Show of Hands

It's really come to light that many animals are extremely intelligent. Parrots can be as smart as 5 year olds and have a good grasp of language and emotion, rats can quickly solve puzzles with no training, certain apes show an amazing understanding of sign language. Not wanting animals to be abused and mistreated makes you an awful person, sorry. There are ways to humanely treat cows and other livestock while not giving up meat, asshole.

As much as I love my pets, I do not believe animals have rights like people have rights. I do think the government should have better laws (and enforce them) to ensure that cruelty to animals is greatly minimized. Are we civilized or not? People who can torture animals can do the same to people.