Essay prompt : In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun.
Do animals feel pain?
I asked my friend a simple question: "Do animals feel pain?" He thought for a second, making sure it was not a trick question, and answered "Ya obviously they feel pain." So I continued "Then why do people fish?" I asked this because if people knew that animals can get hurt and can feel pain, I could not understand why they would do things that hurt animals in the first place, given that they would not do the same thing to a human being.
The method of fishing I am talking about is angling, where a hook is attached to a line and fishes are baited to bite the hook. The problem with angling is it invariably causes a lot of pain to the fish because when the fish bites the bait, the sharp hook pierces through the roof of the fish's mouth and the struggling fish would be dragged with a huge force towards the angler. For fishermen who fish for recreation or sport, they get their satisfaction or pleasure at the expense of pain and suffering in fishes. Fishing is a relatively common activity despite how I make it out to be. In the UK alone, there are roughly 6 million anglers. Therefore I cannot fathom how such a mindlessly cruel act can have such prevalence in our modern world.
Everyday, unnecessary or replaceable human activities cause a great amount of pain and suffering in animals. Animals suffer when they are hunted for recreation, when they are skinned to make coats or tote bags and when they are used to test superfluous cosmetics and drugs. It is estimated that 25 million animals are used every year for laboratory procedures in the US. I am sure the majority of people would tell me that yes animals can feel pain. Yet I do not understand why in so many ways we act as though we believe that animals do not feel pain, or worse, that it is okay for animals other than human beings to be in pain.
There are many arguments that assert that it is not wrong to use animals for human ends. Some of them economic, some of them environmental and some of them divine but what is common in most of these arguments are they do not even consider the fact that animals suffer. The arguments that do often have shaky grounds. For instance, some anglers argue that fishes do not feel pain. They cite research that shows that fishes have a different neurological anatomy to humans, making them insusceptible to pain. The problem with this argument is the research in this area has been ambiguous and largely inconclusive, and it is hard to imagine that grievous injury caused by angling is really painless. Moreover, if it turns out that we are wrong, I would rather we are wrong about the fact that fishes feel pain than they do not.
On another note, it is relieving to know that our society is progressing forward in using laws and justice to protect animals. In 2008, laws were amended in Switzerland to mandate that fishermen must undergo training on humane treatment of fishes after they are caught. In 2011, SPCA proposed to the Ministry of National Development in Singapore to make failing to take care of the welfare of pets a criminal offence among other amendments to animal protection laws.
The fundamental premise that allows our society to treat animals differently is the belief that animals are different from humans. I never believed that humans are completely and unequivocally different from animals. Had I been born in a society that has neither language nor advanced civilization I would not grow to have the abilities I have now. I was not biologically acquainted with language or the ability to use a computer. When I grew up, I learnt that our societal norm inclines us to help the underprivileged and the handicapped. Hence I naturally felt that we needed to help our less advanced animal counterparts by the same principle.
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I tried to express my belief about the state of animals as fully as possible in this essay. Please comment on whether my essay answers the question, the organisation of the essay, how you feel about it etc. Help me check for any grammar mistakes I might have missed or don't know about. Thanks in advance.
Do animals feel pain?
I asked my friend a simple question: "Do animals feel pain?" He thought for a second, making sure it was not a trick question, and answered "Ya obviously they feel pain." So I continued "Then why do people fish?" I asked this because if people knew that animals can get hurt and can feel pain, I could not understand why they would do things that hurt animals in the first place, given that they would not do the same thing to a human being.
The method of fishing I am talking about is angling, where a hook is attached to a line and fishes are baited to bite the hook. The problem with angling is it invariably causes a lot of pain to the fish because when the fish bites the bait, the sharp hook pierces through the roof of the fish's mouth and the struggling fish would be dragged with a huge force towards the angler. For fishermen who fish for recreation or sport, they get their satisfaction or pleasure at the expense of pain and suffering in fishes. Fishing is a relatively common activity despite how I make it out to be. In the UK alone, there are roughly 6 million anglers. Therefore I cannot fathom how such a mindlessly cruel act can have such prevalence in our modern world.
Everyday, unnecessary or replaceable human activities cause a great amount of pain and suffering in animals. Animals suffer when they are hunted for recreation, when they are skinned to make coats or tote bags and when they are used to test superfluous cosmetics and drugs. It is estimated that 25 million animals are used every year for laboratory procedures in the US. I am sure the majority of people would tell me that yes animals can feel pain. Yet I do not understand why in so many ways we act as though we believe that animals do not feel pain, or worse, that it is okay for animals other than human beings to be in pain.
There are many arguments that assert that it is not wrong to use animals for human ends. Some of them economic, some of them environmental and some of them divine but what is common in most of these arguments are they do not even consider the fact that animals suffer. The arguments that do often have shaky grounds. For instance, some anglers argue that fishes do not feel pain. They cite research that shows that fishes have a different neurological anatomy to humans, making them insusceptible to pain. The problem with this argument is the research in this area has been ambiguous and largely inconclusive, and it is hard to imagine that grievous injury caused by angling is really painless. Moreover, if it turns out that we are wrong, I would rather we are wrong about the fact that fishes feel pain than they do not.
On another note, it is relieving to know that our society is progressing forward in using laws and justice to protect animals. In 2008, laws were amended in Switzerland to mandate that fishermen must undergo training on humane treatment of fishes after they are caught. In 2011, SPCA proposed to the Ministry of National Development in Singapore to make failing to take care of the welfare of pets a criminal offence among other amendments to animal protection laws.
The fundamental premise that allows our society to treat animals differently is the belief that animals are different from humans. I never believed that humans are completely and unequivocally different from animals. Had I been born in a society that has neither language nor advanced civilization I would not grow to have the abilities I have now. I was not biologically acquainted with language or the ability to use a computer. When I grew up, I learnt that our societal norm inclines us to help the underprivileged and the handicapped. Hence I naturally felt that we needed to help our less advanced animal counterparts by the same principle.
----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------
I tried to express my belief about the state of animals as fully as possible in this essay. Please comment on whether my essay answers the question, the organisation of the essay, how you feel about it etc. Help me check for any grammar mistakes I might have missed or don't know about. Thanks in advance.
