Animal Rights in Medical Research
As the declaration of human right states that all human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights. The issue of whether or not to grant animal rights such as those that humans have is greatly disputed over years, but without success. Animal right is an extremely complicated issue that involves the question of animal intellect, animal rights groups, and the pros and cons of granting animals their rights. I have worked with and observed chimpanzees in early 2000 in a research lab in Alamogordo, NM as an animal caretaker and seen how these primates communicate with each other. I feel this subject is very important and I will be sharing my reflections, thoughts and experiences in this paper. Researchers all over the world, who have studied primates argue that these animals hold the capacity to communicate. The researchers go on to describe that a communication barrier is all that separates humans from animals. Chimpanzees are more superior on using their hand and feet than humans. I observed them using their hand to peel bananas, use hands and feet to swing, open doors and even had a water faucet sticking out of the wall with a button that they pressed to drink water. I also got a chance to see a chimp using sign language. This particular chimp in his early life was on TV and commercials, can walk upright, and was harmless. His owner decided to part ways due to the chimp’s age and turned him over to the research facility. They can also distinguished between different grammatical patterns. They also communicate socially by grooming, which is cleaning dirt, insects, and dried skin from one or another. This was done constantly. In humans, this action is like doing something nice teach other to bond. I once got a glass of water with a straw and watched the chimps drink from the straw. My favorite experience was when I was on a lunch break, I would go into the baby chimp’s cage and interact with them. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is a nonviolent animal rights organization. They implement the ideas that any abuse of animals by humans in biomedical research is wrong and should be condemned. When the research lab was closed for the day, a different employee would be tasked to come back at night and make sure that there were no security breaches either by a chimps getting out or by volunteers from PETA taking picture of the chimp’s wellbeing. During my last weeks in the research facility, coulston, who was the founder of the facility went bankrupt, due to several unethical research violations that were being conducted on the chimpanzees. In an article by R&R, The coulston foundation was responsible for the deaths of 13 monkeys and 35 chimps most during experiments. Allowing the rights of animals such as the ending of medical research, the ending of commercial agriculture, game hunting, and trapping animals would in effect have both positive and negative consequences everywhere. The positive consequences of allowing animal rights would include eliminating cruelty to animals such as chimpanzees and other primate, a greater appreciation of animals, and even a probable decline in the rate at which endangered species, which chimpanzees are on the endangered list, decline in number. These positive consequences would
