Animal Rights: Legal and Ethical Issues

Paper Summary:

This paper briefly discusses the moral and legal issues to do with animal rights in the United States. A short history on the American Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is included in the paper. The author also points out the link between cruelty to animals particularly amongst youths and serial killers. The author singles out Hawaii as the most recent state to adopt stricter criminal penalties for animal cruelty and at the same time, urges other states to progress in their cultural attitude and impose stricter penalties on barbaric torture of animals.

Outline:
Background and History
The Current State of Criminal Legislation and Future Recommendations
References

From the Paper:

"Throughout history, man has used animals for food, for their strength to
accomplish mechanical tasks and for the raw materials for everything from winter clothing to tools and weapons. Man, unfortunately, also has a long history of inhumanity to his fellow man, and of cruelty to animals. In much of the rest of the world, cultural attitudes reflect a continuing insensitivity to animals, working them to death, and hunting them to extinction for decorative ivory and superstitious uses of their ground up bones, or harvesting one part such as by hauling them from the water to slice off their fins before tossing them back into the water to sink to the ocean floor and drown."

Sample of Sources Used:

• The Humane Society of The United States; Press Release: Hawaii Set to Become 43rd State with Felony Animal Cruelty Law (4/13/07). Retrieved from the Human Society of The United States website, at: http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/hawaii_felony_anima l_cruelty.html
• Innes, B. (2007) Serial Killers: The Stories of History's Most Evil Murderers. London: Quercas
• Moussaieff Mason, J., McCarthy, S. (1995) When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals. New York: Bantam.
• Schmalleger, F. (1997) Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

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