Thinking Critically About Animal Rights
(What you need to know, and what you need to question)

Animal Rights: What it is, What it isn’t

This is an important starting point, as the term
doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. For
instance, the mainstream media seems to think
that anyone who cares at all about animals is an
“animal rights activist,” and that all animal rights
activists are members of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) or the Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS).

But these characterizations belie the spectrum
of people interested in improving the lives of nonhuman
animals and changing our relationship with
nonhuman animals, and how those interests manifest
themselves. Let’s begin with two important definitions
that are noticeably absent from (or unclearin) mainstream
discussions about animal rights in America.

Animal Rights

No one is campaigning for their dog’s right to vote.
For the purposes of this brochure,animal rights refers to one
right only: the right to not be used by another. This is also
known as “abolition,” a nonviolent approach to animal rights that:

(1) requires the abolition of animal exploitation and
rejects the notion that animal use is acceptable if
we treat animals “humanely;”

(2) requires only that nonhumans be sentient in order to be
full members of the moral community and to have the
right not to be treated as human resources; and

(3) regards veganism as its moral baseline. (This
definition comes from Professor Gary Francione,
at www.abolitionistapproach.com.).

Note that nonviolence includes both the way activism is
conducted (i.e., harming people physically is
never an objective), as well as the way animals
are treated (i.e., healthy animals, such as cats,
dogs, geese, alligators and raccoons, who are
either experiencing an overpopulation crisis or
deemed a nuisance for whatever reason, are not
to be killed.

“Euthanasia” is when you provide a painless death
for someone who is terminally ill or suffering gravely.
Ending the lives of healthy animals, no matter how it’s
done, is called “killing.”).

Both the theory and the goal of abolition profoundly
differ from that of animal welfare/animal protection.