The Five Animal Freedoms and How They Are Ignored | Teen Ink

The Five Animal Freedoms and How They Are Ignored

February 18, 2014
By WorldEvolver GOLD, Tenterden, Other
WorldEvolver GOLD, Tenterden, Other
10 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
“Don't say what you don't want repeated.”


First of all what are the five animal freedoms and why do they exist!?

The "Five Freedoms", also known as "Brambell's Five Freedoms", was started in the year of 1965, stemming from a UK Governmental Report on livestock husbandry; created for those animals under human protection and ownership. It is now used widely by animal rights groups, organisations and professional animal carers such as vets. Including the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

However, there are still so, so many people that abuse and ignore these laws. That is why this report is so important: for those who do not understand why they should be in place; don't care; or abide by them though go blind to others who don't, for whatever reasons they carry.

The Five Freedoms Include:

Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by providing enough fresh water and the right type and amount of food to keep them fit.

Freedom from Discomfort - by making sure that animals have the right type of environment including shelter and somewhere comfortable to rest.

Freedom from Pain, Injury and Disease - by preventing them from getting ill or injured and by making sure animals are diagnosed and treated rapidly if they do.

Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by making sure animals have enough space, proper facilities and the company of other animals of their own kind.

Freedom from Fear and Distress - by making sure their conditions and treatment avoid mental suffering.

In many cases these laws have been there to protect and shelter animals from harm, a good example of this statement can be found in every day life, as we switch on the news to find a wo/man being arrested for not abiding by these laws and the animal being swiftly removed into a more caring environment, like shelters for abused pets or those animals that have suffered at the hungry delighted claws of factory farms.

And in many more cases we can see how these laws of nature are ignored just by walking down the street, watching the middle aged man shouting at his quivering young pup, bruises painting his young body, walking past a butchers I see the basic law of nature to allow oneself to live being violated most cruelly. Though quite a few people would not understand that last sentence: Where does butchery come into the Five Freedoms? In fact, most, and practically nearly all factory farms the animals are starved and left thirsty, depending on the animal. They are kept in cramped, disease ridden, and darkened spaces. And who says an animal would feel no fear under such circumstances, who says they would behave as of the norm? Who says the Five Freedoms do not apply to death?

The Five Freedoms are some of the most sacred laws for animal protection, they label all of the items necessary to look after animals in the right, humane, and equal fashion of living.

They also mirror, slightly, that of our own human rights. The right to eat, to feel safe, to be healthy, etc. are all rights we would expect every day in a normal righteous society. These laws get abided by otherwise strict punishments are enacted. Though for animals it is a quick slap on the wrist, a telling off or a blind eye. It is only on a rare occasion that some serious action would take place. And when that does it is a miracle that anyone would remember it or let alone learn from it.

Animal rights, whatever anyone would say, is far below on the scale of importance for quite a lot of people which is why, in my own opinion many people are left cold in the world. In an entire street when someone falls down I will only ever see a few people run over to help them up.

Kindness can be learnt not just born with, though not many people ever pass on the message to others. This is the same for animals just as it is for humans. Every life and glimmer of light matters. No one is unimportant. Remember this lesson next time you look at an animal, a slave to our humanity, a person who just fell down, or a scared soon to be dead, squashed spider!


The author's comments:
The Five Animal Freedoms are laws, or rather guidelines, put in place from 1965 to protect animals under the ruling of a human, to make sure they are properly looked after.

However, these 'guidelines' are quite often ignored and overlooked by ourselves and others from the extreme to the simplest of actions.

This article looks closely at that and how The Five Freedoms can be interpreted deeply in very different ways!

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