Animal Rights

Is it justified to intentionally injure animals if it will possibly save human lives in the future? The army obviously believes so.

The plan is for soldiers to shoot live pigs and then practice treating their wounds as part of a medical exercise. Apparently, this will enable troops to treat wounded soldiers when there is not a doctor or other medical professional nearby.

Though I can understand the merits of the learning first-hand how to dress a wound, I really don't believe that it is necessary to torture innocent animals to do so.

There's been all sorts of meat substitutes over the years for the vegetarians who can't seem to let go- quorn, tempeh, veggie burgers, veggie hot dogs, etc. But there's nothing like the "real" thing, right?

Apparently, soon there will be. In an extremely controversial move, the animal rights organization PETA has decided that it will pay $1 million to anyone who develops a commercially viable form of vitro meat- meat grown out of a tube.

These "tissue cultures" are suppose to be safer, more nutritious, more humane, and cause less pollution. Obviously, though, one can see where they would cause uneasiness.

Back in 2007, Artist Guillermo Vargas caused a violent outburst of protest on the internet when he used a starving dog off the street as an object of artwork. Apparently, he tied up the emaciated dog, placed bowls of food just out of its reach, and allowed the public to come in and view the slowly dying animal as "art."

In the past few years, a few events have brought more attention to animal rights. These incidents range from the abandonment of pets during Hurricane Katrina and widespread pet food contamination to Michael Vick’s dog-fighting and Oprah’s recent show about puppy mills.