A Right of Ethical Consideration for Non-Human Animals
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

From Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today / Animal Emotions
March 2020

It is no longer a discussion reserved for the scholarly. The question over legal rights for some, if not all, animals, has become a subject of intense public debate fueled by shared influences.

A Right of Ethical Consideration for Non-Human Animals
By Michael Ray Harris*

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, we ourselves will not find peace.
- Albert Schweitzer
 
INTRODUCTION
 
For millennia, humans have philosophized over the appropriate legal status and rights due to other species with whom we share this planet. Given this lengthy discourse, it is not difficult to understand how many current scholars might conclude that while the idea of legal rights for animals remains “theoretically interesting,” it is “far removed” from practical reality.
 
There is, however, an unmistakable difference in the conversation about animal rights today. It is no longer a discussion reserved for the scholarly.

The question over legal rights for some, if not all, animals, has become a subject of intense public debate fueled by shared influences: the expanding number of animal activist organizations; increased awareness of the environmental and health benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet; convincing evidence that many animals are sentient; mainstream media coverage of the lives of animals and human violence against them; and a surge in litigation over the legal status of animals like elephants, chimpanzees, and whales.
 
Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE (PDF)

*Michael Ray Harris: Director, Wildlife Law Program, Friends of Animals. Former Assistant Professor of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law (2008-2014). J.D., University of California at Berkeley (1995). M.S.L. Vermont Law School (1992). B.A. Pitzer College (1991). This paper is dedicated to the memory of Rachel Nussbaum-Wichert.

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