"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
Do Animals Have Rights?
"Maybe it is not so much that animals have rights, as that we have duties toward them. And maybe the distinction between those two things is meaningless in practice. If your dog gets hit by a car, you must see that it gets proper medical attention. That much is perfectly clear—even if the ultimate reason is not."
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Oh, groan! Someone should 'splain to A. Barton Hinkle what "a right" is. It is "a just claim".
The idea of rights naturally suggest the correlative one of wrongs; for every right is capable of being violated. ... And, therefore, while, in a general point of view, the law is intended for the establishment and maintenance of rights, we find it, on closer examination, to be dealing with rights and wrongs. It first fixes the the character and definition of rights, and then, with a view to their effectual security, proceeds to define wrongs, and devise means by which the latter shall be prevented or redressed. ~ Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition (c.1991), page 1612
So, with that understanding, A. Barton Hinkle, the question, inverted, properly becomes, is it "wrong" for animals to try to defend their life, liberty and property?
Reason, once looked upon as libertarian in content, has joined the family of governmentalist advocates of The Beltway. Follow the money. Sam