Animal rights are granted by us

I would like to thank JC Wilcox for his occasionally enlightening lecture on animals and humanity. However, I fear he lacks full knowledge of what he is talking about. 

Recently, two baby pot-bellied pigs I was planning to raise as pets on our farm escaped their pen. One of our dogs killed them. He didn’t eat them – he just killed them, because it is his nature to do so. This is what animals do to each other, which is also precisely what we do to them. However, non-human animals have no “sentience” regarding this behaviour, and in many cases they don’t eat their victims. 

Our cows and goats are in pens, but the other animals are loose and free to leave. Of course they choose not to, because they are riding the gravy train and don’t want to lose it. They only know what they want, and nothing of what they should offer in return. It is because of this fact that the only “rights” they have are those that we grant them. 

No one has rights simply because they were born. As humans we all belong to a community and we have responsibility to that community. If we fail in that responsibility, we go to jail and lose our rights. Animals do not understand responsibility and hence have no rights, other than those we grant them. 

John Arnone