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Animal rights, or animal liberation, is the movement to protect animals from being used or regarded as property by human beings. It is a radical social movement, insofar as it aims not merely to attain more humane treatment for animals, but also to include species other than human beings within the moral community, by giving their basic interests — for example, the interest in avoiding suffering — the same consideration as our own. The claim, in other words, is that animals should no longer be regarded legally or morally as property, or treated merely as resources for human purposes, but should instead be regarded as persons.

Some countries have passed legislation awarding recognition to the interests of animals. Switzerland recognized animals as beings, not things, in 1992, and in 2002, the protection of animals was added to the German constitution. The Seattle-based Great Ape Project, founded by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt its Declaration on Great Apes, which would see gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos included in a "community of equals" with human beings, extending to them the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.

Critics of the concept of animal rights argue that, because animals do not have the capacity to enter into a social contract or make moral choices, and cannot respect the rights of others or understand the concept of rights, they cannot be regarded as possessors of moral rights. The philosopher Roger Scruton argues that only human beings have duties and that "he corollary is inescapable: we alone have rights." Critics holding this position argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for food, as entertainment, and in research, though human beings may nevertheless have an obligation to ensure they do not suffer unnecessarily (Frey 1980 and Scruton 2000). This position is generally called the animal welfare position, and it is held by some of the oldest of the animal-protection agencies: for example, by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the UK.

Overview

Template:Animal liberation movement Animal rights is the concept that all or some animals are entitled to possess their own lives; that animals are deserving of, or already possess, certain moral rights; and that some basic rights for animals ought to be enshrined in law. The animal-rights view rejects the concept that animals are merely capital goods or property intended for the benefit of humans. The concept is often confused with animal welfare, which is the philosophy that takes cruelty towards animals and animal suffering into account, but that does not necessarily assign specific moral rights to them.

The animal-rights philosophy does not necessarily maintain that human and non-human animals are equal. For example, animal rights advocates do not call for voting rights for chickens. Some also would make a distinction between sentient or self-aware animals and other life forms, with the belief that only sentient animals, or perhaps only animals who have a significant degree of self-awareness, should be afforded the right to possess their own lives and bodies, without regard to how they are valued by humans. Others would extend this right to all animals, even those without developed nervous systems or self-consciousness. They maintain that any human or human institution that commodifies animals for the purposes of food, entertainment, cosmetics, clothing, scientific testing, or for any other reason, infringes upon their fundamental rights to possess themselves and to pursue their own ends.

Few people would deny that other great apes are highly intelligent animals who are aware of their own condition and goals, and can become frustrated when their freedoms are curtailed. In contrast, many other animals, like jellyfish, have only extremely simple nervous systems, and are little more than simple automata, capable only of simple reflexes but incapable of formulating any "ends to their actions" or "plans to pursue" them, and equally unable to notice whether they are in captivity or free. By the criteria that biologists use, jelly fish are undeniably animals, while from an animal-rights perspective, it is questionable whether they should not rather be considered "vegetables". There is as yet no consensus with regard to which qualities make a living organism an animal in need of rights. The animal-rights debate (much like the abortion debate) is therefore marred by the difficulty that its proponents search for simple, clear-cut distinctions on which to base moral and political judgements, even though the biological realities of the problem present no hard and fast boundaries on which such distinctions could be based. Rather, the biological realities are full of complex and diverse gradients. From a neurobiological perspective, jellyfish, farmed chicken, laboratory mice, or pet cats would fall along different points on a (complex and high-dimensional) spectrum from the "nearly vegetable" to the "highly sentient".

Animal rights in philosophy

Jean-Jacques Rousseau briefly alludes to the concept of animal rights in the preface of his Discourse on Inequality. He argues that man starts as an animal, though not one "devoid of intellect and freedom" like others; however, as animals are sensitive beings, "they too ought to participate in natural right, and that man is subject to some sort of duties toward them," specifically "one the right not to be uselessly mistreated by the other."

Contemporaneous with Rousseau was the Scottish writer John Oswald (d. 1793). Oswald argued in "The Cry of Nature or an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals", that man is naturally equipped with feelings of mercy and compassion. If each man had to personally experience the death of the animals he ate, so argued Oswald, a vegetarian diet would be far more common. The division of labor, however, allows modern man to eat flesh without experiencing the prompting of man's natural sensitivities, while the brutalization of modern man made him inured to these sensitivities. Although Oswald gave compassion a central place in his philosophy, he was not a pacifist. Oswald was a radical republican and died in battle fighting in defence of the French Revolution.

