I’ve teamed up with both Defenders of Wildlife and the Compassion Over Killing groups and thus I’ve been doing a bit of letter writing, so I figured I could post them here along with their response (if there is any). I could also forward Defenders of Wildlife news to you guys (although if you want, it would be easier to subscribe trough email to their free newsletter). So, anyway … I read this article online called “Do chickens have feelings too?” (you can read it here: http://www.macalester.edu/weekly/022103/opinion1.html) and the following is the response I wrote:
“Hello, I read your article titled “Do chickens have feelings too?” and had a few comments to make. I recently wrote a short essay on the emotions of animals called “Do animals have feelings?” which , if you are interested, you may find at https://harmless4life.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/do-animals-have-feelings/. To sum up the essay we can hardly prove human emotions/souls absolutely, however there is reason to believe animals posses the emotional capabilities around or even above human beings. Other than observations of animals like dogs (who display extreme loyalty), elephants (who have been known to show recondition and grief in relation to other elephants) and primates (which are virtually a step away from humans), scientific evidence to support the theory exists. There is a part of the brain called the amydala which is believed to be involved in emotional responses. Birds have amydalas (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6SYT-4FMBHTT-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=981561cbbdd19f0e95d33a6f74392f24).
Chickens specifically are even kept as pets and have enough cognitive ability to be trained just as dogs are ( see http://www.upc-online.org/thinking/index.html or more specifically http://www.upc-online.org/thinking/71707buffalo.html).
Whether or not you believe in animal emotions, it is proven that they experience pain. The treatment they receive in factory farms, whether emotionally distressing or not, causes them extreme physical pain.
I am fairly certain that it would still be considered cruel to physically abuse a human being who is mentally handicapped or even severely brain damaged if they could still feel pain.
“Chickens are near copies of digital pets in the way of intelligence and feelings, but humans do not protect the rights of machines,” I am not certain how living beings that experience pain and probably emotions are the same as machines.
I cannot speak for PETA or other animal rights groups methods, but do not judge the cause on who believes in it. For example, while people love to mention that Hitler was a vegetarian, keep in mind, so was Gandhi.
Consider the civil rights movement and women’s suffrage when thinking of animal rights. Is it not better to give a being too many rights than to give them to few?
– Monica”
Do you think that was ok? I do my best to not sound like a crazed radical as people offten seem to come off as when talking about this kind of issue. I hope the web URLs weren’t tacky … I’m a tad critical of the things I write (*cough**cough* – as you can tell) … comments are appreciated …
Living Harmlessly 