"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -- Mahatma Gandhi

This tribe is dedicated to the promotion and enshrinement in national and international law of the rights of non-human animals to live free from human exploitation and to live in harmony with their nature, rather than according to human desires. Here, we discuss philosophy and news related to the positive progress towards these rights and why the establishment of these protections (and attitudes) is in our *own* interest.

A "right" in this context is the legal power or privilege to which a being is justly entitled in a civil society. This can be the power or privilege to *do* something or *not do* something, have something *done* to/for them or *not done* to/for them.

The animal rights philosophy does not necessarily maintain that human and non-human animals are equal. Obviously, cats won't be granted voting rights. However, Animal Rights will at a minimum give fundamental protections to non-human animals who (like infants, mentally handicapped, seriously injured people or humans) are unable to defend or speak for themselves.

The struggle for animal rights has direct parallels with the struggle for civil rights movements giving equality and protection to minorities and women.


"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men."
-- Alice Walker


The laws of "animal rights" and "animal welfare" are frequently confused. Adam P. Karp has these clarifying distinctions to make:

"Animal Welfare Law confers benefits upon non-human animals indirectly, based on their relationship to a human being. In short, the law views them only through their ward or as being "owned" by a human. Without the tether to you or me, animals have the functional status of waste. However, animal cruelty laws protect most animals, in certain contexts, regardless of their designation as owned."

"Animal Rights Law recognizes protection, entitlements, and standing for the animal based on the animal's inherent dignitary interests as a sentient being that may suffer, reason or find "completeness" or "satisfaction" in "freely" pursuing its instinctual and filial imperatives. Animal rights law, thus, attempts to vindicate the interests of the animal based on principles that may be said to "inhere" within, rather than manifest from without (through human agency)."


"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
-- Abraham Lincoln


We also discuss why it's in OUR OWN INTEREST to protect the dignity and inherent worth of non-human animals (this is known as Enlightened Self-Interest).


"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.


The links between cruelty to animals and violence against humans are well established. Our attitudes towards animals have direct relationships to child abuse, the battering of women, exploitation, aggression and war.


"As long as humanity continues to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
-- Pythagoras


The Universal declaration of human rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948.

Other United Nations human rights conventions of note include:

1951 - Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
1969 - Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1981 - Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
1984 - Convention against Torture
1989 - Convention on the Rights of the Child


"The question is not can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer?"
-- Jeremy Bentham


Some countries have taken the first step toward awarding personhood to non-human animals. Switzerland passed legislation in 1992 recognizing animals as beings, not things, and in 2002, rights for non-human animals were 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 respect and protect the dignity of human beings.


"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

-- Arthur Schopenhauer


At the dawn of the 21st century, ANIMAL RIGHTS IS A CONCEPT WHOSE TIME HAS COME.


"The ethics of reverence for life makes no distinction between high and low, more precious and less precious lives. It has good reason for this omission. How can we know what importance other living organisms have in themselves and in terms of the universe? To the truly ethical person, all life is sacred."
-- Albert Schweitzer


Animal Rights: Because Animal Liberation is Human Liberation


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http://tribes.tribe.net/animalrights