One of the first philosophers to take animal liberation seriously was one of the founders of modern utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, who wrote, speaking of the need to extend legal rights to animals: "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been witholden from them but by the hand of tyranny." Bentham also argued that an animal's apparent lack of rationality ought not to be held against it insofar as morality is concerned:

It may one day come to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes ... (Bentham, 1789)

Arthur Schopenhauer argued that animals have the same essence as humans, despite lacking the faculty of reason. Although he produced a utilitarian justification for eating animals, he argued for consideration to be given to animals in morality, and he opposed vivisection. His critique of Kantian ethics contained a lengthy and often furious polemic against the exclusion of animals in his moral system, which contained the famous line: "Cursed be any morality that does not see the essential unity in all eyes that see the sun."

The concept of animal rights was the subject of an influential book — Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress — by English social reformer Henry Salt in 1892. A year earlier, Salt had formed the Humanitarian League; its objectives included the banning of hunting as a sport.

In modern times, the idea of animal rights was re-introduced by S. and R. Godlovitch, and J. Harris, with their 1971 book Animals, Men and Morals. This was a collection of articles which restated the case for animal rights in a powerful and philosophically sophisticated way. It could justly be said that it was this work that reinvigorated the animal rights movement, and it inspired later philosophers to develop their ideas. It was, for example, in a review of this book, that the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, now Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, first coined the term 'animal liberation.'

Peter Singer and Tom Regan are the best-known proponents of animal liberation, though they differ in their philosophical approaches to the issue. Another influential thinker is Gary L. Francione, who presents an abolitionist view that non-human animals should have the basic right not to be treated as the property of humans. Activists Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns, and Ingrid Newkirk of PETA have also presented philosophies of animal rights.

Although Singer is the ideological founder of today's animal-rights movement, his approach to an animal's moral status is not based on the concept of rights, but on the utilitarian principle of equal consideration of interests. His 1975 book Animal Liberation argues that humans grant moral consideration to other humans not on the basis of intelligence (in the instance of children, or the mentally disabled), on the ability to moralize (criminals and the insane), or on any other attribute that is inherently human, but rather on their ability to experience suffering. As animals also experience suffering, he argues, excluding animals from such consideration is a form of discrimination known as 'speciesism' — a term first coined by the British psychologist Richard D. Ryder.

Tom Regan (The Case for Animal Rights and Empty Cages), on the other side, claims that non-human animals as "subjects-of-a-life" are bearers of rights like humans, although not necessarily of the same degree. This means that animals in this class have "inherent value" as individuals, and cannot merely be considered as the means to an end. This is also called the "direct duty" view. According to Regan, we should abolish the breeding of animals for food, animal experimentation, and commercial hunting. Regan's theory does not extend to all sentient animals but only to those that can be regarded as "subjects-of-a-life." Regan argues that all normal mammals of at least one year of age would qualify in this regard.

While Singer is primarily concerned with improving the treatment of animals and accepts that, at least in some hypothetical scenarios, animals could be legitimately used for further (human or non-human) ends, Regan believes we ought to treat animals as we would persons, and he applies the strict Kantian idea that they ought never to be sacrificed as mere means to ends, and must be treated as ends unto themselves. Notably, Kant himself did not believe animals were subject to what he called the moral law; he believed we ought to show compassion, but primarily because not to do so brutalizes human beings, and not for the sake of animals themselves.

Despite these theoretical differences, both Singer and Regan agree about what to do in practice: for instance, they both agree that the adoption of a vegan diet and the abolition of nearly all forms of animal experimentation are ethically mandatory.

