A Philosophical Appraisal of the Rights Theory to the Killing and Modifying of Animals

Abstract

Barring some exceptions, the mainstream Western  culture has hardly shown any respect to, and  compassion for, the animal kingdom. The religious as  well as secular Western traditions have, on the  contrary, inspired people to use the nature at will, along  with nonhuman animals, in order to satisfy their needs  or choices, be they basic or non-basic. Underlying this  has been anthropocentric speciesism and human  chauvinism. This outlook may be characterized in  Biblical terms as dominionism, which considers nature as limitless store-house of resources for us. This biased  nature of mankind to subdue and exploit nature and  animals by any means possible for economic benefits  has been extended to Animal Agriculture. Many animals  suffer terribly under intensive farming, and this is of no  benefit to the animals in any way. The moral problem  regarding the use of animals as resources and thus  subjecting them to unbearable suffering lies with the  fact that animals are capable of feeling pleasure and  suffer (not merely feeling pain) like humans. From the  perspective of Rights Theory, human-animals have a  moral obligation not to rearnon-human-animals if the  latter’s rights will be violated. From the perspective of  the Rights Theory, this paper argues that animals have  a right not to be killed, not to be made to suffer, through agricultural practices.