Animal Rights Essay: Why Are Animals Have Rights?

Molly is homeless and she hasn’t eaten in over a week. She is hungry, tired, and thirsty. She wanders the streets daily wondering if she’ll ever have a home and family members. Molly is bruised and beaten to the bone with a limp that she cannot get rid of. While this may seem like the plight of an extremely poor individual, Molly is actually not a human at all. She is a labrador retriever. Every year, over seven million animals enter shelters. That number does not account for those animals who are left to survive on the streets. Even worse, the number of animal abuse cases seems to constantly fluctuate. On average, there are about two thousand cases a year. The numbers never seem to improve either. As shown in the chart, since 2000, the numbers vary greatly. 2006 was a year with the most …show more content…
The question that needs to be answered is, do animals have rights? Are people protecting the animals? Are any changes being made? Truthfully, the answer is a boldfaced no.
Currently, there are laws in place protecting animals. For example, the Animal Welfare Act is in place, but isn’t always followed. Even more so these laws do contain massive amounts of loopholes that cannot seem to be patched up. There has been numerous cases in the recent years that have caught the public eye, yet nothing seems to change. From well known celebrities to repeat offenders, the animal rights violations continue. One might wonder how one can be so cruel to animals when these creatures share so many similarities to the human race.
Many efforts have been made but their effects go unnoticed. In the US there are many groups of activists that fight for these animals. The problem is the issues are stronger than the efforts. It takes much more than what many are putting forward to see a change. More support is needed. The government needs to create stricter animal rights laws in order to protect animals from inhumane