Why Animal Rights?
Defending animals does not mean caring about them more than people. It’s about protecting other species from cruelty and unfair treatment and not causing them any harm.
Obviously, animals do not need exactly the same rights as people. For example, the right to vote in elections would be useless to a parrot. But the right to exercise their own free will and to live without being imprisoned or tortured is as important to animals as it is to us.
Today it is recognised that many animals, just like humans, experience happiness, sadness, fear, physical pain, anger and boredom. We know that they usually enjoy the company of their own kind; that there is a close bond between mothers and their young; that young animals enjoy and learn from play; and that they develop friendships. Animals have needs, just like people do.
There are many ways in which we abuse animals. We slaughter them for food, experiment on them in laboratories, shoot and hunt them for fun, race them for sport, take their skins for clothes and pollute and destroy their natural habitats.
But you can help stop this suffering. Going veggie or vegan, not buying certain products because they’ve been tested on animals, not buying fur and avoiding visiting zoos and circuses with animals are all important ways in which you can help to make this world a kinder place.
Want to know more?
- Read our Animals & Us booklet
- Read our Ethical Case for Animal Rights factsheet
- Watch our Their Future in Your Hands film
