"Animal rights - moral or legal rights attributed to non-human animals, usually because of the complexity of their cognitive, emotional, and social lives or their capacity to feel pain or physical or emotional pleasure." (Encyclopedia Britannia Online, nd). The definition of animal rights is so clear to us. Human rights must be protected, just like animal rights. In 1976 in New York, thousands of cat lovers were beaten when they heard about a painful test to be taken to determine the sexual behavior of animals. Henry Spira, the leader of the animal rights movement, helped mobilize a protest and marked the beginning of the contemporary animal rights movement. The group took dramatic and public action to express their concerns and anger. They were enthusiastic in their language, tactics, and methods to attract new recruits to the cause of animal rights (Jasper and Nelkin, 1992, p. 26). This essay will discuss how people treat animals and what animal rights people should respect and protect. What have people done to animals? Humans hunt animals and use animals as experimental subjects. life to serve a non-vital human interest. For example, hunting. The course of hunting involves killing animals, and killing will inevitably lead to the defeat of all important animal interests (Rowlands, 2002, p. 160). According to WAF fact sheets, more than 200 million animals are killed each year in the United States. Hunters are allowed to kill animals in 60% of the United States, such as wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks. Even 80 percent of them kill on public lands. Most people who do harm do not respond or promote basic human interests (Hunting Fact Sheet, n.d.). Therefore,...... middle of paper ......(nd). Britannia Encyclopedia Online. Accessed November 28, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.search.eb.com/failedlogin?target=/Cohen, C. and Regan, T. (2001). The animal rights debate. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Dolan, K. (1999). Ethics, animals and science. Great Britain: MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall. Hunting fact sheet. (nd). World Animal Foundation. Accessed November 30, 2009. Retrieved from http://worldanimalfoundation.homestead.com/FactSheetHunting.htmlJasper, J, M. and Nelkin, D. (1992). The Crusade for Animal Rights: The Growth of a Moral Protest. United States: The Free Press. Monamy, V. (2000). Animal experimentation: a guide to the issues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Union. Rowlands, M. (2002). Animals like us. United Kingdom and United States: Verso. Shapiro, L, S. (2000). Applied animal ethics. United States: Cengage Learning.