Animals are people too?

Discuss your reasons for supporting/opposing vivisection, or weigh the pros and cons of the practice. Animals. They are the group of living things that had given us the privilege to be on top of lifes food chain. Animals stand below us in the web of life when it comes to the ability to think, analyse and develop innovative ideas to improve the quality of life. Let truth be told, we are animals too. But what makes us stand out? It is our brains. The human brain has evolved in such a way that we are able to have an advance capability of processing information. We are able to rationalize, express tolerance towards something or someone that opposes our way of thinking, and in certain circumstances, accept new ideas and new ways of thinking. We humans are also capable of so many things, whether big or small. From the string theory in the field of particle physics to the massive, mysterious and mind boggling Universe out there beyond planet Earth, we humans have been driven by passion and curiosity to discover and to conquer an endless understanding of the cosmos. On the other hand, animals dont do that. They dont try to understand why things are the way they are. They just live for survivals sake. Yes, they do have social patterns and their own means of communication, but do they have the ability to ask themselves how sound is created, or why the sky is blue? No, they do not. So does that mean we should treat them different? Does that mean we are allowed to hurt them and shun them? In my point of view, I support the statement that animals should be treated as equally as humans do. According to Matt Ridley, a British scientist, he stated that the unity of life in an empirical fact. The three- letter words of the genetic code are the same in every creature. I feel strongly that this statement should be understood by people of every nation as it reflects how interconnected we humans and animals really are on a microscopic scale. In todays modern society, we have developed a kind of selfishness and greed where we show no concern towards any other living thing but to ourselves. For as long as weve roamed the surface of planet Earth, weve made so much progress and technological advancements as a single human race. From mastering the laws of mathematics to understanding the fundamentals of science, indeed, we have come so far. Yet, when it comes to being kind and compassionate towards animals, we scorn and blindly say that it has nothing to do with us. One solid example can be clearly seen on the streets in the country I call home, Malaysia. Almost anywhere I go to, especially near food vendors and restaurants, there would be stray dogs and cats scavenging for food everywhere. Some of these dogs and cats have young or may even be suffering from an internal or external illness. Non- profit organisations like Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better (MDDB) and the Malaysian Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR) have been doing all they can to give these lives another chance by rescuing and finding homes for them. This group of people are also willing to fork out their money for these animals. But their effort alone certainly hasnt been enough. Why? Because there are more stray animals being neglected everyday than there are people coming forward to rehome them. Saying there are too many strays out there to fend for is only a lame excuse to avoid helping these amazing creations of life. Has the value of life for these animals become so worthless that we view it as something not worth fighting for? I strongly believe that the world will be a better place if everyone started thinking of each other regardless of whether human or animal. When it comes to how we treat animals, its also disappointing to know how heartless we have become. We consume pork, chicken and beef. But have we ever stopped for a moment to think about what they have gone through to come up to our dinner plates? Let me give you and insight to it. Many people might not know, and most likely do not care, that that slice of mouth-watering bacon you put into your mouth belonged to a pig that was violently beaten, kicked, tied up, slashed and chopped into pieces while being alive and breathing. And do you know how it spent its 6 brutal months growing up before being dragged into a slaughter house? It was ripped off its mother at birth, thrown into a confined area with barely enough space to move about, had its ears cut, its teeth pulled off with pliers, and might have never seen sunlight. Its the bitter truth of how the meat producing industry treats these living things, all because of attaining wealth. Another example of inhumane treatment towards animals is the dairy industry. Cows produce milk for the purpose of feeding their young. But this isnt the case for calves born in dairy farms. As young as a day old, they are taken away and fed milk replacers so that we humans can have the milk instead. To keep the cow lactating year round, they are continually kept pregnant, meaning that two or three months after giving birth, they are painfully impregnated again and again for the rest of their short lives. To boost production further, the cows are also injected with bovine growth hormone, which could cause birth defects and even various cancers in humans. The lifespan of a cow is typically around 25 years and can produce milk up to eight or nine years, but because of the cows stressful and unhygienic living conditions, it would become worthless to the dairy industry by five years old, at which time they are sent to slaughter