This is a pretty common view -- and it's how the language of rights works, really (you have the right to X, all humans have human rights, etc.), but it's not tr

This is a pretty common view -- and it's how the language of rights works, really (you have the right to X, all humans have human rights, etc.), but it's not true. The language is misleading. Think about what rights you have when you're alone. None whatsoever -- rights only apply when you're interacting with others! Rights are behavioral rules that we agree on, encoded as if they were inherent to people because it's simpler to think of them that way (and our society benefits from the misdirection, on the whole). Rights are things that thinking beings can "respect" in others (and follow the behavioral rules), or not -- this works the same for respecting human or animal rights -- but they are a completely human construct.