Major Animal Rights Issues and Controversies

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Animal Testing and Vivisection, Animals in Entertainment, Farm Animals, Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals

Published October 03, 2008 @ 06:02PM PT

The arenas and ways in which animals are exploited and killed by humans are many and varied. Following is an overview of some of the greatest areas of concern as well as a brief look at controversies inside the animal rights movement.

Farmed Animals: Billions Slaughtered
Ten billion land animals are killed in the United States each year for food; 50 billion are killed worldwide. The majority of these animals live in hellish conditions, and they die in no less cruel fashion. They are crammed into trucks and transported in all extremes of weather, with no food or water, to slaughterhouses that are sometimes hundreds of miles and several days away. Those who survive the trip are dragged inside, where they witness the brutal killings of the animals before them in line. Chickens and pigs are often dumped into scalding water while still alive and conscious, and some cows suffer the horror of being conscious when their skin is pulled off and their limbs chopped off. Undercover videos show wide-eyed cows and pigs hanging upside down by their hind legs, flailing wildly as their throats are slit.

But faced with these truths, representatives of animal agriculture, easily a $100 billion industry with much clout and many friends in Washington, argue that its “efficient” industrial practices are warranted—even mandated—by consumers’ demand for meat, dairy, and eggs, in large quantities and for cheap. The Humane Slaughter Act, passed in 1958 with the intention of ensuring quick death with little pain, is clearly not enforced and does not even apply to chickens, turkeys, and other birds. Animals raised under supposedly humane standards go to these same slaughterhouses.

Animal-Based Research
Dogs, cats, primates, rabbits, mice, and other sentient beings are used in excruciating product testing (e.g., cosmetics, cleaners, and pesticides) and medical research. Huntingdon Life Sciences, for example, one of the largest animal research labs in the world, tests on approximately 75,000 animals per year and kills hundreds each day for product testing. Undercover operations have documented cruelty and sadistic torturing inside various labs.

Supporters of experimentation on animals argue that

it is a necessary evil that offers the best opportunity for testing the safety and efficacy of products and treatments. But it has been shown that the animal model is, for various reasons, not the most reliable form of medical research or product testing, and viable alternatives require no torture and killing of animals.

Animals Used in Entertainment
Calves and horses, who are electrically shocked and tormented in the chute so that they will run out looking “wild,” exhibit extreme fear and pain while rodeo audiences laugh and cheer, desensitized to the displays of cruelty in front of them. Greyhounds and horses forced to race suffer debilitating injuries; are kept in unhealthy, cramped environments; are provided substandard food; and are killed when they do not perform up to standards. Circus animals are kept in completely inadequate and unnatural conditions, and they perform unnatural stunts not for fun, but out of fear; their training is often brutal and terrifying. Rodeos, circuses, and animal racing continue to exist only because people continue to patronize them in the name of “family entertainment” and tradition; if humans learn the cruel truths and end the their financial support, the institutions will disappear.

Zoos too provide inadequate habitats and are rife with problems. Although zoos are often lauded for educational value or conservation efforts, evidence shows that overall, they do little to contribute to either conservation or reintroduction and that entertainment rather than education remains the primary reason for, and result of, people’s visits. In the meantime, captive animals large and small suffer in the world’s thousands of zoos, aquariums, and theme parks.

Decimation of Habitats and Slaughter of Wildlife
Most threatened, endangered, or extinct species have fallen into these categories because of habitat loss, most of which has been caused by human actions, whether as a result of deliberate destruction of the animals’ habitats, pollution that makes their homes untenable, or other human behaviors. Another outrage is the en masse slaughter of wild animals, with governmental blessing and involvement, on behalf of cattle ranchers, to create grazing lands or to “protect” livestock (the actual threats are debatable), and on behalf of hunters, when they feel that natural predators are killing too many of the animals that the hunters want to kill. In another setting entirely, widespread pollution and rampant overfishing are causing sharp decline and die-off in many ocean species.

Tactics for Reform and Change
Strategies for helping animals vary, and what works best on a given occasion depends on issue, audience, and goal. Animal rights activism includes direct action, legislative efforts, and educational outreach. Direct actions can range from protesting animal-abusing businesses to filming undercover footage of abuses to rescuing animals and taking them to safety.

Some groups and individual activists employ methods of exposing the treatment and view of animals that engender debate. These methods—which include sexualized images of women for publicity, protests outside animal abusers’ homes, and the intentional destruction of property for the sake of intimidation—continue to be debated in public forums as well as within the movement.

Activists have differing opinions on the issue of welfare reforms as well. One camp believes that pushing for incremental changes helps the animals in the present, until more sweeping long-term changes and liberation can be achieved, whereas the abolitionist perspective is that these reforms do little if anything to ease the suffering of the animals, while further reinforcing the status of animals as property and helping humans to feel less guilty about consuming and exploiting animals, even when the animals are still suffering immensely.