Key Principles of Animal Rights as I See It

I believe kindness and compassion towards non-human animals is the bare minimum. I will attempt to break down the key principles surrounding animal rights:

• Co-existence: We must acknowledge that we are only just one of the many species living on planet Earth – we must learn to share and co-exist in harmony with all of earth’s living creatures
• Respect: We must respect all other creatures on this Earth and their right to live freely, separately from us
• Autonomy: Animals do not exist for us; they have unique, rich and meaningful lives, independent of ours. They also should have a right to bodily autonomy
• Objectification: Animals are not objects, they like us, possess sentience – they experience the world in meaningful ways. They too, feel pain, joy, sadness, and of course, they suffer. We have no right to use animals within the systems of exploitation we have created
• Reject speciesism: One species should not be deemed superior over another, based on arbitrary criteria

Animal Rights vs Animal Welfare

Anyone that has been in the activist community will come to know the difference between the two. But if you’re new to the space, what’s the difference?

As human beings living on this planet, we all have inherent rights. Let us think of rights as basic entitlements (Vegan Australia) such as equality and fairness that we should expect as sentient beings (the ability to feel things like pain, pleasure and suffering). But human beings aren’t the only living species to possess sentience; we know that other species have the ability to feel pain, pleasure. They can suffer too. Therefore, it makes sense to apply the same moral considerations to non-human animals too.

When we talk about animal welfare, we are talking about how well animals are treated within a current system of exploitation (Vegan Australia). The focus shifts away from abolition; it maintains the status quo, and it applies a predefined level of care and wellbeing, within an existing framework. This can also be summarised by the fact it does not centre around ending the use of animals, but rather, promotes it. So the welfarist perspective denies animals their basic fundamental rights, most importantly, their right to live a free and full life, without use and ownership.

A Little Bit of History

A note on Reductionism

Should veganism be centred on a harm reduction model of ethics or a rights model? Well, my personal opinion is: a harm reduction model is not enough. If we accept this model, we are saying we are okay with enslaving, torturing and murdering innocent animals as long as we can minimise it. If we really want to help animals and the planet we need to end these giant industries. We need to stop using animals altogether. Many will argue with you it’s technically impossible to avoid using animal products 100% of the time. But we should still see abolitionism as the ideal.Edit”Animal Rights 101″