WK3 Project

Animal Rights

Name

Institution

Animal Rights

Currently, the world is faced with a myriad of social issues that do not only affect human beings but also animals. Today, animals are faced with cruelty from the very people who are supposed to protect them. Researchers in the medical field are using animals for experimentation while hunters and poachers continue to hunt and kill animals causing the extinction of some species. This necessitated the birth and animal welfare movement to create scientific awareness of the suffering of animals (Sinclair & Philips, 2018). Just like other social justice movements, the current animal liberation movements focus on eliminating institutional and systematic oppression of animals. Several animals spend a significant part of their life standing on concrete floors while others are confined in crowded places with total disregard for their welfare. Animals too have feelings just like human beings. This paper provides a comprehensive view of animal rights as a social problem.

Problem Statement

Despite animals having rights just like human beings, it is unfortunate that medical research continues to use animals for experimentation ignoring the fact that doing so subjects animals to immense suffering especially when parts of their bodies are mutilated for experimentation. It is imperative that animal testing is put to a halt to avoid causing harm to different species of animals.

Symptoms of Animal Experimentation

Every year, thousands of animals are taken to laboratories for experimentation. This causes them to be tortured and killed under harsh circumstances because researchers want to experience amusements in medical breakthroughs they make. There are several symptoms associated with animal experimentation. For example, some animal parts are often unnoticed on animals being experimented. Some animals appear dizzy and immobile due to chemicals used to immobilize or disable them. Elsewhere, animals in the laboratories do not only suffer from the pain they experience. They equally suffer from stress caused by living in harsh conditions.

Existing Conflicts about Animal Experimentation

In animal testing or experimentation, ethical issues are often contested. There is often a contest on whether it is right to inflict avoidable harm or pain on members of a particular species in order to secure the benefit of other species (Garner, Lyons & Roberts, 2016). On the other hand, medical researchers assert that they only use animals as the last option because they cannot experiment using human beings. Regardless of the benefits of animal experimentation in the medical field that include a better quality of life, Animal experimentation is a social problem that has forced animal rights crusaders to consider it unnecessary and cruel to animals.

Potential Ethical Dilemma

Animal experimentation or testing is surrounded by several ethical dilemmas. One of the ethical dilemmas is experimenting with animals to develop pharmaceutical products to save lives and improve the quality of life while destroying different species of animals. An experiment that improves the quality of life of human beings while destroying animals should be reconsidered.

How the Social Problem has Developed

Animal testing as a social problem has developed from simple experimentation using animals to industrial experimentation where thousands of species are taken to laboratories and used for medical research with total disregard of their welfare (Garner et al., 2016). The desire to develop potential forms of treatment is among the chief reasons behind animal testing.

Why it is Important to Investigate the Social Issue

Several reasons make it necessary to investigate animal testing. For example, the need to protect animals from cruelty makes it interesting to study the issue. Each year, thousands of animals are pushed into laboratories for medical research and several of them do not make it. Some are left with permanent scars on their bodies.

References

Garner, R., Lyons, D., & Roberts, A. (2016). How to protect animal welfare. CASJ Policy Research Briefing.

Sinclair, M., & Philips, C. J. C. (2018). International Animal protection society leadership: The right people for the right issues. MPDI, 8(89), doi: 10.3390/ani8060089.