Gallup News Service recently conducted a poll of 1,005 American adults and asked them questions about animal rights and various animal-related issues. The poll generally shows a complete rejection of animal rights ideas, but also shows the need to continue to education Americans about the role that animals play in things like medical research.
The poll leads off by asking people if animals deserve the same rights as people, deserve some protection, or don’t need much protection. Seventy-one percent of respondents answered that animals deserved some protection while only 3 percent responded that animals don’t need much protection. But a full 25 percent responded that animals deserve the same rights as people.
That is an odd result, until you look at additional data in which it turns out that these people think that animals deserve the same rights as people in the same way that people who occasionally eat beef tell pollsters that they are vegetarians.
Among those who supported giving animal the same rights as human beings,
- Forty-four percent oppose banning medical research on laboratory animals.
- Thirty-eight percent oppose banning product testing on laboratory animals.
- Twenty-three percent oppose passing strict laws concerning the treatment of farm animals.
- And 55% oppose banning all types of hunting.
As the Gallup organization speculated,
The substantial numbers of people who oppose these proposals — despite saying they want the same rights for animals that people have to be free from harm and exploitation — suggest that the issue may be more complex than some initially expected. Perhaps the initial question evoked images of pets rather than “laboratory” animals, and the latter question may conjure up pictures of mice and rats rather than, say, dogs and cats.
Americans rejected overwhelmingly banning all medical research on animals, the banning of animal testing for non-medical products, and the banning of hunting. But by 62 percent to 35 percent, those polled favored “passing strict laws concerning the treatment of farm animals.”
Source:
Public Lukewarm on Animal Rights. David W. Moore, Gallup, May 21, 2003.