Ethical Review

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Ethical Review
The Purposeful harm and abuse of animals by the human beings is morally wrong. This is not because of the intrinsic rights that are possessed by the animals or the act of killing or pain caused to the animal that is thought to be intrinsically wrong, but it is due to the effects that most of these practices have on the nature of our ethical sensibilities, of our personal status as the ethical agents. From a personal point of view, the acts and ethical concepts that that we witness within the society, which occur within our communal and social lives, generally affect the contours of human beings moral development. Scientifically, human beings are considered to be animals and since humans have feelings towards any treatment they are exposed to, it should be noted that other animal species have feelings too, and they feel bad when mistreated by human beings (Stolerman, 492).
Many human beings consider eating animals as not a cruel act but killing human beings is a cruel act. This point seems contradictory since humans are part of the animal species according to science, and hence killing other animals is just the same as killing human beings (McMahan, 106s). However, the laws of the ecosystem revolve around the food chain system, where animals depend on each other to survive while others depend on the vegetation to survive. In this case, the intelligent animals have always been seen to conquer the natural surrounding since they can find a way out to solve their matters that relate to survival.

Humans are considered to be the most intelligent and superior animal on earth and hence man can use his survival tactics to live longer. From an individual perspective, it is wrong to torture animals, but it is not wrong to eat them. Human beings are omnivores, and they feed on both meat and vegetation, which have different nutritional functions (Orlans, 114). These nutrients are needed for human survival and in that case, the human beings need to do their best to access these nutrients that most are found in the animals. Science also indicates that, if animals were to feed on vegetation alone, they could exert much pressure on the available food and hence others might end up not surviving due to hunger. Eating meat helps in controlling overpopulation within the ecosystem. Hence, it keeps the food chain balanced.
It is not right to be cruel to animals since this has no significant benefit to human beings. This mode of cruelty just manifests the moral failings of that particular person that is mistreating an animal. It is useless to be abusing an animal that is harmless and can be controlled by a human. Although it is contradictory, it is possible for one to use animals as food or for scientific experiments while ensuring that they receive ethical treatment (McMahan, 125). There should be laws that guide humans on how to treat animals in a humane manner (Cohen and Regan, 95). People should only kill an animal when the need arises; such as, when one needs to eat the animal or when the person wants to pursue a scientific experiment that is destined to save lives. In this case, we should avoid killing other animal species for frivolous reasons or fun. Moreover, humans should treat other animals humanely during their lifetime and kill them when necessary painlessly. Although it is not easy to quantify the amount of pain or humane treatment, one should not subject an animal to painful activities every day and they should kill them swiftly with less pain as possible (Cohen and Regan, 102s).

Work Cited
Orlans, F B. The human use of animals case studies in ethical choice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Stolerman, Ian P. Encyclopedia of psychopharmacology. Berlin London: Springer, 2010. Print.
McMahan, Jeff. The ethics of killing problems at the margins of life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Cohen, Carl, and Tom Regan. The animal rights debate. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. Print.