The terms "legal" and "illegal," as well as the relationship of certain actions to their "morality" or "immorality," are terms that generate debate and often present a barrier for students, who are in the process of developing critical thinking skills, to either condemn or applaud certain events that occur around them.
¿Que un hecho esté fuera de la ley significa que moralmente no sea aceptable? O, dicho de otro modo, ¿acaso unos hechos que se comenten bajo la legalidad no son susceptibles de ser rechazables?
This clash of terms and ideas is often easy to grasp in the classroom when we discuss human rights violations and abuses of power against the most vulnerable. In the following activity, we propose extending this debate to animals of a different species. To do so, we will use a fascinating news story that has made headlines around the world in recent days:
El pasado 28 de abril se celebró en Brescia (Italia) una multitudinaria manifestación contra un criadero de perros destinados a la vivisección. Green Hill, así es como se llama este centro, cría alrededor de 2.500 perros de raza beagle al año y los distribuye por laboratorios de todo el mundo para someterlos a diferentes torturas en nombre de la ciencia.
The following video captures the climactic moment of the march. A group of people, unable to contain their anger and helplessness, decided to jump the fence of the complex and rescue approximately forty dogs.
http://video.corriere.it/blitz-canile-liberazione-beagle/69e39b50-9157-11e1-9c63-0823a340624b
We also offer you two texts to work on in the classroom:
– Un TEXT escrito que nos ha enviado a Animal ClassSergio de Castro, profesor de Filosofía.
– Otro TOUREA'S TEXT que este mismo compañero nos sugiere para trabajar el tema. Se titula Civil disobedience: when the law is immoral.
Let the students judge for themselves!
We hope it will be a good debate.