Animal Rights: Overview

Introduction

The concept of animal rights is based on the belief that nonhuman animals have interests and rights similar, and in some cases equal, to those of humans. As such, the animal rights movement seeks to include nonhuman animals in the so-called moral community that humans belong to, by encouraging others to respect their basic interests as they would the interests of a human. In practical terms, the adoption of animal rights into legislation would mean that nonhuman animals could not be used for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation. Opponents of animal rights argue that animals lack both the mental and moral capacity to be granted even the most basic rights.

The question of personhood is often raised when discussing animal rights. Many animal rights activists claim that allowing all humans the rights of personhood while denying those same rights to all nonhumans is immoral. Richard Ryder coined the term "speciesism" in 1970 to express this sentiment, echoing similar terms such as racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism.

The three basic rights that most animal rights activists feel should be awarded to nonhuman animals are similar to those guaranteed to United States citizens in the Declaration of Independence: life, individual liberty, and exemption from torture. More moderate animal rights groups maintain that nonhuman animals should not be made to suffer unnecessarily, but since only humans have an observable ability to enter into a social contract, they are the only ones eligible for rights. This position is often called animal welfare, as it concentrates on animal treatment but does not ascribe nonhuman animals any specific rights.

Understanding the Discussion

Animal testing: Experiments performed on nonhuman animals. The majority of this testing is for research into finding cures for human diseases, notably AIDS, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Pigs are commonly used in experiments involving the cardiovascular system because theirs resembles the cardiovascular system of humans, while mice, which have a similar genetic structure to that of humans, are usually used for studying genetic disorders.

Factory farming: A method of producing animal-derived food products, developed in the 1950s, designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost. Activist and writer Ruth Harrison is believed to have coined the term circa 1963. Common factory farming methods include confining animals in small windowless cubicles, feeding animals hormones to improve the flavor and texture of their meat and milk, and limiting exercise and interaction with other animals. Factory farming relies on the principles of mass production and assembly lines to create a product in the quickest, most inexpensive way possible.

Nonhuman animal: Any member of the kingdom Animalia of any species other than Homo sapiens sapiens.

Vegan: A human diet that does not include any animal flesh or any products that come from or negatively impacts animals, including milk, cheese, honey, eggs, and gelatin. Also, one who practices this kind of diet. Both "vegan" and "vegetarian" have been extended to include entire lifestyles, rather than merely diet. This includes abstaining from the use of leather products, refusing to patronize circuses and other forms of animal entertainment, and purchasing only those products that have not been tested on animals.

Vegetarian: As it is generally used, a human diet that does not include any animal flesh, but may include eggs, milk, honey, and other animal products. Also, one who practices this kind of diet.

History

The animal rights movement has been active in the United States since the early nineteenth century, and in other parts of the world for even longer. The first time the United States officially recognized the rights of animals was in 1822, with the passage of the Ill-Treatment of Cattle Act, which was sponsored by Richard Martin. Despite being a lifelong sport hunter, Martin was influential in forming some of the first animal-protection societies and laws, following up the Cattle Act in 1826 with his Bill to Prevent the Cruel and Improper Treatment of Dogs.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded in 1866 to bring national attention to the issue of animal rights and to what activists saw as the mistreatment of animals. One of the ASPCA's most well-known battles was with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in the 1950s, over the treatment and care of the show's animal performers.

The animal rights movement, which claims that billions of animals are killed each year, is unique in that it is the only social movement in which the ostensibly oppressed party is not the party directly campaigning for an end to its oppression. Many critics find this detail damaging to the movement's purposes, and point to it as evidence that nonhuman animals should not be granted rights, since they cannot even conceive of the rights they are supposedly being denied.

One of the most controversial animal rights groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), was founded in 1980. PETA advocates complete abstention of the use of animals for food, clothing, experiments, entertainment, and any other human purposes, and for the adoption of a vegan lifestyle. PETA employs many methods to disseminate its message, including litigation, such as the landmark 1981 Silver Spring monkeys case, in which the Supreme Court found an animal experimenter guilty of charges of animal cruelty. PETA also employs advertising campaigns to spread its message; one well-known 2001 campaign pictured vegan model and actor Pamela Anderson, scantily clad and promoting the cause of vegetarianism. Another campaign made explicit comparisons between the treatment of animals in modern society and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Other animal rights groups, such as the ALF (Animal Liberation Front), which was established in Great Britain, illegally disrupt the work of animal testing laboratories. According to the FBI in 2004, animal rights and environmental rights activists had been responsible for over 1,100 crimes since 1976, resulting in damages conservatively estimated at $110 million. These crimes have included raids on mink farms or publicizing the contact information of researchers and then encouraging people to harass them. These tactics have successfully freed many animals but tend to anger people on both sides of the issue. Many more conservative animal rights groups feel that their efforts are overshadowed by the sensationalism of militant campaigns.

