Monday, March 30, 2009
Animals Have "no interests"
Animals can't have rights because they can't have interests. They can't have interests because they don't have desires and emotions. They can't have desires or emotions because they can't have thoughts required for them. They can't have thoughts because they can't speak. I thought it was interesting to compare animals to senile people and babies because I think it is completely true. Babies have rights and show emotion, but they cannot speak. Senile and handicapped people have rights even though they may not be able to speak or reason. I think that animals do have emotions and desires. When I walk in the door, my dog comes running wagging his tail. When he gets to go on a walk or get a treat he wags his tail too. When dogs wag their tail is means that they are happy or excited. When an animal has been abused, many times they are scared of humans and very cautious of them. This shows fear. Just because animals can't speak words doesn't mean they don't have feelings. Most animals have their own language and way of communicating with each other that we cannot understand. We have a langauge that they may not be able to understand. I think that animals have moral value and are able to have feelings and feel emotion.
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I completely agree with Niki and Midgley because they both share the same response to the position that animals can have no moral status because they have no "interests" in the relevant moral sense - false! Niki points out Frey's reasoning as to why animals cannot have interests, but I disagree for the same reasons as Niki. I too have a dog who shows the same emotions. When I come home he is overly excited, when he gets to go outside and play its the same thing. When 5:30 rolls around, and my dog hasn't yet been fed, he will go to the pantry and scratch at the door indicating to me that he is hungry because he knows it is time to eat. THAT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING!Midgley says a dog owner can begin to see the different emotions (sadness, fright, excitment) based on repeated patterns and situations. So, if an animal can experience these emotions, it must - to some degree- have a sense of what is going on, therefore creating interests for its life.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. We can clearly see the boundary broken with the example of a dog. Dogs show interests and emotions quite often in their everyday lives. Whether it is in scratching at the door to signal they want to go out, our tipping over their empty food bowl to show they are hugry. Either way, interests and emotions are clearly shown.
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