According to Ruut Veenhoven, a Dutch researcher on happiness, freedom is the most important factor in seeking happiness. We only realize how important freedom is for us, living in a democracy, when we're about to lose it. Remember the Second World War, the people that have been taken hostage and held captive for years in Lebanon or by the ETA in Spain. Freedom is a basic human right, and this is so obvious, that we easily take it for granted and overlook it.
People just tend to ignore it.
This is an injustice, because ignoring basic rights is immoral, it is also immoral where animals are concerned. In the phrasing of our basic human rights in the constitutions of many countries, freedom is the first and the most important issue. A basic human right is a right that is indisputable. The history of freedom as a basis for our laws dates back to the times long before the birth of Christ. This is also known as the Golden Rule, the center of all human ethics.