My Little Sister

             The first thing I do when I get home from school is scream, "Maya, I'm home!!" and she always comes running out of bed and greets me with her uttermost affection. Then I ask, "Maya, are you hungry?"; even if she obviously isn't, I still feed her a snack. Because she's been home alone all day, we usually play outside for around 20 minutes and play catch. After, we lay down on the couch and watch T.V. until about 5 p.m., when she usually hears the garage open, and we both know Daddy is home. Me and Maya then beg to go to the park where we continue to play catch. When we get home, Mommy is already cooking dinner. After we eat, Maya stays with Mom and Dad and then I do my work. Once they go to bed, Maya and I sneak into the living room where we can finally watch T.V. again. We usually fall asleep around midnight, and then our day of fun just has to continue the next day.

                Truthfully, Maya is always there for me. Even if she is only a dog, she acts like my little sister. I notice that although she can't speak, she is still capable of communication. She has different barks or cries that signal different wants and needs-- bark for food, cry to go out to do her business; I know exactly what she wants when she wants it. Sometimes, Maya jumps into my bed at night when it's colder than usual. She proves to be conceptual enough to understand that my bed is warmer than the kitchen floor. When she's left home alone for longer than usual, it's obvious that she is unhappy. She pouts and shows less enthusiasm when we get home; instead of greeting with a wagging tail, she continues to sleep as if we didn’t matter to her. She's so sassy.

                 Brought to my attention by "Of Primates and Personhood" by Ed Yong, I question, "Of all animals in the world, why grant 'a basic set of moral and legal rights' to only apes?" Dogs are used to test pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, pesticides, and household products-- force fed poison until they slowly die. Dogs are used to study human diseases such as heart and hormonal disorders, surgically manipulated and then pushed to exert energy until death. Then their damaged heart tissue is studied. " In a violent experiment at the University of Pennsylvania, puppies were bred to have a degenerative eye disease that culminates in blindness. During the study, 3-week-old beagles had their eyes cut out and were killed." So if we are to finally grant animals basic rights, why limit it to apes? All animals are helpless. All animals are inferior to the human ego. If animal rights are granted, they should be for all or none at all.