Ainekirjoituksen aihe on YO-kokeessa 19.3.1999.

2. Fighting for animal rights - forgetting human rights?

Some people are fighting for animal rights. They usually live in industrialized countries and are concerned about animals: are they hunted, do they live in freedom or are some species endangered.

But don't these people, who are fighting for animal rights forget something? Yes. There are millions of people in developing countries who haven't got enough food to eat or clean and safe drinking water to drink. Actually it could be said that the starving people in developing countries have worse rights than animals. I think we should first give these people help. After that we could help the threatened animals.

I don't claim that animal rights are not important. I just think that improving human rights, especially in developing countries, is more important than improving animal rights at the moment.

People in industrialized countries usually have plenty of food, sometimes so much that it's thrown away. Why don't people give this food to the starving? Because most people are so selfish. They only think about themselves.

I think that the biggest problem in improving human rights is people's attitudes. They just can't be changed so easily.