Home Frequently Asked Questions The responses presented here are by no means the only answers to common questions. They are intended as suggestions and as a source of ideas when formulating your own responses. We recommend that you do not try to memorize and repeat these, but rather, incorporate them into your own comments. "What do you mean by ‘animal rights’?"
"What is the difference between ‘animal rights’ and ‘animal welfare’?"
Animal welfare theories accept that animals have interests but allow these interests to be traded away as long as there are some human benefits that are thought to justify that sacrifice. Animal rights means that animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation. Animal welfare allows these uses as long as "humane" guidelines are followed. "What rights should animals have?"
"Where do you draw the line?"
The renowned humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, who accomplished so much for both humans and animals in his lifetime, would take time to stoop and move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities an expanded ethic brings with it, he said we each must "live daily from judgment to judgment, deciding each case as it arises, as wisely and mercifully as we can." We can’t stop all suffering, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop any. In today’s world of virtually unlimited choices, there are usually "kinder, gentler" ways for most of us to feed, clothe, entertain, and educate ourselves than by killing animals. | |
|
