In the essay The Rights of Animals, the essayist Brigid Brophy wittily argues one of her favorite causes-the responsibility of the human beings to behave decently towards the animals. She asserts that our relationship to animals is one of ‘unremitting exploitation’ and argues that we ate under obligation to respect their rights and spare them pain and terror.
Summary of the essay The Rights of Animals by Brigid Brophy
Brigid Brophy says that our relationship with
animals is continuous exploitation. She wants to preserve and protect the right
of animals. She does not want us to kill animals and experiment with them for
our selfish happiness.
According to
her, people should treat animals as they treat humans. She says that we must
not kill animals brutally. We even should not kill violent animals but should
preserve them. Animals also feel pain like human beings. Animals also have a
soul like us. People should not tame animals to eat.
According to
her, many hygienic foods help people to be strong and energetic. Animals should
not keep in a circus, instead of doing so, jobless people should be given a
physical train of art so that they would involve in productive work.
To sum up,
like human beings, animals also have equal rights to live with complete
freedom. It is also their home. So, she wants to outlawed killing and making
prisons for animals for our happiness. We should think that they have also
hearts and souls. Animals are used in the clinical trial. She says that for a
clinical trial, we should not kill a large number of animals.
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Frequently asked questions from The Rights of Animals by Brigid Brophy
1. What practices would Brophy like to see outlawed in England?
What would you like to see outlawed in Nepal?
Ans: Killing animal practices Brophy would like to see
outlawed in England. I would like to see in Nepal that in place of killing and
eating animals, people should eat fruit and vegetable. If anybody kills
animals, they should be punished strictly.
2. What emotional reactions does she hope to evoke from her
readers?
Ans: She hopes to evoke from her readers that we and
animals are similar. Like us, they have also hearts and souls.
3. Do you think some members of her audience might have
reservations about the writer's proposals?
Ans: I think that some members of her audience do not
accept her ideas thinking that they are superior beings and animals are lowly
creatures.
4. What is the main idea of the article?
Ans: The main idea of the article is that we are also
animals. So we should respect animals. They also have the right to survive on
the earth
5. Why should human beings treat animals with more respect?
Ans: Human beings should treat animals with more respect
because they have also souls and feel pain like us.
6. How does the writer go about getting her readers to put
themselves in the place of animals?
Ans: The writer goes about getting her readers to put
themselves in the place of animals by mentioning that they have also souls, and
feel pain and agony. They have also sense organs to see, feel and touch
7. How would you as a reader response to this essay?
Ans: I am a vegetarian. Like Brophy, I also think that
animals can feel pain and agony. They breathe as we breathe. They have also the
soul. Like us, they have also the right to survive on the earth. It is also
their home. They should not use in a circus as a matter of taking fun. We
should respect them thinking that we are also animals. For a clinical trial of
medicine, we should not kill a large number of animals.
8. What is the other side of the issue? How would you argue against
agreeing with the writer's arguments? What do you think are the incorrect
assumptions the writer has made?
Ans: I think that she has made an incorrect assumption
saying that we are also animals. She tries to make us as equal as an animal. I
do not believe that we are animals because we can think and have a creative
minds. We not only kill the animal but also become a savior of the animals. We
tame cats, and dogs and give better life but they cannot tame us. We respect
cows and feed them. In this regard, we are not similar to an animal.
9. There was a practice of killing street dogs by the Kathmandu
Municipality in the past. Now they have stopped doing it. Do you think the old
practice was right? Why? Why not?
Ans: As a humanist, I think that the old practice of
killing street dogs is not good. In the past, they were killed in massive
numbers especially in Kathmandu city thinking that they can go mad and bite us.
As a result, they transmit rabies. Instead of thinking of rabies, at that time,
it would have been better to provide rabies vaccines to them. Street dogs are
not as dangerous as cobra because if they get vaccines they will not harm us.