Animal Rights

• Ability to make decisions
• Form opinions
• Think about the consequences
• Sence of what is morally right
• Act selflessly to protect others
• Question meaning of life & search for explanations
• Have religious beliefs & values

• They eat, survive and reproduce according to instinct
• Act to protect themselves-e.g. abandoning the weakests 

• Believe animals have dignity & should be free from cruelty & exploitation
• Use protests, marches & demonstrations
• Some groups take more direct approach-violent actions, releasing animals in to the wild, targeting individuals & research facilities 

• WWF- World Wildlife Fund for Nature

• RSPCA- Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
  • They raise awarness through education & advertising 
  • Monitor treatment of animals
  • Started in 1824  by Arthur Broom & other christians in repsonse to animal cruelty
• Islamic Foundation for Ecology & Environmental Sciences
• Quaker Concern of Animals
• Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals

• British Law protects animals from being neglected & being cruel to
• Not all creatures allowed to be kept as pets- rare birds, dangerous dogs
• Testing on animals for medical research of cosmetics is BANNED
• Medical experimentation controlled & regularly inspected
• Fox hunting & dog fighting is ILLEGAL
• Strict monoriting of transporting animals

For

• Better places have breeding programmes-introduce endangered animals back in to the wild
• Educate public about problems of the species facing extinction

Against

• Some animals show evidence of stress (e.g. polar bears stressed in summer temperatures)
• Don't always provide right environment

• Spetember 1986 the six major worl religions met in Italy
• They signed the Ohito Declaration:
  • Religions must recognize need to treat environment with care
  • Sustaining environmental life is a religious responsibility
  • Nature needs to be treate with respect & compassion
  • A higher quality of life is higher standard than higher standard of living
  • Greed is main cause of environmental problems  & pressure on wild animal habitat

• Pets give comfort and companionship
• Can be used for working
  • Elephants used for logging
  • Police dogs
  • Guide dogs for the blind
  • DOgs used as therapeutic help for children with autism, cancer, elderly
  • No religious groups oppose this, as long as animals treated well

• Animals & humans used for medical experimentation

For- animals used to test new drugs & provide vaccines to the diseases

Against- causes the animals to suffer

Genetic Modification-  animls genetically modified (in labratory), to study the effect of genetic diseases

Cloning- e.g. Dolly the sheep

• Many embryos were destroyed in genetic modification & cloning- religious groups not happy about this. 
• Relilgous groups view life is sacred & G.M & C show a disregard for life
• "Thou shalt not kill" 

Blood Sports

• E.g. fox hunting, bull fighting, bird shooting & fishing

For 

• it managed the countryside
• Form of pest control
• Part of our country's heritage & tradition
• Provides food

Against

• It is barbaric, cruel & tortures the animals for mans pleasure
• Islam & christianity-teach animals are scared as part of God's creation, blood sports aren't acceptable

Ivory Trade

• Made illegal by United Nations (UN) in 1989
• Doesn't allow limited trading using ivory from animals that have naturally died or killed due to over population
• Argue this has encouraged poachers-armed gangs used money from poachers to fund wars

Vegetarians/Vegans

For

• Cruel to kill animals 
• Way animals kept- intensive farming practises
• Transport & slaughter of the animals causes them stress 

Against

• Designed to eat meat-teeth and digestive systems can show that
• Meat & vegetabled give us a balanced diet, that our body needs

Fur Trade

For

• Worth 500 million pound to Uk economy a year
• No endangered species used in this trade- British Fur Trade assocciation introduced "origin assured"
• Kill them for food, why not clothing?

Against

• it is cruel
• Don't need to use fur for clothes, have fabrics that are now warmer
• Synthetic fur also looks real

• Animals are part of God's creation & valuable to him.
  • "Are not sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet no one of them is forgotten by God"
• Most christians are meat eaters, as doens't say in the bible can't eat meat. 
  • Although, in creation story- God provided grain & all kinds of fruit to eat 
  • In story of Noah, God said they can eat meat

• "Everything that eats & moves shall be food for you"

• Sancity of Life-life is sacred as given by God
• Responsability- duty, idea that we are in charge of our own actions
• Halal-islamic term meaning allowed
• Haram- Islamic term meaning forbidden
• Extinction- when all animals of a species have died out & will never exist on Earth again
• Factory Farming- when animals are kept for meat & dairy products in very small places
• Vegatarian- people who don't eat meat
• Vegan-  peopel who don't eat/drink any animal products
• Fur Trade- hunting or farming animals for their fur for clothing
• Ivory Trade- sale of ivory from elephant tusks-it is ILLEGAL
• Animal Experimentation- testing on animals to make sure that they are safe for humans to use
• Genetic  Modification- when animals or plants have had their genetic information changed by scientists
• Cloning- animals or plants created as an exact copy of the original (by using originals DNA)