No reasonable person condones gratuitous cruelty to animals. Surely the line is drawn when one attempts to equate animals and humans?
A media report of February 9, 2016, told of placard-waving protesters demanding justice for an maltreated dog. This, based on the belief that "the mind of a dog is roughly equivalent to that of a child of two or three years of age."
Such loathsome comparisons are the work of Peter Singer. The Princeton professor claims that highly aware animals, such as the chimp, are owed more respect and protection than mentally-challenged humans.
One of Singer's followers proclaims, "We are seeking to break the species barrier." There is no barrier, just a measureless chasm between humans and animals, no matter what tricks the animal can perform or how debased the human behaviour.
Animals are deserving of limited protection with no equivalence to humans at any age or in any condition.
Peter Singer's heart must be broken today.
To the professor's chagrin, a New York appeals court recently ruled that chimpanzees do not have legal rights. The court rejected the contention that chimps are worthy of a writ of habeas corpus, as animal activists demanded.
There is no legal precedent for the animals to be considered people, the court ruled. They do not have the capacity to be held legally accountable for their actions.
Sorry, Professor Singer, common sense occasionally holds sway, even for an off-the-rails philosopher.
There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by some philosopher -- Cicero
Peter Singer's heart must be broken today.
To the professor's chagrin, a New York appeals court recently ruled that chimpanzees do not have legal rights. The court rejected the contention that chimps are worthy of a writ of habeas corpus, as animal activists demanded.
There is no legal precedent for the animals to be considered people, the court ruled. They do not have the capacity to be held legally accountable for their actions.
Sorry, Professor Singer, common sense occasionally holds sway, even for an off-the-rails philosopher.
There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by some philosopher -- Cicero
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