(I added letters to the other questions too)
slf95 wrote:
a) What do you think is the main reason that animal cruelty is still around today?
b) Which area of animal rights (for example.. battery farming, whaling, animal testing) would you say affects you most?
c) What do you feel you could do to prevent or even stop this from continuing in the future?
d) Have you ever taken part in an event or protest to try stop animal rights? If so, explain.
slf95 wrote:
e) So do you agree with animal testing or do you believe that it should be a last option?
f) Would you say animal welfare is more important than animal rights? If so why do you believe one is more important than the other.
slf95 wrote:
g) As well as animal testing, what other topics involved in animal welfare/rights do you have strong opinions on?
h) Do you, in any way whether it be donating to a charity or protesting, help educate or spread the news on these subjects as a career or past time? If so, explain.
a) all lifeforms operate on greed. Benevolence is only natural in cases where the genome of the population or the dynamics of the group (who may not be the same species) increases the chance of survival of the members of such a group. Humans have used language to extend the group to any humans that can read and soon after, to all life-forms within a set of boundaries of their own choosing. The problem comes from what those boundaries are and of course everyone has different ones and often more then a few different boundaries with different parameters of what constitutes cruelty. In short, it is natural for us to be cruel but it benefits humans to not be cruel to other humans and it benefits the globe for us to not be cruel to other species. Recognizing and acting on such benefits is an individual thing. I personally do not like to mow the lawn because I can tell the grass chemically suffers as a result. I still pick grass to feed my rodents.
b) animal rights activists. I have had two people I knew personally be killed as a direct result of animal rights activists... both burned to death in separate incidents. I wish to improve the lives of animals by designing better care practices, equipment, and foods. The process of developing such improvements requires raising animals. I have gone to great lengths to prevent attacks by animal rights activists.
c) "What do you feel you could do to prevent or even stop this from continuing in the future?" I am not sure what "this" is referring to. If it is the answer to b) then I will say things like getting land to be under a different name then myself, locating mail elsewhere, using a variety of false identities, making buildings fire proof, putting undercarriages on my vehicles to prevent cut break lines or other damage that has been done by animal rights activists to people I know, fighting various law changes with petitions, independent energy and food development to make my facilities harder to attack (including financially).
d) you may have worded that different then intended but I will answer as worded: I have protested several laws put in place by animal rights activists. For what I believe was the intended question, I have also fought many laws and practices that allow cruelty to pests in their manor of control. My life goal is to establish two-way communication with small mammals so we can get a better sense of what truly is cruel because they do not think the same as humans but do think very well but in ways that benefit their species. For a mouse, a very small home might be preferred as an example.
e) animal testing is a fact of life. The safety it brings to both human and animal lives is high and the safety it brings to the environment and the wildlife in that environment is invaluable and will positively affect countless organisms for hundreds or years. While that may be so, the lives of those test animals can be improved with better equipment, foods, and practices and I aim to develop and promote those things.
f) My only problem with animal rights is the lack of thought put into them. Providing any form of rights to anybody will bring about restrictions on the actions of other people including well-meaning people. One example is the so-called Dr Death. Henry Morgentaler was not allowed to kill his patients. It is obviously a good idea to prevent murderers but at the same time, many people preferred to die and wished to do it in the care of someone who could do it right. Over in some countries of Europe, euthanasia is common but many people are suspected of being forced into the decision to end their lives... like anything, it can be abused. Back to the topic, if you gave animals certain rights, they would end up suffering as a result. If you have no rights altogether, some animals will suffer as a result. Striking a balance requires wisdom and, in my opinion, requires communication with lots of the animals affected. I hope to provide the tools to conduct such communication with certain species (ones that already have a verbal language in the wild and thus have their brains wired up for the task of communication). I think it is clear that animal welfare is highly important to me. Rights are only needed to help control humans who, in someone eles's opinion, is not behaving correctly.
g) invasive species. The biggest threat to the welfare of wildlife is invasive species. This includes farmed animals who were released during fires or released by animal rights activists. Controlling the spread of Norway rats and house mice has saved many species but the lack of control of those two species can account for roughly half of the species extinctions that we know of in the last century. House cats probably account for another 20% of extinctions. All three of these species make fine pets (I have had lots) but in the wild, they result in half the rodent species out there to become extinct. The remaining 30% of extinctions are mostly habitat destruction from agriculture going to grain instead of animal grazing so my next area of animal rights is agriculture: Wild animals need a place to live and with cattle grazing, most species can co-exist with cattle grazing (with the obvious exception of wolves). Grain farming and cotton farming destroy all lifeforms except some of the microscopic soil life. The only animals that can survive are a few mobile animals that can deal with plows and harvest equipment. The best thing you can do for helping the most number of animals (including the last remaining rain forest animals) is to grow your own food instead of buying grain or vegetable oils (the rain forests are being replaced by palm oil production so more land is available for grains).
h) my life goals are and were always to improve the lives of animals. I concentrated on rodents because I realized the importance of animal testing and figured 95% of animals in captivity were rodents and thus represented the greatest good for the largest number of animals for the least amount of effort. I quickly changed and expanded that goal to all rodents as they represent about 98% of the individual mammals on the planet. Many species of rodent have gone extinct or have not been seen alive for decades... and still not listed on any endangered species lists (and some have even lost their scientific name). This is because they are the kind of animal that may be found in agricultural areas and we could not risk starving humans because someone found one of these rodents in a farmers field! The health and welfare of rodents (and the animals that eat rodents... most other mammals and a good portion of the birds and reptiles) is my goal in life. On a side note, I have fundraised for cat rescue organizations that catch, vaccinate, neuter and release stray cats to prevent them from being killed in animal shelters nor creating more kittens. These are cats that "fall through the cracks" of the system... cats that cannot be made into pets for some reason. They do adopt out cats that can be adopted and even take cats from the shelter slated to be euthanized and find alternate homing for them.