r limited ability to harm humans. First of all, this statement is false animals clearly have the ability to attack if so desired not by the human, but by the decision of the animal. In our sculpted urban environments animals are exiled and in relatively minimal human contact. Such predacious animals, that have historically attacked humans, have been kept out of our society by enormous architectural fences. These animals that attack usually need vast open spaces to hunt game, these environments hardly exist any more, and these animals are rarely in contact with humans. These urban areas do not attract animals with the capacity to attack humans but that is not to say that these animals do not have the ability to harm us, we have just manipulated our environment so that they are on the outside. One thousand years ago, humans would have been more likely to have been attacked by an animal. Our modern buildings and infrastructure isolate us from these creatures and has also reduced their population making it less dangerous for a human to worry about being struck by a beast on their way to work.Also, Narveson states that "Humans have excellent reason to be fearful about each other" (193). She goes on to state that humans not only have the capacity to harm one another but are often "interested in doing so"(194). In the case of an animal attacking a human Narveson argues that it sporadically occurs and in the event of an animal attacking a human we can simply cage or shoot them. Is this any different from how we treat human on human violence? The penalty for harming another human is often imprisonment or death, just like the penalty an animal would suffer at the hand of a human. The concept of suffering has often been applied to understand whether an animal deserves rights. Like Vicki Hearne, I too argue that suffering should not be an antidote to decipher whether an animal deserves rights or not. An animal's ability to feel the s...
