Should it be illegal to use animals for sports and entertainment?

by Miriam Balducci, June 2014

1200 words

4 pages

essay

Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.”Solomon.Does Solomon’s saying mean that animals have the same right to protect their legitimate interests as humans? I think that it does. Animals are not able to assert a claim that their rights are infringed and they suffer from violence. Indeed, animals cannot demand a lawyer or tell somebody about their problems. It is evident that the relationship between a man and animals has extremely changed for the last 60 years. However, it goes without saying that penalties for cruelty to animals in most countries are ridiculous. Although, modern people call themselves civilized societies, their barbaric use of animals for sports and entertainment brings them back to primitive savages. From the ancient times the problem of man and animals relationships has been a contradictory issue. These relationships differed greatly due to a nation’s customs and traditions. For example, Aristotle stated that animals do not have soul and mind, so people have nothing in common with them. Therefore, Aristotle argued that any justice to these soulless beasts was out of the question. However, ancient Egyptians admired animals correlating them with gods (Dragotta). In fact, prior to the New Age, a man lived in a symbiotic relationship with animals (according to the laws of natural selection). In the Renaissance, people were seized with an anthropocentric fever and megalomania. In the 17th century, the flow of scientific discoveries brought about the scientific revolution, which resulted in mankind’s confidence that we are entitled to everything. This idea was strongly intensified by Rene Descartes’ concept of reflexes. The philosopher developed the theory that only a man has a mind and soul, and everything else in the world is governed by laws of mechanics. It turns out that animals are senseless and stupid clock mechanisms, which move because of their simple reflexes and use heat from the combustion of nutrients. In his work “Meditations on First Philosophy”, Descartes wrote the following: “They [animals] are machines. They do not feel any pleasure or pain” (Dragotta). Descartes’ successor Nicolas Malebranche also thought that animals have no feelings at all. He wrote the following: “[Animals]… eat without pleasure, cry without pain, and grow without knowing it. They do not know anything” (Dragotta). Unfortunately, the medieval society liked this idea and treated animals with cruelty. Of course, today animals have much more rights and are treated far much better than it was just a century ago. However, most nations continue to use animals for sports and entertainment. Adherents of such violent usage say that some kinds of animal sports are closely tied in with traditional culture, such as rodeo in Brazil, bull-fighting in Spain, and camel-fighting in Turkey. Refusing from these kinds of sport leads to taking away an important part of the culture. However, I think that using animals for sports and entertainment is …

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