Animal Rights and Welfare
A WebQuest by Cheryl Dulin
Introduction
Do you believe that animals have rights? If so, are animal rights equal to human rights? Should animals be used medical research or product safety to improve the quality of human life? What about the use of animals for food, entertainmnet, or even pets? What are the ethical implications? These are a few of the issues you will be investigating in this WebQuest.
There are several different ethical perspectives to take into consideration. The following perspectives are three broad viewpoints that you will be investigating as you go through this WebQuest.
The first view represents the opinion of animal rights activists who consider animals as moral equals to humans based on the fact that animals have emotions and feel pain. Even within this framework there are a wide variety of opinions. Some do not eat animals or animal products such as eggs or honey and will not use even use animal products such as silk, fur, or leather. However, even within these perspectives there are varying degrees of opinions and positions.
The second perspective is what most find to be the traditional view in which animals are given an intermediate status. This is the view most people today accept and do indeed live with, probably without even thinking too much about it. Animals are seen as necessary for food and valued for the products they produce. They are loved as pets and most see nothing inherently wrong with using animals for entertainment such as circuses, zoos, or sporting events. Again, even within this view there are varying degrees of what some believe to be acceptable. For example, one may believe it is immoral to go hunting for sport yet still eat a steak for dinner.
In the third perspective, animals are viewed as objects of utility. Many researchers in science and medicine fall into this perspective. Animals are taken good care of because its the right thing to do and good research requires the animals to be in good condition. However animals are viewed as necessary to complete accurate and safe research for human kinds benefit. Today you would be hard pressed to find any medical procedure or drug that does not involve using animal models first. As a matter of fact, to get FDA approval of a new drug, it must be tested on two separate species for safety and effectiveness before human clinical trials even begin.
Have fun exploring and remember to always keep an open mind! You will be investigating these issues from a variety of perspectives. Then armed with information from both sides, take on a role and defend that position.