Rights to the matter

If animals have rights, this means they must be held accountable for their actions. Rights = accountability. Rights are NOT the same as reasonable welfare, which is a different post for another day.

www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets/leopard-steals-lion-cub/ar-AA15XRIP

This leopard killed a lion cub. Jumped into the bushes and came out with a cub. Hauled it up into a tree and ate it.

Under the idea that those with rights must bear the consequences of their actions, I ask what should be the consequences.

Let's get into some of the Devilish matters;

Cats are obligate carnivores.

They HAVE to eat meat to survive. https://rawznaturalpetfood.com/obligate-carnivore-cats/ That means something has to die. Leopards do not normally prey on lion cubs.

Walking down this road a step further, male lions take over a pride and kill cubs, making the lionesses come into heat so they breed.

If we are sticking to this whole obligate carnivore thing, wellllll, cats could be like buzzards. Wait for something to die naturally and eat the carcass. Carrion eaters do this.

It is natural.

Ma Nature is not harsh. Ma Nature does not care. Big difference. Kinda like the Cthulhu from HG Wells. The Old One is not evil, it is just that humanity is so far below its notice it treats people like we treat microbes. Cats kill and eat because it is natural.

Yanno what else is natural? People killing animals to eat them. Argue the point all you want, but people eating meat is natural. Once the ability to kill and eat animals is achieved that too becomes natural. The aforementioned buzzards will kills and eat critters. Killing something to eat it is faster and more efficient than waiting for something to die and then trying to find the carcass while it is still safe to eat.

It is natural.

Defense

Defending one's territory is also natural. I am not aware of any animal that willingly cedes territory to another of the same species. Sometimes, that defense requires a lethal interaction. If so, hey, there's a pile of meat.

Limited intellect

At some point, someone is going to say animals lack the ability to reason like humans. Never mind the growing mountains of scientific evidence that say otherwise. Let's take that statement as it stands.

What do humans do with another human that kills people but lacks the capacity to understand the gravity of their actions? We remove that person from society so they can no longer harm anyone else. These people are kept in mental institutions.

Yanno what is the animal world equivalent of a mental institution? A zoo. In case you don't wonder, I abhor zoos. Let the animals live in their natural habitat and go there to see 'em. I understand zoos and captive breeding programs are necessary to save some species because humans are stupid, but that's another post.

Baby got rights

So if we are to believe that animals have rights, then that baby lion had rights. It had the right to live, which was abruptly ended by a leopard. If the leopard lacks the ability to understand the gravity of its actions, then it has to be removed from its version of society to prevent it from doing the same thing again.

Lock that leopard up.

Blue whales, congress and celery

Realizing logic and reason and animal rights activists have as much in common as a stalk of celery and a member of congress - hang on, bad analogy. Ummm, as much in common as a stalk of celery and a blue whale, then what are we left with?

Nothing useful.

Dot to dot

The problem is people are not willing to connect dots in the proper order. That results in a very different picture. If we all connect the dots in whatever order we like best, then everyone has a different picture. Everyone has a different view and in today's world, each view must be equal to all the others. More nonsense, but things do appear to be swinging back to reality.

Take a page from the animal rights playbook and head coach Ingrid Newkirk who said, "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy." In other words. Ms. Newkirk believes that a rat should have the same set of rights as a human child. Talk about making your own picture from dots.

Gettin' equal

Equal rights does not mean equal treatment of unequal individuals. We ain't all created equal, albeit Samuel Colt did flatten that curve a lot. We do not hold a child to the same standards as we do an adult. 

We can be fair. So if someone intends to call me a murderer (and they have) because I shoot animals, then what shall we do about animals that kill other animals and eat them? Better yet, what shall we do with animals that kill other animals just for fun, looking at otters in particular here.

Going back to our spotted cat in Africa, being fair in this case means taking that leopard and removing it from African savannah so it cannot kill any more lion cubs.

But those who accuse me of murder are not interested in being fair. They connect dots that do not exist. They are not truly interested in rights.