REACTION ON
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF ANIMAL RIGHTS

 

Received: Sunday 18 August 2002 3:38

Hi Friends:
There's a wonderful Universal Declaration of Animal Rights in this great site: www.actionagainstpoisoning.com, among many other useful and valuable pages.

But there are certain Articles in the Declaration that still don't address the entire plight of the animals. I'm listing them below with my comments, which are given ONLY in the spirit of cooperation and as a one person's opinion, and not to criticize such wonderful work:

Article 1
All animals are born equal and they have the same rights to existence.
COMMENT: Existence is what they have now. They should have the same rights to a LIFE.

Article 7
Working animals must only work for a limited period and must not be worked to exhaustion. They must have adequate food and rest.
COMMENT: Animals should NOT be made to work - they cannot choose their careers or jobs, they cannot receive payment...(no, food and "love" is not sufficient), they cannot choose location, they cannot complain if they're exploited, and what if they don't like a particular job? They didn't ask to be snatched away from their natural habitats, family, friends (where they are quite self-sufficient thank you), and brought to cities to be enslaved and change their ways to satisfy the humans, etc. The slave-holders will simply start calling their slavery - "work" instead of its proper way: SLAVERY! There are many more reasons for not making animals work.

Article 8
a) Experiments on animals that cause physical and mental pain, are incompatible with animal rights, even if it is for medical, scientific, commercial or any other kind of experiment.
COMMENT: Experiments ALWAYS cause pain and discomfort, both physical and mental; the mere smell of medication at a vet makes an animal tremble withs or not. ANY and ALL use of animals in ANY KIND OF experimentation should be banned for ever!

Article 9
In the eventuality of an animal bred for food, it must be fed, managed, transported and killed without it being in fear or pain.
COMMENT: The present factory farming that murders BILLIONS of animals per year, is not an eventuality. It's a year-in/year-out project. I don't understand why this word? And here, as in vivisection/experimentation, it should be made clear that it goes against nature (for humans) to kill and eat living beings. (actually, I consider it cannibalism).

I realize that they may have written the Articles in that particular way so that the Declaration wouldn't appear too demanding. But, hey, we've gotten victories for the animals we never ever dreamed of, simply because we were asking for a lot more than we all thought possible to get! So why not continue to be "demanding" even if our demands are met only a little at a time?

Just one more comment on animals killed for food and in laboratories. It is both outrageous and pitiful that many rescuers, activists, and others scream that it is such a sin to euthanize an animal that has such little chance of getting a decent home, and don't mind that the little animal's emotions are shot by being sent from one "home" to another several times...yet they think NOTHING OF NOT EUTHANIZING, BUT MURDERING, BILLIONS OF ANIMALS AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND MILLIONS AT THE LABORATORIES - EACH YEAR!!!

Adela