Meanwhile, opponents of animal rights believe that these tactics stand in the way of progress. Proponents of animal testing point to the advances in disease treatment made possible by animal testing. Insulin injections for diabetes patients, chemotherapy for cancer patients, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplants, as well as vaccines for smallpox, polio, and yellow fever were all tested on animals before they were used on humans. If nonhuman animals were to be given rights analogous to those of humans, almost all animal experimentation would become criminalized and would cease. The majority of scientists claim that this would have a devastating effect on scientific inquiry and advancement, particularly in the medical field.

The United States Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in 2006, which allows for more leverage in the prosecution of animal rights activists who break the law by freeing animals, or by otherwise disrupting the activities of animal testing facilities. The law also increases protection for individuals associated with animal testing facilities, who are often targeted by activists.

Animal Rights Today

As is the case with many contentious issues where a conflict of rights exists, the terms of the animal rights debate make universal acceptance of either position difficult, as each side bases its arguments on premises that the opposing side rejects outright. For example, many opponents of animal rights claim that the reason humans are afforded rights and respect that no other animals have is that humans are the only animals with an immortal soul. This idea is reinforced by Christian and Jewish biblical teachings, which also claim that humans were specifically given dominion over the other animals on the earth.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Pope Pius IX prohibited the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from setting up a location in Rome, stating that humans have no duty to other animals. This argument is dismissed by animal rights activists, many of whom claim that there is no evidence that humans have souls, nor is there evidence that other animals do not, and thus species cannot be the determining factor for inclusion in a moral community. Activists say that the intelligence, compassion, suffering, and community values that are so treasured in humanity are evident in other animals as well, which is enough reason to grant them certain rights.

A group called the Great Ape Project (GAP), started in 1993 by Princeton professor Peter Singer and philosopher Paola Cavalieri, seeks to extend human rights, particularly the three core rights of life, liberty, and humane treatment, to the great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos, all of which share approximately 97 percent of their DNA with humans. Since the group's founding, it has lobbied the United Nations to adopt the "Declaration on the Great Apes." Once rights are established, GAP looks to the release of great apes from captivity. A victory for great apes in the United States came in 2015, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that all chimpanzees in the United States, including the more than seven hundred used in research, would be classified as endangered, meaning anyone wishing to conduct research on them would need to get a permit under the Endangered Species Act; this move was ended the majority of invasive research on chimpanzees in the US. Meanwhile, in 2018, the New York State Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the appeal motion of the Nonhuman Rights Project—which has also long fought for legal nonhuman animal rights such as liberty—arguing for the release from private, caged confinement and subsequent sanctuary relocation of two chimpanzees according to habeas corpus; one of the judges, however, wrote an opinion in which he emphasized a need to reconsider how nonhuman animals are viewed legally, especially in terms of rights such as freedom. The Nonhuman Rights Project brought another habeas corpus personhood case to the New York State Court of Appeals, this time on behalf of an elephant named Happy, held alone in an enclosure at the Bronx Zoo, and asserted that the court's 2021 decision to hear the group's appeal marked a significant step in the animal rights movement and the definition of personhood.

The use of animals in entertainment for humans remains another area of controversy. PETA, the Humane Society of the United States, and other animal rights activists have argued that animals in circuses are bred, exploited, and maltreated solely for the enjoyment of humans. Activists have cited the successful Cirque du Soleil's crew of all-human performers to argue that animals are not needed to attract audiences. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was sued unsuccessfully over alleged maltreatment of its Asian elephants, including prolonged confinement and the use of chains and bull hooks; however, in 2016, under public pressure, Ringling Bros. ended their elephant acts and retired them to a company-owned conservation center in Florida. In the spring of 2017, after 146 years of operation, Ringling Bros. closed due to declining sales, which the company attributed to the animals no longer being part of the show. Longtime fans decried the loss of an iconic American institution. In 2022, Ringling Bros. announced it was bringing its circus back, this time without featuring any animals, in a reimagined show called "The Greatest Show on Earth." The North American tour began in 2023. Still, the fate of all circuses remained an open question in the digital age.

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