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XUEQING XU

Prof. McClure

Writing 39C/ HCP Proposal

17 April, 2018

In recent years, with the improvement of the quality of life, people’s concern and love for

animals have increased rapidly and they often treat animals as their own relatives. But at the

same time, a lot of people still harm animals and break their habitats. For example, in order not

to affect their daily lives, some people will kill birds or creatures of the same species and drive

away from their habitats around people’s homes. Based on this phenomenon, animals may not

have the great rights to survive. Therefore, the problem of animal rights arises. Problems

concerning the rights of animals are related to everyone in the natural society because the rights

of animals will affect people’s daily lives, such as foods or natural environment. The related

stakeholders of this problem are animals and animals’ lovers. In fact, humans are also animals so

that animals should deserve the equal rights as humans in the natural society. In order not to

make our nature worse, people should stop such things from happening and promptly address

this problem and also give the animals equal rights to protect themselves. Definitely, if this

problem of animals’ rights continues to be ignored, then the world will greatly reduce the

presence of animals and precious species because of people’s abuse and arrest. In this way, this

phenomenon will greatly destroy the ecological balance and make the world worse.

As early as the twentieth centuries, the dramatic decline in wildlife caused the destruction

of the ecological environment. Hence, some researchers began to investigate human impact on

animals and the rights that animals deserve. Until now, only a small number of countries or

projects have paid attention to the issue of animal rights. For example, in 1992, Swiss law
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confirmed that animals were beings rather than things. In 2002, the provisions of animal

protection were written into the constitution. And also, the United States is now seeking the

government to adopt the “universal ape declaration”, founded by Australian scholar Peter Singer,

which calls for an equal community of gorillas, orangutans and two subspecies of chimpanzee.

Now, we should not only strive for the rights to be treated more benevolent for animals, but also

advocate the basic human rights of animals.

I found the key evidence about human harm to animals and their rights on the website.

Thomas Edison electrocuted the elephant Topsy in 1903 because she had squashed three

handlers, one of whom had tried to feed her a lit cigarette. Edison electrocuted other animals as

well, but filmed Topsy's execution for promotional purposes, to demonstrate the superior power

of the electric current he had developed. Even in death, Topsy performed in an advertisement. In

this case, people might think that animals are of no value and then wantonly hurt them. They still

did not notice the importance of animals in the natural world, but also ignore the truth that

animals, like human beings, also do have souls and thoughts. The reason for these injuries is that

the government has not paid much attention to animal rights of protecting themselves. The other

evidence is in people’s daily lives. Nowadays, in order to make good fur coats or leather clothes,

many garment factories will cruelly peel off live raccoons’ skin or other animals and then let

them bleed to death. In the present case, animals do not have to make any contribution to

humanity and the society. At the same time, there is no physically or mentally difference

between humans and animals. Therefore, people should have the obligation to protect animals,

instead of hurting them, and animals should be assigned the equal rights to survive.

Regarding the rights that animals deserve, my research is not yet very mature. Next, I

want to search for articles or readings on how to protect the rights of animals and the
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government’s policies on animals. I will look for the related articles and evidence on the

scientific websites or in the library.