Gary Francione's work (Introduction to Animal Rights, et.al.) is based on the premise that if non-human animals are considered to be property then any rights that they may be granted would be directly undermined by that property status. He points out that a call to equally consider the 'interests' of your property against your own interests is absurd. Without the basic right not to be treated as the property of humans, non-human animals have no rights whatsoever, he says. Francione posits that sentience is the only valid determinant for moral standing, unlike Regan who sees qualitative degrees in the subjective experiences of his "subjects-of-a-life" based upon a loose determination of who falls within that category. Francione claims that there is no actual animal-rights movement in the United States, but only an animal-welfarist movement. In line with his philosophical position and his work in animal-rights law for the Animal Rights Law Project at Rutgers University, he points out that any effort that does not advocate the abolition of the property status of animals is misguided, in that it inevitably results in the institutionalization of animal exploitation. It is logically inconsistent and doomed never to achieve its stated goal of improving the condition of animals, he argues. Francione holds that a society which regards dogs and cats as family members yet kills cows, chickens, and pigs for food exhibits what he calls "moral schizophrenia".

Animal rights in law

Animals are protected under the law, though without having rights assigned to them. There are criminal laws against cruelty to animals, laws that regulate the keeping of animals in cities and on farms, the transit of animals internationally, as well as quarantine and inspection provisions. These laws are designed to protect animals from unnecessary physical harm and to regulate the use of animals as food. In the common law, it is possible to create a charitable trust and have the trust empowered to see to the care of a particular animal after the death of the benefactor of the trust. Some individuals create such trusts in their will. Trusts of this kind can be upheld by the courts if properly drafted and if the testator is of sound mind. There are several movements in the UK campaigning to require the British parliament to award greater protection to animals. The legislation, if passed, will introduce a duty of care, whereby a keeper of an animal would commit an offence if he or she fails to take reasonable steps to ensure an animal’s welfare. This concept of giving the animal keeper a duty towards the animal is equivalent to granting the animal a right to proper welfare. The draft bill is supported by an RSPCA campaign.

Switzerland passed legislation in 1992 to recognize animals as beings, not things; and in 2002, the protection of animals was enshrined in the German constitution when its upper house of parliament voted to add the words "and animals" to the clause in the constitution obliging the state to protect the "natural foundations of life ... in the interests of future generations."

The State of Israel, meanwhile, has banned dissections of animals in elementary and secondary schools; performances by trained animals in circuses; and foie gras.

Animal rights in practice

In practice, those who advocate animal rights usually boycott a number of industries that use animals. Foremost among these is factory farming, which produces the majority of meat, dairy products, and eggs in Western industrialized nations. The transportation of farm animals for slaughter, which often involves their live export, has in recent years been a major issue of campaigning for animal-rights groups, particularly in the UK.

The vast majority of animal-rights advocates adopt vegetarian or vegan diets; they may also avoid clothes made of animal skins, such as leather shoes, and will not use products such as cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, or certain inks or dyes known to contain so-called animal byproducts. Goods containing ingredients that have been tested on animals are also avoided where possible. Company-wide boycotts are common. The Procter & Gamble corporation, for example, tests many of its products on animals, leading many animal-rights supporters to boycott all of their products, including food like peanut butter.

The vast majority of animal-rights advocates dedicate themselves to educating the public. Some organizations, like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, strive to do this by garnering media attention for animal-rights issues, often using outrageous stunts or advertisements to obtain media coverage for a more serious message.

There is a growing trend in the American animal-rights movement towards devoting all resources to vegetarian outreach. The 9.8 billion animals killed there for food use every year far exceeds the number of animals being exploited in other ways. Groups such as Vegan Outreach and Compassion Over Killing devote their time to exposing factory-farming practices by publishing information for consumers and by organizing undercover investigations.

A growing number of animal-rights activists engage in direct action. This typically involves the removal of animals from facilities that use them or the damage of property at such facilities in order to cause financial loss. A few incidents have involved violence or the threat of violence toward animal experimenters or others involved in the use of animals. There are also a growing number of "open rescues," in which animal-rights advocates enter businesses to steal animals without trying to hide their identities. Open rescues tend to be carried out by committed individuals who are willing to go to jail if prosecuted, but so far no factory-farm owner has been willing to press charges, perhaps because of the negative publicity that would ensue. However some countries like Britain have proposed stricter laws to curb animal extremists.

Difficultly drawing the line

Varrious animals rights advocates draw the line differently on the use of the following laboratory animals.

