Animals have emotions and feelings that are perhaps as complex and varied as our own human emotions. Their brains are more complex than one might think. In our society today, it's normal for us to have pets and be responsible for those pets but we don’t entirely understand what it's like for those animals that can't cope well in an unnatural environment. All we’re thinking about are our emotions and we don't realize that our pets and companions have the same feelings as us.

As humans, it is our responsibility to take care of our planet and that translates to taking care of our fellow creatures living with us. The problem is, we don't care about them. We only care about our happiness and these animals are only “food” or “pets” to us. This is unfair to them because they don't have a say in how they live their lives. Everyone deserves rights and that includes non-human animals. That's why, as the next generation, we need to establish a bill of rights for these animals.

Just like humans, animals have feelings and those feelings can be hurt very easily. Even though we can’t see it, they do feel things like sorrow and happiness. They aren’t that different from you and I. They deserve to be protected just as we are protected with our rights. Blood sports such as Hunting  or Dog Fights, where we are forcing them to fight for our pleasure, are unconstitutional because its depriving them of their right to live. In her article “A Detailed Discussion of Dog Fights”, Hanna Gibson says “The abuses that the dogs endure - both in and out of the ring - is so gruesome that even seasoned investigators are consistently shocked by the barbarities they discover at raids.” A humane person wouldn’t want any other fellow human to be hurt like this so why is it okay for us to do this to dogs? What makes it acceptable to force two dogs to fight to the death? The same goes with hunting. We find it pleasurable to hunt our fellow animals but if a group of people started hunting other humans for the sheer joy of it, people would definetly get upset. What makes our lives more valuable than theirs?

When we think about captivity, we think about jail. Jail is a place where we put criminals. Bad people who do bad things. When you think about a zoo, we connect that with learning and childhood. What most people don’t realize that we are keeping those animals captive. We are just there for the fun. In the animals minds, they are being held against their will. They have the right to be free and live their life the way they want to and die naturally in the wild. In her article, Reality of zoos, Michelle Carr says that “Captive animals are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, and as a result, they become bored and lonely and many even suffer from a condition called “zoochosis.” Zoochosis makes animals rampant and causes their behavior to become unpredictable. It's a disease that can be easily avoided if we didn’t place animals in zoos. The only reason humans are held in captivity is if they are in jail because they did something wrong. The animals in zoos are completely innocent but are being trapped anyway. When they do injure someone, they are immediately euthanized. Even if they didn't kill anyone. For humans, it's completely different. The only reason they are put to death is because they actually killed someone. And that's sometimes not even the case. Animals have the right to be protected by the law because they are living things. They deserve to live a life where they can be free to live how they want without being hunted or held captive.

All in all, I feel as though animals deserve the same rights as humans and I think the only way to do that is to have young adults and teens take part in treating animals fairly and try their best to bring in a bill of rights for these animals. As the future generation, it's our responsibility to protect our planet and fellow animals.