Animal Rights ≠ Animal Welfare

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www.abolitionistapproach.com

“[W]e cannot maintain that the value of nonhuman life is less than the value of human life for the purpose of justifying the use of nonhumans as replaceable resources without assumptions that are explicitly speciesist, such as that animals are not self-aware in the same way that humans are, which is probably true, and, therefore, that their lives are of less value, which does not follow and which I absolutely reject.

To say that, for the purposes of being used exclusively as a replaceable resource, humans enjoy a different level of protection because they have a representational form of self-awareness, or to fail to recognize that sentience alone is both necessary and sufficient for deserving the right not to be exploited and killed, is speciesist.

In fact, I would call it ‘deeply speciesist.'”

~ Gary L. Francione

Excerpt from: Animal Welfare Regulation, “Happy Exploitation,” and Speciesism

Vegan Monday

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It’s Monday.

Meatless Monday?
A Monday without flesh but with dairy, which involves the horrible suffering and death of cows and their babies?
A Monday without flesh but with eggs that involve the killing of all male chicks at birth and the horrible suffering and eventual death of the laying hens (and eggs have a higher rate of animal death per 1000 calories than beef and pork)?
No way.
There is no morally coherent distinction between flesh and other animal foods.
If you regard animals as members of the moral community, today is Vegan Monday.
Every day is vegan.
Life is vegan.

We should encourage and help others to go vegan but we should never present anything short of veganism as morally acceptable. We should always make clear that veganism is the only rational response to the recognition that animals count morally.

 

Meatless Monday

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Meatless Monday?
No way.
Let’s stop reinforcing the idea that there is a morally coherent distinction between meat and other animal foods.
There isn’t.
Today is Vegan Monday.
Tomorrow is Vegan Tuesday.
It’s Vegan Every Day.
It’s Vegan Life.
If animals matter morally, going vegan is the only rational response.

Fundamental moral right

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Video: Animals as Property
http://vimeo.com/4807775
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/video/#animals-as-propertyProfessor Francione argues that the property status of animals renders meaningless animal welfare laws that prohibit the infliction of “unnecessary” suffering and require the “humane” treatment of nonhumans. Professor Francione’s book, Animals, Property, and the Law (Temple University Press, 1995), provided the first legal analysis of the property status of animals and was described by Tom Regan as a “work of unquestionable historic importance.”