• Bacillus subtilis (gram-positive bacteria)
• Escherichia coli (gram-negative bacteria)
• Neurospora crassa (red bread mold)
• Arabidopsis thaliana (mustard family)
• Caenorhabditis elegans (worm)
• Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly)
• Ciona intestinalis (sea squirt)
• Xenopus laevis (frog)
• Mus musculus (mouse)
• Rattus rattus (usually white rat)
• Rattus norvegicus (Norway rat)

See also: Animal rights activism

Criticism of animal rights

Criticism against the concept of animal rights include philosophical arguments that to have rights requires moral judgements, that animal rights actually turns humans into second-class citizens under animals, and that humans have a responsibility to promote Animal welfare instead of animal rights. Criticism against the animal right movement include statements that the animal rights movement is actually anti-human. Each crticism is detailed below.

Rights requires moral judgements

Critics such as Carl Cohen, professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Medical School, oppose the granting of "personhood" to animals. Cohen wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine in October, 1986:

The holders of rights must have the capacity to comprehend rules of duty governing all, including themselves. In applying such rules, the holders of rights must recognize possible conflicts between what is in their own interest and what is just. Only in a community of beings capable of self-restricting moral judgments can the concept of a right be correctly invoked."

Cohen rejects Peter Singer's argument that since a brain-damaged human could not exhibit the ability to make moral judgements, that moral judgements cannot be used as the distinguishing characteristic for determining who is awarded rights. Cohen states that the test for moral judgement "is not a test to be administered to humans one by one."

The Foundation for Animal Use and Education states:

Our recognition of the rights of others stems from our unique human character as moral agents--that is, beings capable of making moral judgments and comprehending moral duty. Only human beings are capable of exercising moral judgment and recognizing the rights of one another.

Animals do not exercise responsibility as moral agents. They do not recognize the rights of other animals. They kill and eat one another instinctively, as a matter of survival. They act from a combination of conditioning, fear, instinct and intelligence, but they do not exercise moral judgment in the process.

Animal rights as anti-human

Some critics of "animal rights" say that it may turn humans into "second-class citizens". Robert Bidinotto, nationally recognized writer on environmental issues, said in a 1992 speech to the Northeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies:

Strict observance of animal rights forbids even direct protection of people and their values against nature's many predators. Losses to people are acceptable...losses to animals are not. Logically then, beavers may change the flow of streams, but Man must not. Locusts may denude hundreds of miles of plant life...but Man must not. Cougars may eat sheep and chickens, but Man must not.

Chris DeRose, Director of Last Chance for Animals, stated "If the death of one rat cured all disease, it wouldn't make any difference to me." When given the choice between rescuing a human baby or a dog after a lifeboat capsized, Susan Rich, PeTA Outreach Coordinator, answered, "I wouldn't know for sure... I might choose the human baby or I might choose the dog." Tom Regan, animal rights philosopher, answered "If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog." Critics opposed to animal rights generally support animal welfare.

Critics of animal rights have pointed to the support for animal rights by the Nazi regime in Germany, and its anti-vivisection legislation. Kathleen Marquardt, founder of "Putting People First" and author of Animal Scam, The Beastly Abuse of Human Rights, writes that "By pretending to extend rights to animals, which by nature are incapable of moral cognition, the Nazis ultimately annihilated the very concept of “rights.” And just as the dogma of animal rights led to the destruction of human rights under Nazism, it leads to the destruction of human rights today."

Animal welfare as a responsiblity

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has defined animal welfare as human responsibility that encompasses all aspects of animal well-being, including proper housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, human handling, and, when necessary, humane euthanasia.

The Foundation for Animal Use Education supports animal welfare as opposed to animal rights, arguing that: "Even if we believe that animals cannot have rights, it does not mean we can treat animals any way we please. As moral agents, we recognize our own obligation to treat animals humanely — not because it is their right, but because it is our responsibility."

Other criticisms

British physicist Stephen Hawking has criticized activists for failing to concentrate on what he sees as more worthwhile causes: "I suspect that extremists turn to animal rights from a lack of the more worthwhile causes of the past, like nuclear disarmament.”

Some critics, such as Alan Herscovici, of the Fur Council of Canada, claim that "Virtually none of the money they collect is used to fund humane shelters, develop better animal husbandry methods, or find cures for diseases. Instead, donations pay the salaries of professional organizers, subsidize more fund-raising, and fuel sensationalist campaigns against animal-use industries."

