World Leader - At What Price? A Look at Lagging American Animal Protection Laws

The United States might have been the first to the moon and to Mars, but it is far behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to protecting species here on Earth. The United States affords the most innocent of citizens, the nonhuman animals, almost no protection from societal exploitation. It has been more than 100 years since President Abraham Lincoln allegedly declared, I am in favour of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being. Yet in those 100 years, the United States has managed to pass a meager amount of animal protection laws, all of which protect only a minor percentage of the animals subjected to societal and industrial exploitation on a daily basis. This paper will begin in showing that the United States has done virtually nothing to ensure that all creatures are free from unnecessary pain and suffering. This paper will then explore what other developed countries have done towards protecting nonhuman animals in the same amount of time. This paper in no way suggests that any of the countries to be discussed have solved the problem of animal exploitation; however it does suggest that many of those countries have at least begun to make a legitimate and concerted effort towards protecting animals from human greed