Since I keep going the rounds with this, with speciesists big and small:
Animal rights is the ethical position that all sentient beings are inherently free beings, and that humans – who have the option of recognizing this – have no moral justification for denying that fundamental freedom where possible.
Breeding and selling animals denies this freedom.
Consuming animals denies this freedom.
Using animals as objects for experimentation denies this freedom.
Exploiting animals for our entertainment denies this freedom.
Using animals as property – in all the many ways we choose to do it – denies this freedom.
Yes, even pet-keeping denies this freedom (but, in the interim, it may be the best of a bad set of options, under certain conditions).
It’s not up to us to grant animals the basic freedom that is their inherent right: it’s up to us to recognize it, just as we’ve expanded the sphere of freedom to many classes of humans to which it was once denied.
Is the animal rights case perfect? Of course not. No theory of moral rights ever devised by humans perfectly allows for the absolute freedom of all beings. Many human societies recognize a right to free speech (among humans), but nevertheless curtail some kinds of speech, anyway.
Will animal rights ever be “perfect?” Probably not. But we can do better that we’re doing now with regard to the rights of nonhumans. We just have to stop being selfishly concerned with our own desires – and ONLY those desires.
babble 