The Myth of Animal Rights

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Humans have been breeding animals for centuries, with varying degrees of success and failure, either to please their esthetic sensibilities as with dogs and cats or to make more money from the animals they raise as with cows and pigs. Success varies with the eyes of the beholder. Pigs whose bodies are so heavy that their pelvises break under the strain are probably considered successful by those who profit from them, but they are a disaster by evolutionary standards. Turkeys have been bred with such large breasts to yield more “white meat” when cooked that they are unable to mate in a normal manner so that hens have to be artificially inseminated. Chickens bred for their flesh become so heavy their legs won’t support their weight. Those bred for forced egg-production become so depleted of calcium from pumping out eggs that their cones, particularly in their legs, are weakened, but, as one big producer put it: “You don’t need legs to lay eggs.” The Canadian Animal Research Institute has announced that it is trying to breed animals without legs or feathers. Its American counterparts are unlikely to be far behind. I seem to recall having seen somewhere a photograph of a naked chicken..

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The Myth of Animal Rights

by MacLane Key,
Chairman, UCLA YAF

Animals make good companions, provide an endless source of entertainment, and make excellent research test subjects. They're cute, cuddly, and often quite tasty. While one can truthfully say many wonderful things about animals, one cannot truthfully say that animals have rights. Animals are property to be possessed, cultivated, or disposed of as their human owners see fit.

Rights do not come from being cute, or fuzzy, or particularly likable in any way. Perhaps the best statement on the origin of rights is in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights."

Of course, it's also self-evident that all goldfish are created equal, but are they endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights? To claim that they are, it is necessary to say that a fish's right to life is violated whenever one fish eats another. It's also necessary to say that a dog's right to property is violated whenever one dog grabs a bone from another or whenever a person gives a dog a bone and later takes it away. When considering this, it's self-evident that the notion of animals having rights is absurd.

Why, then, would some people make the absurd claim that animals have rights? The overwhelming majority are well intentioned, good natured individuals. They're animal lovers who don't wish to see animals treated poorly and don't realize they are trampling upon the property rights of their fellow man by advocating the policies they do. Basically, these are the people Stalin called "useful idiots."

Others fall into the "animal rights whackos" category. These people are simply insane. They've made the belief in equality between man and animals a religious tenet that determines for them whether a person is good or bad. These are the people who can, with a straight face, tell you that a shark that has eaten a swimmer deserves a trial before being killed or that they would save two baby apes from a burning building before they would save one baby human being.

Finally, there are those who are so filled with hatred for capitalism that they attack property rights from any angle possible. These communist fellow-travelers use the aforementioned useful idiots' love of animals as a means to advance their anti-freedom, anti-property agenda. YAF stands firmly in the way of this communist agenda. YAF fights to expose the true intentions behind those leading the animal rights movement and to explain to people that as much as we may like animals, they are only property and do not have rights.



Copyright 2000 by Young Americans for Freedom. The opinion expressed does not necessarily represent the views of Young Americans for Freedom.