[dissentowner]

Animal rights means recognizing that there is no moral basis, none, for deciding that you have basic rights and that all other animals on the face of the earth, from oysters to chimps, don't. Every creature needs is the right to stay alive, to breathe, to escape unnecessary pain, to shelter, to be free to move about, and to love. As time goes by man has learned from his mistakes. Once rights only belonged to the white man. Everyone else had to fight for theirs or someone else had to fight for them! Institutionalized children used to be used for experiments. So were POW's, gypsies, the elderly, and gay people. Women were thought to be so stupid that allowing them to vote was akin to allowing asses to vote. African American people were thought to be subhuman. People think we can eat and wear and experiment on animals because they think human beings are superior. If I am superior to you does that mean I can kill you for sport or make you dance for me? Were we not taught that might does not always make right? I can make the case that I am superior to a person in a coma or a mentally ######ed person but that does not mean I can skin them and wear them as a fashion accessory or test drain cleaner on them, does it?
Yes, I know, animals are dumb, they can't speak. Does that mean that any dumb individual or group or non communicative being isfair for exploitation?? Should we start making leather furniture out of the hard of hearing or those who can't perform in a spelling bee? If not then that logic fails. It's the same argument the Nazis used to perform hideous on non-Aryan children. They thought Jews were inferior and therefore they could, with complete impunity,cause the Jews pain and suffering and deprive them of life.