Books on animal rights

There is one justification, among others, for showing mercy to animals and protecting them:

“They have a mouth but not a tongue.”

When they are hungry or sick, if they need care or if they need something else, they explain it to us with different behaviors.

The ones that are a bit “human,” we show them interest, because we can understand this famous “empathy” concept or issues about life and rights of “others” when we are genuinely animal lovers.

But then, what are their rights? And to what degree do we know about them?

A book titled “Animal rights in 99 questions” by Ahmet Kemal Şenpolat, the president of the Federation of Animal Rights (HAYTAP), is a book that everyone, not just those with pets, needs to have in their library. 

Bekir Coşkun talks about the writer and what he has been doing in the preface. And Şenpolat starts the book with this sentence:

“If you bought this book with an interest in the subject and if you have been strolling inside the pages of the book, then I am assuming that you have volunteered to take big steps with us in a span of a short time in the fight for animal rights.”

You can also find what has been done to promote animal rights and the initiatives which have been reached at governmental levels in the preface.

In the beginning there is also a quote from author Jack London: “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

This quote makes the gist of the matter crystal clear...

Even those with pets have several questions in their heads. The book answers all these questions. Some of the questions are like this:

“Is there such a thing as the right of an animal? Why the rights of animals? Does a person who loves animals equal a person who does not like humans? Would instilling a love for animals and giving importance to loving animals during childhood education prevent the violence humans inflict on animals? What is the approach to animal rights in developed countries? Isn’t there proportionality between the development level of countries and respect to animal rights? Is there a legal regulation on caring for a pet at home?”

You will be much more conscientious after reading this book.

A prominent academic and animal lover

After having talked about Şenpolat’s book, I wanted to mention one of Turkey’s prominent legal experts, Prof. İsmet Sungurbey (1928-2006), who had written a book on animal rights. It has been accepted as one of the best and most comprehensive books on the subject.

Prof. Sungurbey was not just a person who contributed to the theoretical framework of animal rights. He was a famous friend of animals. He used to get up at five in the morning, walk to the university and take care of 500 stray cats and dogs around it. He would do the same at night. “This has been the case for 20 years and I have been spending all my income on that,” he had said once in an interview.

By the way, the adventures of Üzüm, a cat who became a social media phenomenon, are now in a book. 

“Are there some things that a cat thinks about when it looks at our faces without a reason? Or are we taking care of something our soul needs when we talk to our cats? There are probably scientific answers to these questions. I’d rather like to think that cats think and speak like us,” said writer Yaşar M. Taşkale.