A couple good sites for some FAQ's about animal rights:
We think PETA says it best: "Animal rights
means that animals deserve
certain kinds of consideration—consideration of what is in their own best
interests regardless of whether they are cute, useful to humans, or an
endangered species and regardless of whether any human cares about them at
all (just as a mentally-challenged human has rights even if he or she is not
cute or useful or even if everyone dislikes him or her). It means
recognizing that animals are not ours to use—for food, clothing,
entertainment, or experimentation."
Absolutely not! Everyone is welcome to attend
any meetings and/or events.
One of the most important policies we have in this club is to respect EVERYONE-
no matter what their beliefs
and/or opinions are. No two people are the same, and our world would be
very boring if everyone agreed on everything. Our goal is to nurture our
differences and become united as a club. Having said that, consider every
meeting open and casual, and feel free to ask questions and/or bring up
discussion topics at any time. There will be some controversial topics we
will be discussing. But of course no one is obligated to take part in any
discussions and/or debates. They are entirely voluntary. If you have taken
a philosophy course here at FGCU, your professor most likely told you to
forget about everything you've been taught and to question what you have
grown up believing. We invite all of you to do the same as you start
becoming involved in the club. We will cover issues prevalent today in the
animal rights movement. Among these issues will of course be factory
farming and the way animals raised for food are treated.
Since more animals are killed for food than all
other areas of animal rights combined, we will talk about
vegetarianism and veganism, but no one will "preach" or "force" you to do
anything you do not feel comfortable doing. If you come to a meeting and
feel uncomfortable for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact one of the
club officers, and we will do our best to rectify the
situation. We haven't had any problems with this in the past though, and
don't foresee any problems in the future. Our job is simply to get
the information out to you. Although some of the issues we will be talking
about are not "pleasant," it is reality. Rest assured, though, that there will
not be gory videos at every meeting. There will be some videos
shown throughout the course of this semester that do contain images of
animal suffering because we believe that they are necessary in order to motivate
us to
do what we can to alleviate their suffering. We will give you notice before
showing these videos.
Yes! Most "Styles and Ways of Learning"
classes require all freshmen to
join a club their first year. If you do decide to join the club, the only
requirement is that you attend at least 4 meetings and/or events during the
course of the semester.