Right Treatment
Sam Aurelius Milam III
A
right is something that is within your ability, for which you don't need
permission, and that will be generally or customarily approved or, at least,
tolerated. Different rights have different effects and accomplish
different things. A right of ownership means that a man who owns
a thing can possess the thing, control it, use it, abuse it, dispose of
it, damage it, destroy it, and so forth, as the case might be, without
interference. As with any right, when the government undertakes to
regulate a right of ownership, then that right of ownership ceases to exist.
It becomes, instead, a privilege of custody.
Reformers
with agendas always believe that any obstacle must be removed for the sake
of their agendas. A right is often such an obstacle. To any
group of reformers, its own agenda is always more important than any such
right that might interfere with the agenda. The reformers' best weapon
in disposing of such a right is to present the agenda as a worthy cause
with which most people will be loathe to disagree lest they be subjected
to abuse and defamation by the reformers. In general, reformers have
been very successful at imposing agendas upon people who didn't agree with
those agendas, at the expense of rights previously held by those people.
The
animals' rights advocates are a good example of such a group of reformers.
People who advocate animals' rights don't seem to know much about either
rights or ownership, or to care about such things. To them, nothing
is as important as the alleged rights of animals to whatever kind of treatment
the reformers regard as de rigueur. It's troublesome to such
reformers that, if a man has a right of ownership of an animal, then he
can possess the animal, control it, use it, abuse it, dispose of it, injure
it, neglect it, or destroy it, without interference. Therefore, a
right of ownership of animals is intolerable to the animals' rights advocates.
Accordingly,
the animals' rights advocates have long lamented the real or imagined plight
of the animals, using sympathy as a weapon against the right of ownership.
They've used government force to impose their beliefs onto other people
who might not agree with them, dictating by force how a man is permitted
to treat his animals. One result has been to convert a man's right
of ownership of animals into a privilege of custody of the animals.
A worse result has been to transfer the right of ownership from the people
to the government. People who are in possession of animals must treat
them as instructed by the authorities, who are the actual owners.
People are permitted to keep animals only for so long as they comply with
the requirements established by the owners. Any violation of any
such requirement will cause the authorities to seize the animals.
Thus, the person who possesses an animal doesn't own it. He's permitted
to keep it in his possession at the pleasure of the authorities.
The government's ownership of the animals is further demonstrated by the
fact that only the government can possess an animal, control it, use it,
abuse it, dispose of it, injure it, neglect it, or destroy it, without
interference.
I
sympathize with abused or mistreated animals. Nevertheless, I believe
that a man's (erstwhile) right of ownership of an animal is more important
than an animal's (alleged) right to a certain kind of treatment.
If some group of animals' rights advocates believes that a man is mistreating
his animals, then they can ask him to treat the animals better. If
he refuses to do so, then they can offer to buy the animals from him.
If he refuses to sell, then they don't have any remaining legitimate option
except to mind their own business, which doesn't include dictating to a
man how he's permitted to treat his animals. The next time that you
see one of those animals' rights commercials with a woebegone pooch peering
tearfully from behind the bars of the doggy gulag down at the pound, awaiting
execution at the hands of the authorities, its actual owners, don't weep
just for the dog. Weep also for the people who no longer have a right
to own it.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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May 2011 |
Frontiersman, c/o
4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville, Georgia 30507 |
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