Most people agree that it is wrong to cause unnecessary pain to animals. However, we also know that we all suffer pain at some point in our lives. For example, women often suffer great pain when they have babies. For most people, pain is just part of life. For other people, avoiding suffering is the basis of much of their way of thinking. We can see this when they talk about how we should care for animals. These people claim to be for animal rights. At first, it seems that people who want animal rights are good people. They talk about reducing suffering and protecting animals. It is difficult to accuse these people of doing bad things. But that is where their ideas will lead.
I believe that animal rights supporters do not understand the true relationship between animals and humans. All of the common farm animals we see today developed from wild animals, but they changed in ways to better suit living with humans. One example of this is how dogs developed from wolves more than 15,000 years ago. Some dogs developed to help us hunt better. Other dogs, like sheepdogs, help us take care of other animals. These farm animals are no longer able to survive in the wild. If we released them into the wild, most of them would die. They need our protection from bad weather and from wild animals that would kill and eat them. They need us to feed them or else they would die of hunger. These animals give us many benefits, but we have to work hard for them.
However, animal rights people want to change our relationship with animals. These people may talk about how farm animals generate environmental problems. They may say meat is not healthy. But for most, the main problem with keeping animals is the pain and suffering. They believe that keeping animals in cages is the same as keeping criminals in prison. A few believe that keeping pets is the same as keeping slaves. Some say that killing an animal is the same thing as murdering a human being. But if we don’t use these farm animals, there is no reason to keep them. The end result is that they will disappear. If a group’s actions lead to the loss of an animal species, can we consider those people to be good?