Should Animals Have the Same Rights as People?

Should Animals Have the Same Rights as People?

Last year Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog, Trouble, setting off a heated courtroom battle. California just passed a proposition that says farm animals must be humanely caged. The legal line between humans and animals is blurring further everyday. When it comes to "animal rights," should your cocker spaniel be entitled to the same freedoms and protections as your kid?

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Regarding Argument
Why Animal Rights Don't Exist
  • reckoner
    saying so doesn't make it true

    "Could animals have guilt, be blamed, feel regret and remorse, or apologize or anything on that order? No, and why so, that was the gist of my thesis: They are not moral agents like us, not even the great apes. "

    The great apes do have many of the emotions that we have. There is absolutely no scientific basis to claim that they do not feel regret or remorse.

    - reckonerUS November 11, 2008 11:45AM

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  • Bob Torres
    A writer living in far upstate New York, Bob Torres is author of Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (AK Press, 2007) and co-author (with... More

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