Understanding Animal Rights and Neglect Laws

Just where this article should go is hard to see from my current vantage point. I am currently hovering in low Earth orbit, en-route to a distant Galaxy. Flying towards the system of Orsionx, I have been given a brief respite from my exploratory mission to document Earth’s human civilization. As I take a break in writing of many of Earth’s cultural idiosyncrasies, I have been given the task of explaining the human concept of, and laws governing, animal rights to you, the readers of iCollege.

With particular attention to the laws pertaining to animal care, and neglect there of, I will touch briefly upon this rather strange facet of Earth society before continuing my exploration.

The treatment and rights of animals is quite a strange concept to us, intelligent beings of the Galaxy, for it goes against our natural order. In the abundant vegetation of our home world, Zorgal, we are never hungry, and as such cannot imagine the necessity to feed animals. Further, we never kill one another – thus, it would take a very bad day indeed for me to kill even one of my fellow beings, much less an animal. Thus, efforts to protect animals, who are always among us, seem like a pointless exercise. However, to satisfy my orders, I must recount to you the laws your culture has established.

The laws pertaining to the care of animals, including the prevention of their neglect, vary from state to state on Earth. Of particular concern, and the focus of this article, are the laws in the state of Michigan. As I do not have access to the Internet, I can only confirm for you certain aspects relevant to my task. I ask that you excuse any lack of specificity resulting in my ‘internet-less’ status.

Further, my absence from the interwebs means that I do not have the ability to link you directly to other references. My download will be particularly slowed by this article. However, the senior members of my ship have given me permission to make some inferences from similar laws in other states and locales. As such, one need not look far to see that Michigan places a very high premium on care for animals. By way of specific example, a property owner, operator or caretaker is liable for any personal injury, including emotional damages, which result in any manner from the owner’s, operator’s or caretaker’s failure to maintain the animal in a safe environment. A violation of such a law would be punishable by up to 93 days in jail, as well as various monetary fines and penalties.

In the Galaxy, we universally agree that no amount of damage is worth injury, much less death. With that in mind, you can imagine just how severe the penalties for animal harm must be here on Earth. In fact, where I am from, a breach of these laws would result in a swift execution without hesitation. However, Earthlings seem to have a lunacy about them, for they still allow breaches of these laws to exist. This includes instances of human attack, and the loss of life, death or injury caused to humans or other creatures as a result of the improper maintenance or the aforementioned failure to maintain the animal in a safe environment. Such behavior makes no sense to me, though it appears not to result in very high rates of injury, death, or emotional trauma.

Indeed, even those members of our crew, quite intelligent, behave strangely, and suffer from many ailments which should cause them to perish but do not. I have repeated many instances of injury and death over our long journey. Yet, they, unlike your species, have not reported upon the existence of comprehensive animal neglect laws in Michigan. Though, I expect that will soon change, as they have recently asked me to replace their ‘VLC, Vitoc, VLC Media Player, for a new VLC MP3 Media Player’ or some such audio play device. When I leave here, I intend to return, for I now have a feature I am working on: as best as I can tell, it will be called ‘HOW TO UNDERSTAND HUMAN IDIOCIES’. With this, I will be able to properly translate and explain the actions, thoughts and results of your species.

Until then, I remain your faithful explorer, and find your ‘animal neglect laws michigan’ to be quite interesting and useful.