# To kill a bald eagle **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 17, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758 "2009-05-17T16:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/41 "2009-05-18T04:49:14Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The ESA is clearly not based on the rights of individual members of a species: it’s designed to protect the species as a whole. Abortion laws, on the contrary, have nothing to say about our species as a whole, because frankly there’s not much abortion has to say about our species as a whole. They only address the rights of individuals. To more specifically answer the question the OP apparently was trying to ask, no, we don’t give animals more rights than humans, and the topic of abortion highlights this pretty well. Humans have the right to control their own reproduction, and their own bodies. If a human is pregnant, and wants to terminate that pregnancy, they can. If a human is not pregnant, and wishes to remain not pregnant, no one is going to force her to bear a child. Endangered animals do not have these rights. Species that are threatened are routinely artificially inseminated in hopes of increasing their numbers. And although animals have no concept of abortion, if a pregnant endangered animal in captivity were behaving in a way the threatened their pregnancy, they would be prevented from doing so. So no, reproductive choice is just one of the many ways we treat animals that is markedly worse than the way we treat humans. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/42 "2009-05-18T19:35:12Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Now now. > > It would be quite quick. It’s a long drive, it’s cold, and would probably require getting out of the car and trudging through cold shit before reaching a point where you could present yourself appropriately to the bear. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/43 "2009-05-18T20:14:55Z")
> [@auburntiger11](#): > > I do know birds lay eggs, contrary to what others think I know. As soon as I posted this I realized the horrible problem it had and knew I was going to get raped and you can see this has happened. I should have used another animal as an example or been more descriptive. Mabe I should have used a polar bear or a members dog. > > Yes the point was about abortion. It seems to me we are placing animals lives above human lives. And I was wondering what the difference in these situations would be with the law and with what others believed to be right. Nobody is forcing anyone to have abortions because we don’t think they can take care of their kids. The biggest problem with your original post wasn’t the hilarious “pregnant eagle” bit. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/44 "2009-05-18T20:26:01Z")
Damned pregnant welfare eagles. Cruising around in their souped up cadillacs while the responsible birds tend to their babies. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/45 "2009-05-18T23:10:30Z")
Quoth **Guinastasia** > [@](#): > > Actually, IIRC, many vets will spay a pregnant cat. Which requires – gasp! – aborting KITTENS!!! (Only if it is early in the pregnancy, same as humans, I believe) Yup. This was done to my mom’s current cat, back when she was barely more than a kitten herself. She was unusually small for her age, and we thought that she wasn’t old enough to need spaying yet, but managed to get herself knocked up anyway. The vet said that he was ordinarily very reluctant to do pregnant spays, but that the mother was too small to possibly survive carrying them to term, so he pretty much had to. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758/46 "2009-05-19T01:30:39Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Actually, IIRC, many vets will spay a pregnant cat. Which requires – gasp! – aborting KITTENS!!! (Only if it is early in the pregnancy, same as humans, I believe) > > (I assume they do the same to puppies?) They do the same in dogs. And it is not necessarily done early in pregnancy, but almost all the way through. Of course, the earlier the pregnancy the easier it is, but I’ve been in cat and dog spays were the fetuses would be the equivalent of a second or third trimester human fetus. Spay is still done, basically aborting them. In larger animals, if the animal is stuck, they may opt for instead killing the animal and removing it by pieces from the uterus in order to save the mare/cow/dam/ewe. And many veterinarians who do these procedures are themselves pro-life in the human side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-bald-eagle/496758.md?page=2)