I do not believe that any animal should be intentionally mistreated, mutilated, starved or tortured. I also don't have a problem with using them for medical research and see fur farms as no different from beef or chicken farming. However, as soon as we start assigning them "rights", we go to a place we cannot come back from. That is a major component of the "animal rights" mental illness, assigning human qualities to animals. Whether it's your dog Fido or Cecil the lion. Some folks have completely lost their perspective and simply believe a lot of things that are not true. This seems to go hand in hand with dehumanizing their fellow man. You cannot have a calm, intelligent debate with someone who worships their dog and just said they wished your family got cancer. They do not care for the truth if it is not congruent with their beliefs.
I live in the country between Memphis and Nashville. Most of the landscape here is rolling hills with farms and forests. We have huge tractors and Mennonite carriages on the road constantly. I was at the local Co-op in a nearby town one day picking up a few sacks of sweet feed when a local farmer came in to do the same. He was talking to the young guy loading trucks when a stray dog came up. He was a rough looking, straggly thing. He asked who the dog belonged to. Boy said he was a stray. Man asked why somebody didn't shoot him. Boy said somebody would probably get upset and call the police. Farmer thought for a moment and said, "I like my dogs but......they're dogs". I thought there was a lot of wisdom in that very simple statement, if you understood the meaning. Folks around here are intimately familiar with the cycle of life and death. Dogs and cats are kept outside in the dangers of the environment, where cats eat barn mice and dogs keep the coyotes away. Cats get eaten by coyotes and only the good ones survive. Dogs get bit by snakes. Cattle, pigs and chickens are slaughtered. Deer, turkey and waterfowl are hunted. Coons, possums, skunks, foxes and coyotes are opportunistic predators that will infiltrate a poorly constructed chicken house and wreak havoc. It stands in stark contrast to the urban life where dogs and cats are pampered and adored pets. Beef and chicken come from McDonald's and wild animals are only seen at the zoo or parks, where they are rated for how "cute" they are.