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Animals do have some rights given to them by man. Man is in charge of the planet earth whether we like it or not. Man has also given himself and his fellow men and woman certain rights. Actually, these human rights are debatable and their applications are varied even in the same country. Lack of human rights is actually one of the most common grievance of people. When you take that reality into consideration, animals rights are not that easy to define.

Rights?
First of all, do animals already have inalienable birth rights or do we humans give it to them? That is a fundamental question. Most people would agree that it is wrong to make animals suffer. Sometimes it seems that people get more upset about news reports about animal cruelty than they do about reports of torture of human beings by some government.

UN Charter Rights
The United Nations (UN) has a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first article says that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Reality is, not all human beings are all born free or equal. Some babies are born to slave parents and into the life of slavery, even in 2008. Actually slavery or servitude is expressly prohibited by Article 4 of the Universal Declaration but not all humans are even aware of the Declaration of Human Rights.

Farm animals are legally held as chattel or an article of movable personal property. Chattel is sometimes used to describe some people in place of slave.

The UN Declaration also states that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Humans do make distinction between humans and animals. Farm animals for instance are kept alive until the owner decides he or she wants to sell the animal for its' meat and by products. Animals by definitions also are not persons, nor are they given security of persons. Actually some farm animals are given more security than they would enjoy out in the wild.

Rights to Trail
If animals were to have the full extend of human rights, how would we legally defend them? When we hear about dogs that maul and attack human beings, they are usually given a warning and even put down. Put down be a euphemism for put to the death. Why aren't they get a defense lawyer and their day in court? How would we communicate with them? What if issues of their breeding makes them of a certain temperament and predisposition? That would be a bit like the human insanity plea, won't it?

Prison Rights
What if an animal like a Cape Buffalo was found guilty

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