: : WHERE do animals get rights? They were provided for our use, pleasure, and food. Pardon the vernacular, but they ain't got no rights?: I know you mean, God gave us animals to do with as we wish. I hate your God, Gotch.
: Where do you think you get rights from, eh? WE give them to you, we, your fellow human beings, and we'll damn well take them away from you if we feel like it. The Romans nailed Jesus to a cross because they believed he did not have the right to be free from torture. Whites decided to not to grant rights to blacks, and then after an immense struggle, decided to grant them after all. It's all human affairs, Gotch, and if we humans decide to grant animals the rights to be free from torture and other harm, then those animals will have rights, despite what you say your particular brand of God declares. I'm not a Christian, but I firmly believe that Jesus would never have condoned the abuse of animals and then were he alive today (sound familiar?), he'd be a sign-waving, non-leather wearing, tofu-eating in your goddamned face animal rights militant, and you know what, he'd face the same sort of ridicule today for that principled stance as he did 2000 years ago when the Romans mocked him for preaching compassion and mercy to one's fellow man (or for that matter, as anti-slavers faced from bible thumping slaveholders who cited their Book as justification for whipping that black boy into submission).
Sorry, I don't picture Christ that way?
But back to the animals: If animals have rights just because WE give them to them, then WE can take them away. And WE can also take them away from you. And YOU can also take them away from me. In either case, we'd be just like Hitler, Stalin, etc., who took the power upon themselves to determine what rights others did or did not have -- in many cases often deciding that Jew didn't even have the right to life, let alone liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And which animals? Sure, deer are cute and kittens are cuddly, but what about spiders or cockroaches? Do they have a right to live where you live (not in my house, they don't). Do they have a right to be free from the threat of Raid? Again, not in my house, they don't. Flies don't have the right to mess in my soup, either.
No, I'm not talking about animal cruelty. I enjoy our pet dog and our pet cat, and I didn't mis-treat the animals on the farm, either. But I do eat at McDonalds, Burger King, and the steak house.
