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Originally Posted by All Systems Go
We are just animals. We have higher intelligence but this does not mae us special.
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Well yeah, it does. I'd say that humans are qualitively different from all other animals due to the immense differences in mental capacity; you'll notice that all the science and biology youre using to support your arguments was discovered by humans rather than mice or dolphins.
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We just evolved in this way first and in the future any other species may evolve in a similar path.
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That's true, and they will deserve rights to the extent that are capable of similar higher order thought processes to humans. If some scientist managed to genetically engineer a species of cats that were capable of complex conceptual thought and could grasp the concept of 'rights', then they should be given the same rights as humans But that day has not come yet.
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People don't consider a shark a higher form of life
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A higher form of life than what? I would suspect most people consider a shark a higher form of life than a bacteria. If all living things are equal, then what is the justification for granting rights to sharks and not trees and plants?
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No they don't but that doesn't mean it gives us the right to go and torture and animal because we can't communicate with it.
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Do you think that we should have a murder trial when a cat kills a mouse? Becuase if not, this suggests that the application of 'rights' to non-human animals cannot be the same as their application to us.