Gary L Francione
Do animals have moral rights? What kind of legal status should we afford them?
Implications
- It is absurd that some animal rights campaigners maintain that we should allow animals the same legal rights enjoyed by humans.
- A sensible and coherent theory of animal rights should focus on just one right for animals—the right not to be treated as the property of humans.
- Recognizing animal rights really means accepting that we have a duty not to treat sentient nonhumans as resources.
- There is no necessity for 99% of our animal uses.
Do animals have moral rights? What kind of legal status should we afford them? The debate on these issues has become very confused. Some animal rights campaigners maintain that we should allow animals the same legal rights enjoyed by humans. That is, of course, absurd. There are many human rights that simply have no application to nonhumans.
