Animal crackers in my soup.....

Animal rights are something that I have had exposure to over the years. My sister is a vegetarian, and has been for 7 years. She has made the decision to not eat meat because of the cruel treatment of the animals. I was always skeptical about her decision because in my mind meat is great, and it’s also hard to see how one person can make an impact. I was 14 then and a little ignorant, but not I understand why she made that decision. I feel that animals have turned into a commodity. It can be in a more literal sense by trading and selling livestock for slaughter, or it can be something like having wild animals in a compound for tourism purposes. I believe that animals deserve rights, and not just the ones that we deem to be intelligent. The fact that animals can feel pain and have many different emotions means that they have human-like qualities. It is hard to understand why people exploit animals for financial gains when they have characteristics your son or daughter might have. I feel that animals have so much more to offer than to be in a cage to be looked at (for a price), or to be in a Styrofoam container wrapped in plastic wrap in the freezer at your local supermarket. Many times animals are taken advantage of and not given a choice of a future. Even though I enjoy eating meat, I feel that the way animals are treated around the world is wrong, and that they deserve rights, especially the right to prosper.