A Discussion On Animal Rights :: essays research papers fc

A raillery on Animal Rights     "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness The Declaration ofIndependence holds these recompenses to be self evident and unalienable. In theeighteenth century when these words were compose they were c eithered natural rights,today we call them human rights" (McShea 34). The issue of whether or not togrant animal rights such as those that humans retain, is a greatly disputedissue. Philosophers, clergyman, and politicians have argued the point of animalrights for years, but without success. Animal right is an extremely intricateissue that involves the question of animal intelligence, animal activist groups,and the pros and cons of granting animals their rights.     Psychologists around the world, who have studied nonhuman primates,argue that these animals possess the qualification to communicate. They go on toexplain that a communication barrier is all that separates humans from animals.If they brid ged that barrier, then humans could talk with animals. Beatrice andRobert Gardner, two psychologists of the University of Nevada, realized that thethroat and larynx of the chimpanzee argon not suited for human speech. Sincechimpanzees are far superior to humans in manual dexterity, the Garners decidedto cause to teach chimpanzees American Sign Language or Ameslan. The Gardners andothers studied these chimpanzees, Washoe, Lucy, and Lana. These tercetchimpanzees learned to use and could display a working vocabulary of nose candy to 200words. They also distinguished between different grammatical patterns andsyntaxes (Sagan 615). similarly distinguishing, the chimpanzees also inventivelyconstructed new words and phrases. For example, when Washoe first saw a duckland on water, she gestured "water bird," which is the same phrase utilize inEnglish. Washoe invented that gesture for the occasion (Sagan 615). Lucy alsodisplayed her creative mind by signing "candy drink" after tasting a watermelon.The verbal description "candy drink" is essentially the same word form as the English"water melon" (Sagan 615).     Another method of bridging the communication opening move between humans andanimals is by estimator. At the Yerkes Regional Primate look into Center inAtlanta, Georgia, researchers teach chimpanzees like Lana a specific computerlanguage called "Yerkish" (Sagan 616). "Yerkish" allows the chimpanzees to talkwith the computer by keyboarding in messages. The computer in turn respondsappropriately. While Lana types, she monitors her sentences on a computerdisplay and erases those sentences with grammatical errors. At one point whileLana typed an intricate sentence, her trainer bad and repeatedlyinterfered with her typing from a separate console. Lana, who had becomeaggravated by this, typed, "Please, Tim, leave room." (Sagan 616).     People for the Ethical Treatme nt of Animals, or PETA, is a nonviolent