REACTION
ON
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION
OF ANIMAL RIGHTS
Received:
Sunday 18 August 2002
Hi
Friends:
There's a wonderful Universal Declaration of Animal Rights in this
great site:
www.actionagainstpoisoning.com,
among many other useful and valuable pages.
But
there are certain Articles in the Declaration that still don't
address the entire plight of the animals. I'm listing them below
with my comments, which are given ONLY in the spirit of cooperation
and as a one person's opinion, and not to criticize such wonderful
work:
Article
1
All animals are born equal and they have the same rights to
existence.
COMMENT: Existence is what they have now. They should have the same
rights to a LIFE.
Article
7
Working animals must only work for a limited period and must not be
worked to exhaustion. They must have adequate food and
rest.
COMMENT: Animals should NOT be made to work - they cannot choose
their careers or jobs, they cannot receive payment...(no, food and
"love" is not sufficient), they cannot choose location, they cannot
complain if they're exploited, and what if they don't like a
particular job? They didn't ask to be snatched away from their
natural habitats, family, friends (where they are quite
self-sufficient thank you), and brought to cities to be enslaved
and change their ways to satisfy the humans, etc. The slave-holders
will simply start calling their slavery - "work" instead of its
proper way: SLAVERY! There are many more reasons for not making
animals work.
Article 8
a) Experiments on animals that cause physical and mental pain, are
incompatible with animal rights, even if it is for medical,
scientific, commercial or any other kind of
experiment.
COMMENT: Experiments ALWAYS cause pain and discomfort, both
physical and mental; the mere smell of medication at a vet makes an
animal tremble withs or not. ANY and ALL use of animals in ANY KIND
OF experimentation should be banned for ever!
Article
9
In the eventuality of an animal bred for food, it must be fed,
managed, transported and killed without it being in fear or
pain.
COMMENT: The present factory farming that murders BILLIONS of
animals per year, is not an eventuality. It's a year-in/year-out
project. I don't understand why this word? And here, as in
vivisection/experimentation, it should be made clear that it goes
against nature (for humans) to kill and eat living beings.
(actually, I consider it cannibalism).
I
realize that they may have written the Articles in that particular
way so that the Declaration wouldn't appear too demanding. But,
hey, we've gotten victories for the animals we never ever dreamed
of, simply because we were asking for a lot more than we all
thought possible to get! So why not continue to be "demanding" even
if our demands are met only a little at a time?
Just
one more comment on animals killed for food and in laboratories. It
is both outrageous and pitiful that many rescuers, activists, and
others scream that it is such a sin to euthanize an animal that has
such little chance of getting a decent home, and don't mind that
the little animal's emotions are shot by being sent from one "home"
to another several times...yet they think NOTHING OF NOT
EUTHANIZING, BUT MURDERING, BILLIONS OF ANIMALS AT THE
SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND MILLIONS AT THE LABORATORIES - EACH
YEAR!!!
Adela