Abolitionism (animal rights)
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Abolitionism or abolitionist veganism is the
Abolitionists disagree on the strategy that must be used to achieve their goal. While some abolitionists, like
Abolitionists generally oppose movements that seek to make animal use more humane or to abolish specific forms of animal use, since they believe this undermines the movement to abolish all forms of animal use.[1][2] The objective is to secure a moral and legal paradigm shift, whereby animals are no longer regarded as things to be owned and used. The American philosopher Tom Regan writes that abolitionists want empty cages, not bigger ones.[9] This is contrasted with animal welfare, which seeks incremental reform, and animal protectionism, which seeks to combine the first principles of abolitionism with an incremental approach, but which is regarded by some abolitionists as another form of welfarism or "New Welfarism".[10]
Concepts
The word relates to the historical term abolitionism—a social movement to end slavery or human ownership of other humans.[11] Based on the way of evaluating welfare reforms, abolitionists can be either radical or pragmatic. While the former maintain that welfare reforms can only be dubiously described as moral improvements, the latter consider welfare reforms as moral improvements even when the conditions they permit are unjust.[12]
Philosopher Steven Best of the University of Texas at El Paso has been critical of Francione for his denunciation of militant direct actions carried out by the underground animal liberation movement and organizations like the Animal Liberation Front, which Best compares favorably to the "nineteenth-century-abolitionist movement" to end slavery, and also for placing the onus on individual consumers rather than powerful institutions such as corporations, the state and the mass media along with ignoring the "constraints imposed by poverty, class, and social conditioning." In this, he says that Francione "exculpates capitalism" and fails to "articulate a structural theory of oppression." The "vague, elitist, asocial 'vegan education' approach," Best argues, is no substitute for "direct action, mass confrontation, civil disobedience, alliance politics, and struggle for radical change."[7]
Sociologist David Nibert of Wittenberg University argues that attempting to create a vegan world under global capitalism is unrealistic given that "tens of millions of animals are tortured and brutally killed every year to produce profits for twenty-first century elites, who hold investments in the corporate equivalents of Genghis Khan" and that any real and meaningful change will only come by transcending capitalism.[8] He writes that the contemporary entrenchment of capitalism and continued exploitation of animals by human civilization dovetail into the ongoing expansion of what he describes as the animal–industrial complex, with the number of CAFOs and the animals to fill them dramatically increasing, along with growing numbers of humans consuming animal products.[15][16] He rhetorically asks, how can one hope to create some consumer base for this new vegan world when over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day? Nibert acknowledges that post-capitalism on its own will not automatically end animal exploitation or bring about a more just world, but that it is a "necessary precondition" for such changes.[8]
New welfarists argue that there is no logical or practical contradiction between abolitionism and "welfarism".[17][18] Welfarists think that they can be working toward abolition, but by gradual steps, pragmatically taking into account what most people can be realistically persuaded to do in the short as well as the long term, and reduce animal suffering as it is most urgent to relieve. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for example, in addition to promoting local improvements in the treatment of animals, promote vegetarianism. Although some people believe that changing the legal status of nonhuman sentient beings[19][20] is a first step in abolishing ownership or mistreatment, others argue that this will not succeed if the consuming public has not already begun to reduce or eliminate its exploitation of animals for food.[citation needed]
Personhood
In 1992,
Germany added animal welfare in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first European Union member to do so.[21][24][25]
In 2007, the parliament of the
In 2013, India officially recognized dolphins as non-human persons.[27]
In 2014, France revised the legal status of animals from movable property to sentient beings.[19]
In 2015, the
See also
- Animal liberationist
- Animal rights
- List of animal rights advocates
References
- ^ a b The Six Principles of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights
- ^ a b Francione, Gary. "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach"
- ^ a b Gary Francione, Eat Like You Care
- ^ a b HowDoIGoVegan.com
- ^ "Thought of the Day: Abolitionist Veganism and Arguments About Health". 23 December 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
- ^ "For the abolition of veganism, for the abolition of animal exploitation". 17 November 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-1137471116.
- ^ ISBN 978-1440850738.
- ^ "The Torch of Reason, The Sword of Justice, animalsvoice.com". Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
- ^ Francione, Gary L. and Garner, Robert. The Animal Rights Debate. Columbia University Press, 2010.
- ^ "When Vegans Won't Compromise". New York Times. 16 August 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
- . Retrieved 21 August 2022.
- ^ Francione 1996, chapter. 5.
- ^ "For the abolition of veganism, for the abolition of slavery. About the necessary paradigm shift needed in the animal rights movement". Retrieved 2019-02-03.
- ISBN 978-0-7391-3698-0.
- ISBN 978-0-231-15189-4. Archivedfrom the original on 2022-11-04. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
- ^ "Farm-animal welfare, legislation, and trade". Law and contemporary problems 325-358. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
- ^ Smith, Allison; Reese, Jacy (24 March 2016). "An empirical perspective on animal advocacy". Retrieved 17 April 2016.
- ^ a b "Les animaux ne sont plus des "meubles" (animals are no longer furniture)". Le Figaro.fr. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
- ^ "New bill aimed at modifying the legal status of animals announced". Montreal SPCA. Archived from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
- ^ a b "Germany guarantees animal rights in constitution". Associated Press. 2002-05-18. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ "Swiss constitution". 1999-04-18. Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ Thomas Rose (2007-08-02). "A Step at a time: New Zealand's progress toward hominid rights" (PDF). CBC News.
- ^ Constitutional Protection for Germany's Animals. page 13
- ^ "Germany guarantees animal rights". CNN. 2002-06-21. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ Thomas Rose. "Going ape over human rights". CBC News. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ "Dolphins gain unprecedented protection in India". Retrieved 2007-08-02.
- ^ "Domestic animal legislation in Quebec"
- ^ Animal Welfare and Safety Act
Further reading
- Francione, Gary. Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement. Temple University Press, 1996.
- Francione, Gary and Garner, Robert. The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition Or Regulation?. Columbia University Press, 2010.
- Francione, Gary. Ingrid Newkirk on Principled Veganism: "Screw the principle", Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach, September 2010.
- Francione, Gary. "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach", accessed February 26, 2011.
- Francione, Gary. Animals, Property, and the Law. Temple University Press, 1995.
- Hall, Lee. "An Interview with Professor Gary L. Francione on the State of the U.S. Animal Rights Movement", Friends of Animals, accessed February 25, 2008.
- Regan, Tom. Empty Cages. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004.
- Regan, Tom (2004). "How to Justify Violence". In Best, Steven; Nocella II, Anthony J. (eds.). Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals. ISBN 978-1590560549.
- Regan, Tom. "The Torch of Reason, The Sword of Justice", animalsvoice.com, accessed May 29, 2012.
- Regan, Tom. "On Achieving Abolitionist Goals", Animal Rights Zone, May 18, 2011, accessed May 24, 2011.
- Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. University of California Press, 1980.