takes up the position that our duties towards animals are indirect duties towards humanity. In his analysis, Kant says it's okay to ask, "Why do animals exist?" But to ask, "Why does man exist?" is a foolish question. He believes that animals are not self-conscious beings and cannot reason, therefore, contributing to the fact that they should treated only as a means to an end. Kant believes that animal nature is analogous to human nature and that by doing our duties to animals in respect to human nature then we are indirectly dealing with mankind. To prove his point, Kant points to an example of a dog and his master. He says that if the dog has been a loyal servant to his master, but has since grown too old to be of any use, then, like a human remaining faithful to his employer, the master should reward the dog by keeping him until he dies. On the other han...

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Do Animals Have Rights?. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 09:22, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/11246.html