Animals as Objects

I've been thinking lately about how often animals are regarded as objects; how harsh it was in the past and how much more we could still improve today.

The treatment of animals in the past was very shocking to hear. Listening to Rachel McCrystal talk about dogs used to operate on for "research" really opened my eyes to how cruelly animals were treated. This clearly was a product of Descartes theory that animals are machines, an article that in itself is surprisingly misguided. It is still amazing to me that people thought this way. The idea of carriage horses being used and abused until death is equally mind-boggling to me. These are all instances of humans seeing nonhuman animals as objects for their use. Whether for research or transportation, nonhuman animals were used almost exclusively it seems as tools.

Clearly these stigmas and stereotypes of animals were attacked by people like Bentham, Singer, and Dawkins, among others (I mention these three because of the continuation of the idea of suffering from one writer to the next). Slowly the treatment nonhumans animals has become a concern. But like Rachel was saying, there's still a lot to be done for these animals. I was shocked to hear about Denver's law against owning pit bulls of any kind. This stigma that pit bulls have over their heads seems so unfair and unjust. Pit bulls are still being seen for stereotypical traits which have clearly been put out of proportion. It seems to be that pit bulls are still seen as objects, almost like violent aggressive machines, to play off the Descartes theory.

I've noticed this treatment of animals as objects at the PSPCA as well. There is always that person who only wants to adopt a puppy; this idea that puppies are sweet and adorable and obviously are what to get. In this sense, the puppy is merely serving a function for the person. While they may think the puppy is cute and sweet, the fact that they've closed their minds to getting only a puppy makes them guilty of treating nonhuman animals as objects.

So while us human animals have come a long way in treating nonhuman animals right, there's still a lot more that can be done. In my opinion, there needs to be a focus on changing this mentality of what use an animal can have, into seeing beyond the utilities, connecting with a nonhuman animal, and wanting to adopt it into your family. I feel that changing this mentality is one of the biggest and hardest steps to achieve in the fight for nonhuman animal rights.