The animal-rights position is also criticized by some who favour animal liberation. Although he is often called the father of the modern animal-rights movement, Peter Singer actually rejects the notion of moral rights. As a utilitarian, he prefers to talk in terms of the equal consideration of interests.

Some criticisms of the animal rights movement take the form of parody, positing a "vegetable rights" movement. Fruitarianism has adopted part of this philosophy.

See also

• Altruism in animals
• Animal Liberation Front
• Animal liberation movement
• British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
• Animal testing, SHAC
• Animal welfare
• Ahimsa
• Barry Horne
• Blood sport
• Cinci Freedom
• GANDALF trial
• Great ape personhood
• Imitation meat, In vitro meat
• Juicing fish Information of injection of dye (cosmetic mutilation) of fish for the tropical aquarium trade.
• ]
• List of animal rights groups
• List of animal welfare and animal rights groups
• Livestock
• Open rescue
• Painism
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Speciesism
• United Animal Nations
• Veganism, Vegetarianism
• Vivisection
• Richard D. Ryder, Steven Best, Peter Singer, Tom Regan

References

• Bentham, Jeremy (1970) . An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. ed. J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 0485132117. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Frey, R. G. (1980). Interests and Rights: The Case against Animals. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198244215.
• George, Kathryn Paxton (2000). Animal, Vegetable, or Woman?: A Feminist Critique of Ethical Vegetarianism. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791446875.
• LaFollette, Hugh (1996). "The origin of speciesism" (PDF). Philosophy. 71 (275): 41–60. ISSN 0031-8191. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Regan, Tom (1983). The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520049047.
• Singer, Peter (1990). Animal Liberation (2nd ed. ed.). New York: New York Review of Books. ISBN 0940322005. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Scruton, Roger (2000). Animal Rights and Wrongs (3rd ed. ed.). London: Metro. ISBN 1900512815. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Scruton, Roger (2000). "Animal rights". City Journal. 10 (3): 100–107. ISSN 1060-8540. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• The Great Ape Project
• Meet Your Meat, a PETA-produced slaughterhouse tour narrated by Alec Baldwin

Further reading

• Adams, Carol. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. New York: Continuum, 1996.
• Adams, Carol. The Pornography of Meat. New York: Continuum, 2004.
• Adams, Carol, & Donovan, Josephine. (eds). Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations. London: Duke University Press, 1995.
• Adams, Carol J. The Social Construction of Edible Bodies
• Adams, Douglas. Meeting a Gorilla.
• Anstötz, Christopher. Profoundly Intellectually Disabled Humans
• Auxter, Thomas. The Right Not to Be Eaten
• Barnes, Donald J. A Matter of Change
• Barry, Brian. Why Not Noah's Ark?
• Bekoff, Marc. Common Sense, Cognitive Ethology and Evolution.
• Cantor, David. Items of Property.
• Cate, Dexter L. The Island of the Dragon
• Cavalieri, Paola. The Great Ape Project — and Beyond
• Carwardine, Mark. Meeting a Gorilla
• Clark, Stephen R.L. Apes and the Idea of Kindred.
• __________________ Good Dogs and Other Animals
• __________________ The Pretext of "Necessary Suffering"
• Clark, Ward M. Misplaced Compassion: The Animal Rights Movement Exposed, Writer's Club Press, 2001
• Dawkins, Richard. Gaps in the mind.
• Dunayer, Joan. "Animal Equality, Language and Liberation" 2001
• Francione, Gary. Introduction to Animal Rights, Your child or the dog?, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000
• Nibert, David. Animal Rights, Human Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation, New York: Rowman and Litterfield, 2002
• Patterson, Charles "Eternal Treblinka" 2002
• Scruton, Roger. Animal Rights and Wrongs Claridge Press, 2000
• Singer, Peter, "Animal Liberation".
• Spiegal, Marjorie. The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, New York: Mirror Books, 1996.
• Steeve, Peter H. (ed.) Animal Others: On Ethics, Ontology, and Animal Life. New York: SUNY Press, 1999.
• Taylor, Angus. Animals and Ethics. Broadview Press, 2003
• Weil, Zoe. The Power and Promise of Humane Education. British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2004.
• Wolfe, Cary. Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 2003.
• Wolch, Jennifer, & Emel, Jody. Animal Geographies: Place, Politics, and Identity in the Nature-Culture Borderlands. New York: Verso, 1998.

