Worksheet

(Critical Reading & Writing)

Directions:
Evaluate the argument presented in the following brief essay by using
a four-step critical reading strategy: Skim, Reflect, Read, and
Evaluate. Write down your judgment and support it thoroughly.
Each year hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in research
experiments. These include not only rats and mice, but also rabbits,
monkeys, dogs, cats, and birds. The deaths are considered justified
because the research is necessary to save human lives. But this reasoning
reflects a complete disregard of animals rights.
Animals rights? The idea may seem strange if youve never heard
it before. But it is not a new idea. Eighteenth- century French philosopher
Voltaire reasoned that because animals have feelings and can understand,
at least in a primitive way, they therefore have rights. Albert Schweitzer,
the famous jungle doctor and humanitarian, believed that reverence for
life applied not just to humans, but to all living creatures.
Dr. Thomas Regan, professor of philosophy at North Carolina State
University, argued persuasively for such rights in his book Animal Rights
and Human Obligations. He believes that people resist the idea that
animals have rights largely because they think of the world as belonging
exclusively to humans. They see dogs and cats and even more exotic
animals like dolphins and apes as objects rather than creatures, as things
to be owed and used. He concludes that its not crazy to believe, as some
Eastern cultures do, that animals have rights. Our aim is to break some
standard patterns of though about animals that are held in Western
society.
A number of people have spoken out on this issue. For example, the
group that organized a petition-signing drive in Ann Arbor to save the
lives of six gorillas scheduled to be used (and probably maimed or killed)
in a University of Michigan automobile accident research project. And
the man in Honolulu who freed two dolphins from a University of Hawaii
laboratory where, though they were not being harmed, they were
wrongfully imprisoned. Such people may be scored and derided as
fanatics today, but they will one day be regarded as heroes.
Such praiseworthy actions, unfortunately, are too limited to make
much of a difference. What is desperately needed is legislation that will
grant animals exactly the same rights that humans enjoy, and that will
prohibit the use of any animal in any research experiment that will cause
it suffering, regardless of the supposed value of the research. All sensitive
and caring people will support such legislation and urge their legislators
to enact it without delay.