The Universal Declaration of Living Rights

We as a people have come so far in our history, we have built monuments and great cities. We have taught one another and learned from one another, we have created masterpieces of pen and brush, and we have also fought to define who we are as a people.

Many have struggled, fought, suffered, and many have died to not only define who we are as a society, but what we stand for. Some have fought to exist, some have fought for life, some for freedom; some for the right to love; some to be treated like people, and some have fought for those voiceless among us big and small.

Out of the ashes of these victories we have arisen stronger and wiser than before. We have learned what freedom means, and we have created inalienable rights with pen and paper to define these freedoms. Some have even gone to war to see that hard fought freedom reign. For as far as we have come, we still have miles to tread.

Even today, some of us still do not share the rights most of us take for granted, while others die while we wait for the ink to dry on newly learned lessons.

Some among us feel that to be defended by these inalienable rights you need the ability to think and speak. Therefore animals among us suffer more than any human would. Some of the treatment given to animals is so barbaric, that if the same were to happen to a group of people, wars would be waged to stop it. Instead their cries and deaths fall on silent hearts.

For those animal lovers, you know full well animals have souls. They love deeply, cry, feel fear, and pain. They are our steadfast protectors, friends and family, and they too deserve to be defended. There are those courageous among us who have spent decades fighting for the voiceless and I applaud them.

We need to redefine our standards of who and what we protect. I am of the belief that all life is sacred, big and small, and it needs to be defended as fiercely as you or I.

The time has come to chart a new course towards a future for all life on this planet. We need to ratify a new declaration, The Declaration of Living Rights, to protect all living beings, and not just the ones with gold and silver.

We only get one planet, and if the human race is going to survive we need to protect all life. In our age, we as a species have witnessed the extinction of more animals than in any other period in recorded history. If the animals and plants die, then we will inevitably follow. Therefore, for the survival of the species, we need to adopt these rules immediately:

The Universal Declaration of Living Rights

1. All beings are to be protected at all costs against loss of life.
2. All beings are to be defended against cruelty and malice.
3. All beings are to be sheltered in natural, and man-made, habitats to ensure no interference in the life cycles of their sub-species.
4. All must be defended from senseless death, dismemberment, or cruelty.
5. All beings must be free from chains and cages.

Once these rules are heeded, and life is once again held as sacred, we will all begin to thrive, and our species will not only continue to exist, but we will deserve to.

“You either create a world for everyone or else you will end up in a world fit for no one”

John Ames Birch