Animal rights

Thank you for challenging me for a debate" I kindly accept the challenge. I am for animal rights and thus certain rights must be granted to them. I have two main factors supporting my cause: 1) Animals in some ways are like humans, and humans are like animals too. 2) Animal testing is cruel. 3) Animals aren"t just properties. 1. Animals and Humans are like each other. Personifications (Humanising Animals) may not be specifically true but they do make sense. ALL animals and humans show nutrition, excretion, respiration, reproduction, movement, sensibility and growth. These are "7 characteristics of life" according to biology and common sense, NOT just some lies invented by society. Animals do feel pain and some have emotions and are conscious. If they don"t have these then there is no point of them surviving and thriving, thus no "tools" for you. Animals are aware of each other"s existence. All social animals have means of communication, some make noises and others use body language. For example, Bees are social insects and considered as one of the smartest arthropods. Bees both make buzzing noises and body language. One famous example is the dance they made to indicate the distance of the food. A round dance indicates that food is less than 1 km from the hive while a waggle dance indicates the food is more than 1 km. The distance depends on the waggle duration. (1 second of waggling indicates every 1 km). Primates are biologically like humans and the two"s DNA are similar. Primates and some other animals are caring parents, just like humans. Animals are living. They have souls, and they were created (by God, mother nature, science or whatever you believe in) to have life. A life is a life, and they must be cherished. They aren"t our properties just because we are the dominant living creatures, and thus we have no rights to exploit or take away an animal"s life unnecessarily. It"s no more different than torture or murder, and it"s only up to our creators (God or Mother Nature) to decide their fate. Its not human"s decision as we were created to have life. Just because their way of life is so bizarre and not the human way, its not the excuse for unnecessary exploitation. Con said, "Animals are not conscious"" Can you really prove that? Some animals show signs of awareness and some don"t. Social animals are already aware of each other; they play and interact with each other. Some solitary animals are aware of potential predators (frilled lizards flaring and Bees buzzing) Con said, ". If they need something they will get it with no regards for anyone else they do not believe in anything" This also holds true for humans. If someone desperately needs something, he/she will do whatever it takes to get that thing, with no regards for others. Humans are as greedy as animals are. Con said, "Animals feel pain as an alert by their bodies telling them their existence is being threatened. Torture for them is just making that alert go over and over again. They do not feel pain the way we do at all. Yes they will cry out in a seemingly human way when they are being tortured. This cry serves two purposes: one to appeal to your emotional side and make you stop (it does make you stop a lot of the time doesn't it, it is just a clever trick evolution has given them) and two it is a cry designed to make other come to their help (in a way they are related)." So do Humans. Pain is a stimulus. If it is detected in the human body, the sensory organs will send the message to the brain telling that the existence is being threatened. The brain responds by telling any effectors (muscles, glands) to stay away from the pain source. Animals when threatened, their body releases Adrenaline, which helps them fight the threat or run away from it (fight or flight response). The same thing goes to humans. Again, can you really prove that animals don"t feel pain the way we do at all? Considering the fact that we cannot simply read other animals mind. It is clear that dog do feel pain in the similar way to us. Dogs can feel pain psychologically. If you take away the dog from the owner, which had a very close bond with each other, the dog will cry out. And How? The dog makes their own noise and they become less active. And if you return the dog from the owner, the dog will be happy by wiggling its tail, barking and running around in circles. The cry also serves those two-mentioned purpose when humans are tortured. You try to kill someone weaker than you. They will cry to persuade you to stop and to call for help too. To say that animals are emotionless, unconscious, and not sensitive to human standards is just plain wrong. Once again, can you prove it just by looking at the animal itself? There is no way we can get through their mind, and its not good to conclude the fact just by judging their inferiority. 2. Animals testing is cruel. I don"t believe in animal experimentation that involves chemicals. Not only because it is cruel, It is also becoming expensive and unnecessary and not worth the money. In any type of animal experimentation, animals must be housed, feed, bathed and kept health, expensive maintenance. Sometimes prior to experiments, animals must be in a certain condition like skipping food for a certain period of time. In medicine, animal experimentation is becoming obsolete. It may be mice and apes have almost identical DNA with humans but it still has flaws. A specific virus can infect a human while it is harmless to apes and mice. Or where else, if a virus infects all three organisms, the cure may work on Apes but not on Mice and Humans. A great alternative would be In Vitro Cell and Tissue Cultures. This involves taking a sample tissue from an animal and allowing it to thrive outside the body. I don"t know the exact procedures for these tests so I would suggest you to desk research it. The benefits are easy procedures, more accurate results, shorter time to analyze the results and definitely cheaper than animal testing. And also animals don"t have to undergo the unwanted suffering caused by drugs, cosmetics or whatever chemical is being tested. In Vitro Testing only looks at a cellular level. But this method can coordinate with other alternatives such as computer modeling, micro dosing and simulations to produce a whole-body effect. 3. Animals aren"t just properties. Con said, "Can you steal an animal? Can you buy an animal? Yes well of course. Can you buy a human? No well of course not that was abolished a long time ago. So animals are property by definition." Stealing an animal is equivalent to kidnapping someone. I know we can purchase animals but this doesn"t make them any less than just properties. What"s the difference between an ordinary property (house, wallet, bed, car, books) and an animal property? Well animals show 7 signs of life (see factor 1) and they can feel pain, be emotional and have feelings. How about ordinary properties? All of them can"t feel pain or have feelings. So it is right to do whatever we want to our house or car or bed. But we have no rights to do whatever we want to animals, even if it is our "property". And that doesn"t count slaughtering them for food since we need meat in our body. They are living creatures and they will definitely hate the way humans treat them. Con said, "yes you can own a painting even if it does not do you anything same goes for animals. Yes you can light a painting on fire same goes for animals currently. Until the day comes where animals can rise up and apply for rights then they will be classified as property" Stop comparing animals with ordinary properties. Animals are living; they have life, feelings and emotions. Paintings don"t. SO paintings don"t suffer while animals will suffer unnecessarily. Con said, "Animals can not contribute to society in a meaningful way since they are not conscious like humans and they can not even ration (not to mention have no problem solving abilities or any role in society)." And again, don"t say something which is not yet proven. Some animals show signs of consciousness and some don"t. It has been proven that animals DO have problem solving skills and are able to solve primitive problems. Take the crow and raven as an example. Place either one in a small room, with a long container holding the water and floating food. The crow/ raven shouldn"t be able to reach the food. What they do is they either use displacement method so water level will rise with the food or uses a bent wire in order to grab the food. Animals have no role in society? Animals have multiple purposes in society. They are used as a food source, either a food producer or food itself, a pet for recreation and for understanding biology. If they have no role in society, then what"s the point of learning biology in junior science? Just to clarify, I am not including meat. Meat is something that we eat for thousands of years.