Motion: Banning the keeping of animals as pets.
Position: Proposing
(1st MIN)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Judges, Mr/Madam Chair….
This House believes in banning the keeping of animals as pets.
As I am proposing the motion I would like to make three points to convince you that banning people from keeping animals as pets is the right choice. My first point will be about how pets are abused by their owners, my second point will involve the relationship between an animal and its ‘master’ then that will flow into my final point on how owning a pet is actually bad for you.
BUT…
One point I would like to make very clear is that we are NOT urging people to throw their pets out the front door and forget they ever existed or God forbid kill them. NO! In fact we are stressing to you the exact opposite. We would let these animals live out their lives and we would never ever consider killing a single animal because of our belief. We aren’t here to discuss the massacre of every domestic pet on Earth, we are here because we are looking out for these animals. We are here for the good of the pets, not for selfish reasons! Now, I hope that we are perfectly clear on that point and I would like to move on to my first point.
(2nd MIN)
If you own a pet please raise your hand. Would you ever mistreat it deliberately, starve it or abandon it? You may shake your head but there are people out there that do cruel, heartless things to animals, things they don’t deserve. By slowly removing animals from households WITHOUT KILLING OR ABANDONING THEM, they won’t suffer nearly as much from these monstrous, extreme and shocking acts. They are disowned, beaten and left in pounds but one of the most disgusting of stories to arise about a couple from Somerset who have been banned from owning any animals for the next 8 years and why I hear you ask, because they kept 69 animals in their small, cramped house. All of them suffering from malnutrition and neglect! In eight years time that couple will restart their sick collection of pets until they are caught again, putting more animals lives at risk.
(3rd MIN)
My second point involves the relationship between a pet and their owner. We say that there is no difference in power between an animal and it’s human owner but we still refer to ourselves as their ‘masters.’ Now if you don’t mind I’m going to read out the definition of the word ‘master’ from the Oxford English Dictionary.
‘Master- a person who has complete control of something.’
The domestic animals that we have mentioned deserve to be free not controlled by a human overlord. We are in charge of these animals, we decide when they eat, drink and even go to the toilet and that is NOT fair. They SHOULD be free and not cooped up in a house all day!
(4th MIN)
My final point will show you how having a pet around the house is actually a serious danger. Did you know that you are around 100 times more likely to be injured or killed by a dog than you are by a venomous snake? With no solid evidence that owning a pet will add more years to your life and that an article on scienceandreligiontoday.com states,
‘Studies have found that pet owners were at greater risk for depression, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, obesity, hypertension, gastric ulcers, and migraine headaches.’
I’m sorry but that isn’t something that I would like to suffer from. Clearly we would be better off without animals in our homes and they would be better off without us but something I would like to remind you of.
(5th MIN)
It wasn’t long ago that we could buy exotic animals from Harrods, imagine people walking out the London department store with lions, tigers and even camels. Now that has been banned and we haven’t seen that image for absout 30 years so why haven’t we done the same with the domestic animals we have sitting in our homes. They deserve the freedom, you might say it is our right to own and look after a pet but surely the animal has the rights to independence just as any human does. We shouldn’t be so selfish as to hold onto these animals for our own enjoyment. When we say we would do anything for our pets and that their happiness is key, then surely letting them have the freedom and independence they clearly crave wouldn’t be so hard since it will leave them content. We are only proposing this motion for the happiness and well being of animals around the globe and for that reason I urge you to side with the proposing team. Thank you.
