Thursday, October 29, 2009

Bob Barker Sponsors Animal Rights Studies

October 28, 2009
Barker bestows another donation on alma mater
Iconic TV host endows $1 million for animal rights professorship at Drury.
Didi Tang News-Leader

Former "The Price is Right" host Bob Barker on Tuesday donated $1 million to Drury University to establish a professorship of animal rights at his alma mater.

The professorship, which goes to Patricia McEachern, is intended to allow McEachern -- who has been a French professor at Drury -- to work full-time to develop the nation's first undergraduate program in animal rights.

"It's the most extraordinary opportunity I've ever been given," McEachern said.

The endowed professorship came 20 months after the iconic TV host gave Drury another $1 million to establish the Drury University Forum on Animal Rights, which has led to an undergraduate course on animal ethics.

Barker, an animal rights activist, also has established endowment funds at eight law schools on animal rights law, including Harvard Law School.

But his latest effort aims to eventually establish an undergraduate degree program that he hopes would not only teach students to respect animals but also train future animal rights activists. Read More

Bob Barker has been spending his retirement years giving money to universities to establish curriculum dealing with animal rights. It appears that rather than teaching students about proper animal care and welfare, they will teaching students that animals should have rights. Many that advocate for animal rights are trying to bestow human type rights on animals. It will be important for those of us in animal agriculture to follow these type of programs very carefully to insure they are accurately representing animal agriculture and our need to feed the world.

1 comment:

Bea Elliott said...

Hello, I sure to wish you would make more clear what you mean by "human type rights". I'm figuring that "human type rights" would mean the right to an education, fair housing, a license to drive or to marry. The right to purchase a home, vote, travel freely within the country or to bake cookies at home. I don't know that anyone who advocates for "animal rights" wishes to impart any of those activities to nonhumans. That just about leaves only one "right" left: The "right" to life. Are you saying that this "right" is exclusively a "human right"?

As I said, I sure would appreciate a clarification of what you define as a "human type right".

Thank you.