Animal Rights and Technology: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Animal rights are a contentious issue that frequently causes ethical quandaries in modern civilization. To better understand the parameters that determine the human-animal relationship from an ethical standpoint, an empirical study was conducted as part of ongoing research using a new and original questionnaire with one main research question: How are animals identified in relation to technology? Another question concerns humans' ethical treatment of animals. We gathered information on the perceptions and levels of familiarity of postgraduate students in the Humanities and Science Engineering on this topic. On a second level, the relationship between animals and technology was examined, as technology is a component of civilization. Initial findings indicate that the respondent's background influences their response to the topic of whether animals have technology and civilization. This is significant because it (re)defines how we should treat animals ethically. The findings also suggest that the use of experimental animals is permitted for scientific objectives rather than commercial ones.