The treatment of animals is something that can evoke an emotional reaction in many people. However, many of us as a society have managed to turn a blind eye to the treatment of animals. For some, it's like knowingly smoking cigarettes and knowing the consequences of doing so and ignoring them anyway. People eat meat and go to circus shows, but ignore the articles and facts about the gross misconduct that occurs there. Because monkeys or cows are different than your dog or cat. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There is a great deal of research going on about how complex animals truly are. Hinduism Today published an article on how some animals “live in their own societies, mourn the loss of another” and can even build a fortress to protect themselves from predators; researchers are discovering traits thought to be distinguishable only from humans in a variety of animal species. However, for a long time, animal rights has been a controversial topic, with significant research supporting how animals are capable of processing emotions and feeling pain. People have gone to extremes protesting for animals to have rights in the US justice system as "non-human" so that they can have physical freedom and moral decency. Organizations like the Nonhuman Rights Project are actively working to change the common-law status of some animals. However, animals have also been used for important things like medical research and food production, and for reasons like these, humans have an incentive to put their own contributions into needs first. Let's take medicine for example; Without the use of animals in research, many life-saving drugs and treatments would not exist. Ed Owen, a freelance political consultant and author of "Dangers of Cuddly Extremism," has a three-year-old daughter who suffers from cystic fibrosis. A disease that was once incredibly difficult to survive beyond childhood now has an average life expectancy of 30 years, and people live much longer thanks to all the medicines and treatments made possible thanks to animal research. Although animal research and its importance are strongly supported by scientific opinion, activists believe it is imperfect and uncertain. The British Union Against Vivisection states that “we believe that animal experiments are unreliable and are potentially retarding medical progress by focusing attention and research funds on a fundamentally flawed methodology”. If you look at the results, however, animal research has led to many life-saving treatments, and living bodies are extremely complex organisms, so there is currently no more suitable alternative to animal testing. However; There are many people who claim to have better alternatives, one of whom is Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP and party spokesperson on animal welfare. He believes that “for example the use of computer modeling or cell cultures, and even the use of human volunteers, would be a much more effective way to carry out medical research.” While some want alternatives to animals in research, and some scientists even refuse to work with animals, others believe in the power of informing the general public. Stefan Treue, a researcher who experiments on animals, believes that once people visit his laboratory and see what happens with their own eyes, he says that something like 98% can accept the fact that it is a partfundamental in the progress of biomedical science. This could be caused by a lack of information from the public. There is currently a gap between the people doing the research and the public. It's not an easy topic to talk about, given that around one hundred million animals are killed worldwide for this cause. According to a survey conducted by Nature.com, researchers hesitate to talk about the issue with the public, for fear of opposing opinions or being criticized. Some activists have gone to the extreme of setting fire to university buildings, attacking researchers and relatives and even desecrating graves. About a quarter of researchers say their institutions have offered help or training on how to address the public about their work. In addition to the fear of addressing the public, they also have to live in constant fear of activists. Over the past fourteen years both the UK and the US have had to enact laws to combat the actions of activists soon dubbed eco-terrorists. While there are still no adequate alternatives in the medical field for animals, there are in the food field. With large fast food restaurants offering alternatives ranging from veggie burgers to KFC's plant-based chicken, there are more alternatives appearing in fast food chains too. The direction current meatpacking plants and dairy farms are taking will destroy our earth. Livestock production is the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, with high meat consumption worldwide. We are killing biodiversity ourselves with the way animals are raised and slaughtered. It has gotten to the point where society has great "cognitive dissonance" towards the treatment of animals that are not considered "pets." It's easy to look at a steak or hamburger and not consider the animal that was killed, or the fact that they were literally born to die. We dissociate and may push the reality of the situation to the back of our mind. However, when it comes to pets like dogs or cats, they are held in high regard. No one wants to see their pet suffer; some may even go so far as to refer to their pet as their child and others deeply mourn the loss of a pet. So why is it so difficult to see certain pets suffer, but when it comes to a farm animal all people need to hear is, “Don't worry, there's no abuse happening here. This is all part of the routine." 'That routine' is one in which animals are killed in large numbers and often force-fed, fertilized or castrated without sedation for pain. Cows milked until their bodies physically can't handle it, pigs crammed together in tight spaces, chickens being debeaked without regard to the pain they feel, it's systematic cruelty inflicted on animals. Non-domestic animals are forced to live in captivity for entertainment or human gain. How we treat the animals we eat or make products from is extremely important. Society has reaped multiple consequences from improper meat handling. In food production, one of the biggest risks is wild meat, which is why many diseases originating from animals are transferred to humans. He Zhengming, deputy secretary general of the China Experimental Animals Society, believes that wild meat consumption and inhumane breeding will lead to dangerous results. It has already been reported that at least 100 kinds of diseases affecting humans have had?