Animal Rights

Today, after the evolution of human beings over several millenniums, in the twenty-first century, it is hard to deny animal rights. As most people know, animals have rights just like humans; however, they are unable to defend their own rights. As a result, some humans take advantage of this situation and violate animal rights by hunting, torturing, or abusing them. Given the above situation, a simple question comes to the mind of any rational human: why should we as humans allow this kind of cruelty to take place? Hunting, the stalking and killing of animals, has been an American tradition most likely since the Ice Age when plant food became scarce. Today it exists as a "sport"; but even when the animal’s flesh is eaten, there is no excuse or justification for stalking and killing an animal in his or her habitat. Nevertheless, people not only engage in hunting but strongly defend it as their right to do so. With an arsenal of rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, bows and arrows, hunters kill more than 200 million animals yearly - crippling, orphaning, and harassing millions more. The annual death toll in the U.S. includes 42 million mourning doves, 30 million squirrels, 28 million quail, 25 million rabbits, 20 million pheasants, 14 million ducks, 6 million deer, and thousands of geese, bears, moose, elk, antelope, swans, cougars, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, and other woodland creatures (Compiled by The Fund for Animals with data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies). Less than seven percent of the U.S. population hunts. Hunting is permitted on 60 percent of U.S. wildlife refuges and in many national forests and state parks. More than 200 million animals are killed every year on federal land alone (more than half a billion acres).The stress that hunting inflicts on animals--the noise, the fear, and the constant chase--severely restricts their ability to eat adequately and store the fat and energy they need to survive the winter. Hunting also disrupts migration and hibernation, and the campfires, recreational vehicles, trash, and other hunting side effects endanger both wildlife and the environment. For animals like wolves that mate for life and have close-knit family units, hunting can severely harm their entire communities. Even though the majority of people around the world are against the torturing of animals, still, in some places in the world, we see people doing evil practices to animals. The worst examples of animal torturing can be found in Spain. In Spain, after the hunting season, dogs are hung by their owners in a tree. Their death is slow and painful. The owners sit under the tree and enjoy some wine and beer with friends.
Because this is a "cultural tradition" or "old custom" the European Union allows this to happen! Another shameful example that occurs in Spain is that in many villages and towns they organise Fiesta's (feast) to honor the name day of a certain Saint (like the fiesta held in honor of San Fermin in Pamplona). In many of these Fiesta's the released bulls are chased in the streets by a crowd with sticks, whips and knifes. Ones the bull is surrounded by the villagers, it is tortured, most of the time until death. Legs are broken, the very sensitive horns are hit off, tails are ripped off etc. We no longer accept or practice cutting out people's tongues, or cutting off their ears or hands, as a punishment for the crimes they have committed, so why should we accept such a dreadful torture on innocent animals that have not committed a single crime, and are born into this world as animals rather than humans. Although there are some historical or cultural traditions that are