houses. Is this the right way to treat an animal? Imagine being in the shoes of these innocent living creatures, being forcefully fed chemicals and held down. I shudder with even the thought of it. Another reason why I strongly uphold the idea of animals being treated as equally as humans do is because every living creature has the right to embrace life. Our planet isnt made for human life alone. We are given the privilege to have a complex capability of thinking to allow us to constantly develop our lives, improving it and making it better for us. But that doesnt mean that we should put all sense of humanity aside. There is no hope for a civilised society if no rights are given to animals. Its about time we all practice acts of kindness towards other forms of living beings that feel and have emotions too. What is the point of developing cutting edge technology for our benefit when we turn a blind eye on other living creatures that we share this planet with? Weve always had the perception that we are the most superior living beings of all time. Of

course, you can never teach a chicken to talk the way a human being can. But hey, humans cant navigate themselves using the magnetic fields of the planet like the dung beetle can, and neither can we see as many colours as the mantis shrimp can, because a mantis shrimps vision is the most complex of all in the animal kingdom. So in some point, we do not have rights to boast about ourselves and turn our backs on animals. Instead, we must learn to respect and value the lives of the many living things that make up our tree of life. Being compassionate towards animals is not just for sentimental reasons. Its being aware that they too can feel and love just like how we do, knowing that theyre also related to us in ways we cannot see. So before you decide to chase a hungry dog away by spraying it with water, think about what choice it has to appear right in front of you. That stray hungry dog would thank you even for a slice of plain bread that youve offered as food. All humans have love in their hearts. People only become heartless if they were taught to grow up that way, because even the cruellest human being comes from the result of being unloved. Besides, animals literally are people too. They live in a community, they have their forms of social patterns, they all share a similar language which they use for communicating, and they are always looking out for each other. Some clear examples of that can be observed within mammals, like the gorillas and dolphins. Animals of different species have also been observed to help each other. In one recent case published by a page on Facebook entitled Animals Are People Too, there was a deer which decided to watch over a mother goose that was sheltering her eggs in winter. The goose has actually lost her mate and she had to tend her eggs on her own. But somehow, the deer befriended this goose, and it spent its days acting as a guardian to the mother goose. This animal friendship is unusual, as theres no known way on how they can communicate. The reason why I decided to say this is because Im stressing about how these animals can feel and understand each other despite their differences. They have empathy, a value that has become so scarce among the human race, that if it were a gemstone, it would be the most precious of all. It is no doubt that we humans have become the worst threat to all life forms on Earth, all because our greed is a lot greater than our needs. Animals have nervous systems like us too. They can feel pain when they get hurt both physically and mentally. They will scream when their children is taken away from them, they will cry out in fear and agony when theyre afraid or confused, and they will struggle to run away when theyre being held down to be slaughtered. Just because they cant talk the way humans can, that doesnt give us the authority to abuse them. We are given the advantage to be a great civilisation, not a heartless one. So learn to love animals, and treat them with the respect they deserve. All in all, kindness and compassion is a wonderful virtue. Treating animals right is one of the best things you can do to express kindness. Not only do we open our hearts to love unconditionally, but by respecting other living things, we are embracing the unity in the web of life. We should also show our children how to love animals. Because by teaching them to love and protect even the most tiniest and defenceless creatures, it allows them to learn to value another living being despite not sharing the same physical attributes and communication skills, and it is also one of the most valuable life lessons we can pass on to them. Were all literate humans, and we have the power to change the way things are right now. Our society has never been informed by the telecommunications industry about the cruelty behind all these innocent and helpless animals, like pigs and piglets being seared with hot boiling water while being perfectly alive so that their skins can be used to make purses and shoes. Somewhere on this planet right now, an animal is being hurt, crying, or just waiting for their lives to be ended by heartless people who are blind towards the feelings of these anima ls. This isnt the way things should be. Im sure that the only way we can be truly fulfilled is to live by our intention to do no harm and to help alleviate suffering through all we can. So before I end this essay, once again I would want to point out that animals are people too and it is about time they are treated like one. (1,992 words excluding question statement)