External links

Animal rights in philosophy and law

• The National Association for Biomedical Research Animal Law Section.
• The Tom Regan Animal Rights Archive.
• Utilitarian Philosophers: Peter Singer.
• Animal Law Project.
• animal-rights.de.
• Ethical foundations of animal rights
• The Animal Rights Library
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on The Moral Status of Animals
• The Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA)
• Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).

Animal rights resources

• An Animal-Friendly Life Animal Rights News, Commentary, Podcasting, Links & Other Resources
• Animal People Animal protection news and investigative reporting
• Animal Rights News & Resources (Northern California and beyond)
• Animal Rights Resources
• Anesthesia's Wonderland
• Animal Voices Radio Show A Canadian based radio program with full archieves of past shows on their website for free download. Show features interviews with prominent organizations, authors, and activists from across the globe. Show also covers topics relating to social justice (for example, feminism, anti-racism, and critiques of capitalism) as well as critical environmental theory and praxis as they relate to animal issues.
• Satya Magazine A Magazine of Vegetarianism, Animal Rights and Social Justice
• VegNews Magazine
• Vegan Voice Magazine
• poems about animal rights

Animal rights organizations

• Action for Animals
• Animal Aid
• Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV)
• Animal Liberation (Maqi)
• Animal Protection Institute (API)
• Animal Rights Kollective (ARKII) - Canada
• Animal Rights International (ARI)
• Center on Animal Liberation Affairs (CALA)
• Jewish Vegetarians of North America
• Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)
• Compassion Over Killing (COK)
• Compassionate Action for Animals
• The Fund for Animals
• Hunt Saboteurs Association
• Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
• In Defense of Animals (IDA)
• Mercy for Animals
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
• Protecting Animals USA
• Rights for Animals
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)
• Society of Ethical & Religious Vegetarians (SERV)
• SPEAK
• Toronto Animal Rights Society - Canada
• United Poultry Concerns (UPC)
• Vegan Outreach

Animal rights online community

• VeggieBoards (message board and recipes)
• A.P.E. Animal Earth Protectors (The Green Zones)
• Peta2 (Question Reality Question Authority)
• International Animal Rights Community (ARCo)
• Farm Sancturary

Animal rights directories

• LookSmart - Animal Rights
• Open Directory Project - Animal Rights
• Yahoo! - Animal Rights
• Anesthesia's Wonderland Forums

Animal rights critics

• PETA Kills Animals : PETA's Dirty Secret
• Animal Rights Activists use Terror to achieve their end From the National Animal Interest Alliance
• Center for Consumer Freedom: Take a Bite out of PETA A petition to have PETA's Tax-exempt status revoked
• Critique of Singer and Reagan
• Animal Rights Hunting Page
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Algae Parody site

Dealing with animal rights critics

• AnimalzThis site could help to allay some concerns/ideas about animal advocacy. It is a starting point.
• "The Center for Consumer Freedom" Exposed A website that aims to expose the owner of sites like “Peta kills animals”.

Humane-education organizations

• Bridges of Respect Building Bridges Between Humans, Animals and Environment
• Canadian Federation of Humane Societies Humane Education Program
• Circle of Compassion Exploring Peaceable Choices for the Planet and All those that Share
• The Empathy Project Inspiring Empathy for Humans, Animals, and the Planet
• Healing Earth Education
• The Institute for Animal Associated Lifelong Learning Interrelating people, nonhuman animals, and the earth through education
• International Institute for Humane Education Formerly known as the Center for Compassionate Living
• Kind Planet
• National Association of Environmental and Humane Education
• New World Vision: Creating a Compassionate, Peaceful, Sustainable World Through Humane Education
• Seeds for Change Humane Education
• TeachKind

Ethical concerns

• Which animals feel pain?
• Animals and other living things: their interests, mental capacities and moral entitlements
• Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status by David DeGrazia - A Review Essay
• Animal slavery
• Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
• The Vegetarian Mitzvah

Animal Welfare Organizations

Those which promote better treatment of animals, not necessarily an end to their use.

• Husbandry Institute

• Animal liberation movement
• Animal welfare
• Bioethics
• Rights