A Question About Animal Rights

Today a Question, Not a Story

Usually Shalzed sends stories of his encounters with world leaders, but today he is just sharing a question. It has to do with the treatment of animals, and by extension our natural environment. You’ll find it below.

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Land Mines

For those who read Shalzed’s last story (you can read it here), in which he tracked down Finland’s Prime Minister to confront him about withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention in order for Finland to bring back land mines, you might be interested in this CNN article from Sunday. It covers most of the issues Shalzed raised.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/11/europe/europe-countries-landmine-ban-russia-intl

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Eden Alexander Release Secured by Trump, Not Human Rights Orgs

The return of Eden Alexander is of course a supreme joy. I just point out that his release was not the result of pressure brought by human rights organizations via their trickle of statements against hostage takings and their tepid demands for the hostages’ release. Rather, it was brought about by Donald Trump, whom human rights groups largely scorn. Also with regard to Israel- when Trump talks Israel’s government at least listens, whereas by now Israel pretty much ignores human rights groups completely. The complete impotence of the human rights establishment in the face of the tremendous crisis in Gaza captures the extent to which these organizations have squandered their moral authority through bias and hypocrisy. This is a topic I speak out about both through Shalzed and my other writing.

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Here’s the Question About Animal Rights

This article details a grotesque episode that recently happened at a chicken raising facility in South Africa, although the same could have happened in most any other country. Hundreds of thousands of chickens were crammed into a barn in what’s called a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation). The company that owned the place went out of business, stopped paying its employees, and suddenly there was no one to feed the chickens.

So the chickens started to die, and the ones that died first were cannabilized by the others. It created a sickening mess for those who finally had to clean up the rotting, picked over chicken carcasses and euthanize the ones that were left alive.

Some company officials may face charges of animal cruelty, but the key enabler of this awful incident is that we view animals as simple commodities, just like tables and chairs. They’re raised however is cheapest, regardless of their suffering, and cared for only as long as there is potential profit. If their company goes under, or no profit anticipated, they rot and starve.

The term ‘human rights’ clearly implies rights for people, not animals. But if we thought of animals, particularly those we raise, as having some rights, such as basic freedom of movement, non-infliction of pain, and food and sustenance, such scenes as the one described here would become less common. And on a broader level, if we considered all animals as having some right to their natural surroundings it would change how we view nature and the earth.

It's not at all clear how we could determine which animals have rights. After all, we’re much more likely to be up in arms about the abuse of chickens we eat or cute giraffes and elephants we see in the zoo than a fly buzzing in our ears or a mouse scampering through our kitchen. It’s also unclear what specifically the rights of animals would be or how they could be enforced.

But the big question remains. Are animals, and for that matter all of nature itself, mere commodities we buy, sell and exploit? Or do animals and nature have rights that must be respected even though they conflict with what we call the human right to development- the right to use natural resources to further the fulfilment of economic human rights such as food, clothing, and shelter.

It’s a difficult question with no clear answer. We don’t want to see people going hungry by prioritizing the rights of chickens over humans, but we also don’t want to see animals suffering or nature destroyed in the name of big business or the free market. What do you think?