[sign1]Note:This subject always gets people angry; let’s try to behave ourselves for once, OK?[/sign1]
OK, that said: Yes, animals have a right to decent & humane treatment. They are part of God’s creation, & should be treated as such.
That does not mean that I do not believe that humans come first…It means that, to be human is to accept the responsibility for being the stewards of God’s creeation.
So you don’t think that animal rights groups like PETA are too extreme?
Now…about PETA…
I live near the folks who raise animals for essential medical research. (Not for testing Glow-In-The-Dark-Fuchsia Mascara). Periodically, PETA raids them…The result is always the same: When the people come to work (or to answer a late night police report of a break-in), PETA has let the animals out of their cages…and killed them.
Methodically, slicing their throats, poisoning them, you name it; whatever the chosen method, if
this http://bestsmileys.com/angry1/25.gif ] is “animal rights”, I will personally take vanilla.
So will my much beloved cat, who eats 9-Lives canned, & Purina Cat Chow.
And if you knew what goes into pet food, you wouldn’t begrudge it to pets! Do you really
want 
cow brains
http://bestsmileys.com/sick/9.gif&:eek: sheep lungshttp://bestsmileys.com/sick/9.gif &

pigs’ reproductive organshttp://bestsmileys.com/sick/9.gif for
your dinner???
http://bestsmileys.com/puking/5.gif
I didn’t think so…
The ASPCA is a wonderful organization. So are local Humane Societies. They take care of animals (including the thankless job of euthanizing animals who are too sick or injured or brutalized to rehabilitate).
Someone mentioned the RSPCA: Britain’s version of the ASPCA; also a fine group of people.
None of these folks are guilty of holding animals above humans…and neither are they guilty, like the PETA folks, of being on record as opposed to any & all companion animals. (They think animals are better off dead than being pets. I think they’re, not to put too fine a point on it, as crazy as bedbugs).