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Answering Arguments Against Animal Rights |
| Part XIV -- Argument Ten continued |
We are also proud of our sense of morality. And it's true that individual humans
have demonstrated great depths of feeling and self sacrifice. And I'd like
to think that we're all capable of such things.
But on the other side of the coin...
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...what animal is it that kills other animals just for the fun of it:
when it has no need to eat them?
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What animal systematically kills its own kind in wars over an abstract idea
or to protect its source of oil for its toys?
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What animal knowingly damages its own health...
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...and the health of its unborn offspring -- just to satisfy a craving for
a particular taste sensation?
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What animal is it that deliberately infects other animals with its own diseases --
diseases it already knows how to prevent -- and watches without remorse
as they sicken and die?
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There is no need to answer these questions; merely to ask them is to feel ashamed.
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Charles Darwin, who observed more animals than anyone else probably ever will,
had this to say on the subject:
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals
in their mental faculties. Lower animals manifestly feel pleasure and pain,
happiness and misery.
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Jane Goodall, who has devoted her life to studying chimpanzees in the wild,
points out that 99% of their genetic material is identical to humans. And she writes:
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There are also behavioral, psychological, and emotional similarities
between chimpanzees and humans. Resemblances so striking they raise a serious
ethical question: are we justified in using an animal so close to us --
an animal moreover that is highly endangered in its forest home -- as a
human substitute in medical experimentation?
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