What is animal rights?
The concept of animal rights is that animals have just as many rights as we do and may not be "exploited" for our benefit. This means we can't eat anything that comes from an animal, wear anything that comes from an animal, be entertained by an animal, acquire scientific data from an animal, or even love and care for a pet animal. The rationale behind this is that it is cruel or unnatural to do so, even when it is not!
How someone becomes an animal rightist
Here are the stages at which someone becomes an animal rights activist. For this example, let's use a fictional girl named Alice.
1: Birth ~ Pre-K - Alice is raised in a highly liberal family. Her parents lie, telling her that meat comes from something such as "meat trees".
2: Kindergarten ~ 2st Grade - In public school, Alice is taught to be hyper-sensitive and crybaby-like about every perceived injustice or inequality, whether or not it is actually unjust. In addition, the National Cholesterol Education Program and the American Heart Association visit, and Alice receives her first "training" on why cholesterol and saturated fat is "bad" for you. (It actually isn't.)
3: 3rd Grade, Fall Semester - During lunch, Alice overhears students at the next table talking about how animals are slaughtered for meat. The students discuss it in rather graphic detail, and they show no signs of disgust whatsoever. When Alice hears, she nearly pukes, and throws away the rest of her hamburger. After school, she talks to her mother. Her mother furiously denies it, continuing to stick to her "meat trees" story, and talking about how some student just like to be gross. Alice calms down, but still has a lingering suspicion, which she represses.
4: 3rd Grade, Spring Semester - In science class, they talk about the food chain. The teacher lectures on about what carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, predators, and prey are. Alice flashes back to the cafeteria incident. Alice's mind puts the pieces together, and her worst fears are confirmed: Meat does indeed come from slaughtered animals. She confronts her mother and has a heated argument. Her mother still sticks to the "meat trees" story. One thing Alice says is, "Maybe I'm not 'in the know', but I've never actually seen a meat tree!" She searches Wikipedia and Google Photo, and sure enough, "No results found." Her mother admits defeat and apologizes for lying all along.
5: Summer between 3rd and 4th grade - Alice is all mopey and miserable. Her health deteriorates as she nearly goes anorexic.
6: Early 4th grade - Just when Alice has nearly gotten over the "terrible" truth, PETA visits her school. They talk about how animals are treated "so horribly", and how it is better to "go veg". Alice believes every word of it without question. She goes vegetarian and signs up for PETA newsletters.
7: 6th through 8th grade - Alice attends animal rights protests, and tries to persuade her parents to go veg. She fails, making her cry even more.
8: 9th through 12th grade - Alice is now a full fledged animal rights nut. She goes completely vegan, gets into arguments with her high school teachers, stickers school property, gets put in detention many times, waves the middle finger at KFC, and harasses meat eaters (everyone around her).
9: Freshman year in college - Alice tries to firebomb the university's animal research lab, but is caught. She is expelled. PETA hires a really good lawyer for her, so she is sentenced to only 2 years in prison.
10: After being released from prison - Alice becomes a high ranking PETA employee.
1: Birth ~ Pre-K - Alice is raised in a highly liberal family. Her parents lie, telling her that meat comes from something such as "meat trees".
2: Kindergarten ~ 2st Grade - In public school, Alice is taught to be hyper-sensitive and crybaby-like about every perceived injustice or inequality, whether or not it is actually unjust. In addition, the National Cholesterol Education Program and the American Heart Association visit, and Alice receives her first "training" on why cholesterol and saturated fat is "bad" for you. (It actually isn't.)
3: 3rd Grade, Fall Semester - During lunch, Alice overhears students at the next table talking about how animals are slaughtered for meat. The students discuss it in rather graphic detail, and they show no signs of disgust whatsoever. When Alice hears, she nearly pukes, and throws away the rest of her hamburger. After school, she talks to her mother. Her mother furiously denies it, continuing to stick to her "meat trees" story, and talking about how some student just like to be gross. Alice calms down, but still has a lingering suspicion, which she represses.
4: 3rd Grade, Spring Semester - In science class, they talk about the food chain. The teacher lectures on about what carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, predators, and prey are. Alice flashes back to the cafeteria incident. Alice's mind puts the pieces together, and her worst fears are confirmed: Meat does indeed come from slaughtered animals. She confronts her mother and has a heated argument. Her mother still sticks to the "meat trees" story. One thing Alice says is, "Maybe I'm not 'in the know', but I've never actually seen a meat tree!" She searches Wikipedia and Google Photo, and sure enough, "No results found." Her mother admits defeat and apologizes for lying all along.
5: Summer between 3rd and 4th grade - Alice is all mopey and miserable. Her health deteriorates as she nearly goes anorexic.
6: Early 4th grade - Just when Alice has nearly gotten over the "terrible" truth, PETA visits her school. They talk about how animals are treated "so horribly", and how it is better to "go veg". Alice believes every word of it without question. She goes vegetarian and signs up for PETA newsletters.
7: 6th through 8th grade - Alice attends animal rights protests, and tries to persuade her parents to go veg. She fails, making her cry even more.
8: 9th through 12th grade - Alice is now a full fledged animal rights nut. She goes completely vegan, gets into arguments with her high school teachers, stickers school property, gets put in detention many times, waves the middle finger at KFC, and harasses meat eaters (everyone around her).
9: Freshman year in college - Alice tries to firebomb the university's animal research lab, but is caught. She is expelled. PETA hires a really good lawyer for her, so she is sentenced to only 2 years in prison.
10: After being released from prison - Alice becomes a high ranking PETA employee.
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