People all around the world have discussed their rights for generations, which is another way of outlining their expectations vis-a-vis their relationship with others. But it worries me that these rights which have emerged through history as necessary concomitants to a healthy society have been clothed in the attractive garments of religion and even called inalienable.
Because when we talk of such rights we always talk in terms of our own worth, our own expectations, our own borders both as individuals and as human beings. But we never accede as countries or societies to extend rights to other species. These we ‘deign’ to allow to exist as befits our needs. But if rights exist, and they are inalienable, they must be universal in the true sense of the word otherwise they are no more than constructs of human law.
Which is of course, exactly what they are because they have grown along with our ideas of society through the generations. The American Bill of Rights could never have been written in Roman Europe, when they talked a lot about rights and enshrined the rule of law as fundamental to society. Nor would it be written today where the extensive discussion of rights has taken us further than they dared to dream in the eighteenth century.
Once you realise that rights are not god given but human driven, you may begin to see why animal rights are so important.