On Animal Rights

I have conflicting opinions on the animal rights lobby. On the one hand, they do serve a valuable purpose in bringing up inhumane treatment, and groups such as the SPCA save many abandoned and mistreated animals every year. Our first puppy came from an SPCA shelter.

However, they do seem to be a little over the top in their quest for animal "rights" at times. PETA's extremism is well-documented, and groups such as Animal Liberation Front are terrorists in their tactics and ideals. They also seem to lack balance. According to the United Kingdom's Daily Mail, animal rights activists would rather see a baby polar bear killed instead of being raised by zoo personnel.

The problem arose when the baby was abandoned by its mother. After the baby bear's brother died, Berlin Zoo personnel intervened, feeding the bear from bottles and making sure it would survive. However, these so-called animal rights activists say that the bear is better off being killed than brought up in such humiliating circumstances. I gather they see being brought up by humans as worse than death. So would these activists also advocate the killing of all domestic pets? This seems to be their argument.

Sometimes these extremists hurt their own position with their far-out views. This is clearly one of those cases. The zoo is doing its best to save the endangered animal, and if these animal rights activists really want to help, they should applaud the zoo's actions. However, it seems they are more interested in making headlines than actually helping the animals.