The controversy over whether animals should be bred and raised for human use has its roots in the issue of whether animals have rights. Animal rights activists maintain that because animals are sentient and can feel pain, they have the same right to live as humans do. These advocates assert that it is therefore unacceptable for humans to exploit animals for their own uses, which includes killing them for food, using their skin or fur for clothing, or, according to some animal rights extremists, even owning animals as pets. According to the novelist Alice Walker, “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites, or women for men.” Animals have the right to be treated with the same respect as that given...