Animal rights and the needs of humans

A remarkably small percentage of Gazette readers look forward to sleeping while cuddling a chimpanzee. Not humans behaving like chimpanzees. That’s another column. I mean an actual chimpanzee.

If you are above a certain age this thought may have occurred to you as your eyes grew wet at the news of Jane Goodall’s death Oct. 1.

She taught us — and doubting scientists — that "it isn't only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought (and) emotions like joy and sorrow,” as well as behavior such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling.

Think Homo sapiens are superior? Race a 70-mph cheetah. Navigate by Earth’s magnetic field — while flying nonstop over the Pacific Ocean with no food. Regenerate a lost limb. Change your color. Match your geometry and material knowledge with an eagle’s treetop nest in high winds.

Few Gazette readers search Africa for a pet chimpanzee. But two-thirds of American households have welcomed some animal into their family. Of those, 50% chose dogs, 35% cats. (If you recall Jane Goodall, you may also recall when Metro High School fielded the Metro Ferrets.)

It’s not cheap. America’s pet owners put their money where their pets’ mouths are: annually averaging $1,200-$1,700 per household, totaling around $150 billion a year. Plus, if “time is money,” the value of owners’ time walking dogs and cleaning cats’ litter boxes.

Our pets may just lie around much of the day, but when they enter the courtroom they have “standing” (an entity that can sue or be sued). Standing is not limited to adult humans. Lawyers create imaginary things like “corporations” and “trusts” and give them standing.

New Zealand has granted standing to the Te Uruwera forest, Whanganui River, and Mount Taranaki.

Moreover, the 2024 Iowa Code provides legislative protection of animals’ legal rights to the benefits of food, potable water, sanitation, shelter (from weather; bedding), grooming, and medical care. Animal abuse is news.

This gave me an idea (to which my critics respond, “Treat it kindly, it’s in a strange place”): How do these standards, and numbers, compare for the world’s animals called “Homo sapiens” (otherwise called “us”)?

About 30% of the world’s “us” are moderately or severely food insecure, two billion lack potable water, one third don’t have adequate housing, and over half lack medical care.

The U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, like the Iowa Code for animals, includes “food, clothing, housing and medical care.” The Bible’s Matthew 25:35 speaks of providing food, drink, shelter, clothes, medical care — even visits to those in prison. At least 16 global religions contain a version of the Bible’s “Golden Rule.”

These standards are the norms we lovingly apply to our pets and other animal species. Is it asking too much to suggest it’s long past time we insist the rights we accord our pets should protect our fellow Homo sapiens as well?

Thank you, Jane Goodell.

Nicholas Johnson is the author of Columns of Democracy; mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org.