Oil has always been on top. Always. The water has always been at the bottom. Always. In a bottle, oil is always considered to be at the top, the most stable and important substance, at a higher level than water. Oil is at the top of the liquid chain. Again, they are both liquids and have similar characteristics; does this mean the water and oil should be at the same level? Should they be considered equal? Many people agree that animals should have certain rights. Animal rights, by definition, are the right of an animal to live free from human-caused suffering. However, there is ongoing debate over what rights animals should have. Should animals be considered equal to the human species or kept below it? Although animals share many attributes with human beings, there are too many differences between them to be considered equal. First of all, animals do not need to be equal or have the same privileges because of their basic needs. There are 3 main necessities: food and water, shelter and habitat. Food and water for them to eat and drink, shelter to protect them from predators and bad weather, and habitat for them to live and interact with others (“The Basic Needs of Animals”). Considering that the sole purpose of animals' lives is to survive and perpetuate their species, certain freedoms do not concern them and would be wasted on them: the right to drive, the right to vote, the freedom to walk the streets without leashes and the freedom to eat whatever they want. So of course it would be unrealistic to say that animals are equal to humans when more than half of what humans do doesn't matter to them. What most animal rights activists would say is that animals should not be neglected because of their intelligence..... . middle of paper......Web. March 25, 2011. Katz, Jon. “Animals need better care, not equal rights.” Slate (March 5, 2004). Rep. in Animal Rights. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. March 25, 2011. Kobilnyk, Andrey. “Do animals have rights? » First Science. October 1, 2007. Web. January 26, 2011. Stiver, Randy. “God did not make animals the moral equivalent of humans.” Animal rights. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing viewpoints in context. Internet. March 7, 2011. Thorpe, Joey. Personal interview. January 31, 2011. Will, George F. “British Pets Get 'Freedoms'; humans need to be free from government supervision over all relationships between people, or between people and tropical fish. Newsweek February 13, 2006: 72. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Internet. March 25. 2011.