Animals: Should They Have Rights Under U.S. Law?

Round 1
marikunin: "Animals should have basic rights under U.S. law. There is research done by many organizations that show that abusing animals is only a step below abusing children. Also, though animals may not have reason and logic like humans, they do have some degree of emotion and deserve to be treated decently.

In almost every organized religion, studies show that animals are not to be treated poorly."

goldspurs: "there are already many laws that provide protection against cruelty to animals. Didn't you watch the Michael Vick case?? My only real opposition to laws against animals would be laws that prohibit consumption of meats. This should be a personal choice and nothing else. Other than that animals already have laws in place to protect them aginst what you are trying to debate. People can already be charged with violating animal cruelty laws just by not feeding their dog enough. If you are trying to say there needs to be stronger penalties than already established please say so. But I must say that most states have already passed laws that have felony-level penalties for animal cruelty."