Animal Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Animal Rights - Essay Example Which is why for all the valuable things animals could do for mankind, man or at least a great majority of human beings, have thought to also accord animals similar rights as human beings. In the United States, these animal rights are enshrined in a number of laws and statutes that ensure protection to animals and that prosecute individuals who are involved in animal abuse. The Michael Vick Case Michael Vick was a football quarterback playing for Virginia Tech when he was sighted for his prowess in the football field and eventually awarded a crack at the National Football League via the Atlanta Falcons. It was during his stay with the Atlanta Falcons that Vick had the best time in his life as a league contract athlete when he led the Falcons in their bid for the NFC championship against the Philadelphia Eagles. Ironically, it was also during this time that Vick probably had the worst time in his life when it was discovered that he engaged in drugs and professional dog-fighting. While Vick had denied these allegations attributed to him, evidences linking him to the illegal activities had surfaced. In August 2007, Vick admitted to the NFL Commission that he had bankrolled and participated in the dog-fighting operation. He was promptly suspended by the NFL. And sooner after that, following an intense investigation by the FBI, Vick admitted to killing dogs himself, and was sentenced to 23 months in prison and pay a substantial fine for running a â€Å"cruel and inhumane† dog-fighting ring. He spent 21 months in jail and was committed on his last two months to house arrest. During this last part of his sentence, Vick thought of going back to professional play. After some negotiations that included professional monitoring by his probation officers, he signed up with the Philadelphia Eagles that signaled his re-entry to normal professional football. Lessons from Vick’s Case The Vick’s case offers a lot of insights and lessons that people could lea rn much from. One such insight is the observation that there are people, or groups of people, who would look at animals as objects of passion or consumption or prey and would not share a bit of humanity towards them. They would ignore that there is value in seeing animals, particularly pet animals, as capable of returning a caring gesture or a training effort as have been documented in many cases involving particularly pet dogs which grew under the protective and loving care of their owners. Jennifer Leonard, a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History (Reilly) writes: â€Å"We know that dogs were useful for lots of things in Stone Age culture as draft animals, in hunting, for warmth, and for protection.† In many cases, pet animals have proven themselves indispensable to human beings in providing company, care, assistance and many more valuable roles. An example of such an instance was the baby abandoned by her mother deep in the forest in Kenya sometime in 2005. A stray dog, which must just have given birth to her baby pups, heard the cries of the baby and dragged her to be with her own