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Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday was yesterday, understood that animal rights and human rights are linked. “Rights” are about protecting interests. And while animals may not have all of the same interests that we humans do, they (like us) do have important interests in preserving their own lives, and in avoiding pain and suffering. When we treat similar interests differently based on morally irrelevant criteria (be it race, gender, species or other such criterion), it leads to injustices that violate the interests of the victim (or group). The rational behind human rights is no different than the rational behind animal rights. All humans have certain important interests that we have decided to protect with “rights”. Nonhuman animals, because they are sentient, self-aware and value their own lives, share some of these same interests. And similar interests require similar consideration. Moral consistency requires that we cannot be in favor of human rights but not animal rights (or vice versa). The two are logically inseparable. In addition, it’s worth noting that producing animal foods is also one of the leading causes of world hunger. This is because raising animals for food is enormously resource-intensive (requiring much more land, water and other resources than would be the case for growing plant foods for direct human consumption). For every pound of crops grown and fed to livestock, only a mere fraction is “recovered” in the form of edible animal food products. In this way, producing animal foods is a form of overconsumption that results in less available global calories for humans, and drives up the price of basic food staples that poorer countries desperately need. This seriously undermines efforts to adequately address the nearly one billion people in the world today who suffer from chronic hunger. Please recognize the connection between animal rights and human rights, and go vegan — both to withdrawal your participation from the unjust violation of nonhuman animals’ most fundamental interests, and to help fellow humans as well. |