Human or Animal Rights: Which is Important?

Vociferous activism of these days actually stems from two sources: abuse of animals and humans. While man is also known to be an ‘animal’ yet these two volatile issues are often segregated by the nature of the cause itself.

Yet there’s no doubt that either of these causes trumps the other, in terms of importance. If someone gave you the option of stopping child abuse or even preventing the killing of ‘minke’ whales that Norway seems to be flouting at the moment, which one would you choose?

That’s a difficult question to answer, right?

And perhaps there is a greater truth to the fact that our lives as humans are so uncannily intertwined with animals and plants, and it is this interconnectedness that can only cause one to assume that when one group of people suffer (say in war or even poverty), the other group (animals) also suffer as a result. What this should tell you is that even though we humans have given ourselves this uber-species status, the fact is that we cannot thrive or even survive without these animals.

And in understanding, we would also understand that the delicate ecological balance that has been put in place by nature demands that we not only be kind to our own species but also to other species that are not as “gifted” as we are, in terms of evolution.

As unrealistic as this seems to be, the goal to both achieving human and animal rights can only be obtained only if both these issues are handled with the same importance.