Animal Rights Vs Animal Welfare

Animal Welfare: the humane treatment of animals without neglecting the hierarchical relationship between animal and man

• Recognizes that even though animals are to be used to benefit humans, there are essential duties and obligations that humans have toward animals.
• For example, appropriate husbandry, provision of food and shelter, alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering

Animal Rights: Concerned with treating animals humanely, but argues for the moral equivalency of animals and man, which entails the granting of rights and the exemption from any experimentation, regardless of how much it benefits a person

Primarily by failing to adhere to animal welfare principles.

By disregarding the basic measures of animal treatment, we have forced the hand and provided an influential platform for those who wish to enact extreme measures

-E.g. Conklin Dairy Farm scandal in 2010

Animal rights activists have co-opted an animal welfare approach to persuade individuals to different goals

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

• Founded in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk
• Most prominent Animal Rights organization
• Involved in a multitude of campaigns and animal activism, ranging from the wearing of fur coats, the eating of meat ("Holocaust on your plate"), and experimentation on animals

PETA argues for the moral equivalency of animals with humans

• Founder's famous saying: "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."

Argues against "speciesism"--"a prejudice or bias in favor of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species"

In his book, "Animal Liberation," Singer argues for the erasure of 'species boundary' and applies his utilitarian measures to argue there is no intrinsic dignity in humans and that since animals and humans are equal, moral decisions are made according to the subjects functionality (those that can do more win out)

Therefore, according to Singer, the interests of animals are on an equal playing field to the interests of humans

Law professor at Rutgers University

Argues that animals and people are equal because both can feel pain

Argues for the abolition of all animal uses, including the domestication of animals, for animals, like humans, are not "property."

1) A denial of human exceptionalism--meaning that there is nothing particularly special about the human person, nothing that truly distinguishes us from lower animals

"The Great Ape Project"--claiming that humans are merely advanced apes, and therefore seek to establish a legal standing for chimpanzees, bonobos, apes, and orangutans

2) Sentimental anthropomorphism--the applying of human traits and characteristics, especially human thoughts and motivations, to animals. (E.g. Disney, Jane Goodall)

Based on the sociological fact that law influences culture; we tend to associate legality with rightness

ARA's have thus tried to influence the courts and shape public policy according to their principles

• Granting animals "legal standing," the right to sue, has been a goal of animal rights activists as well (e.g. Animal Legal Defense Fund; you can study this in law school at major universities; see also the Nonhuman Rights Project)

Eliminating the use of animals in medical research will eliminate the innumerable benefits that come from it

Animal research has been essential to pain control systems as well as understanding the effects of the AIDS virus

Since 1979, every Nobel Prize in Medicine, except for one, has depended on animal models

Development of our current system of Animal Research:

• the modern development of animal research is a fairly new development
• The smallpox vaccine, developed by Edward Jenner in 1798, drew fluid from milkmaids who seemed to have an immunity to smallpox (only contracted a milder form called cow pox) and injected it into an eight year old boy; 6 weeks later he exposed the boy to smallpox.

Albert Neisser, a German dermatologist, in 1898 injected syphilis serum into prostitutes without their awareness; his experiment backfired and the Prussian government passed the first regulatory protections of human subjects in Western medicine

• After WW2, the Nuremberg Code established an international framework for the protection of human subjects
• US "Common Law" requires that animals be tested before humans; Animal Welfare Act in 1966

Three R Rule:

1) Replacement: use non-animal methods if available and effective

2) Reduction: use methods that reduce the number of animals used

3) Refinement: use methods that maximize animal welfare

To have rights, one must first be a moral agent--capable of discerning right from wrong

• To be a moral agent, one must be a free and autonomous creature

If animals are moral agents, then animals can judge right from wrong, and if animals can judge right from wrong, then they can be morally right or morally wrong in their actions

• If animals are moral agents, then they have free will and are thus subject to moral judgment.

If so, then they not only have rights but also duties, that is, a responsibility to respect the rights of other moral agents.

Thus, if we blame humans for killing animals, we must blame animals for killing humans. Can an animal be morally culpable? Can an animal commit a crime?

The holders of rights must have the capacity to comprehend the rules of duty, governing all including themselves

Rights entail obligations but they are not reciprocals

Animal Rights Vs Animal Welfare

How did we get to this point?

Animal Rights Ideology and the Courts

Is there a difference?

Animal Rights and Medical Research

The Importance of Being Human

Major Players in the Animal Rights Movement

Development of the Animal Model

Peter Singer

Professor Gary L. Francione

Other Factors