Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?

About this book

In this easy-to-read introduction, animal rights advocate Gary Francione looks at our conventional moral thinking about animals. Using examples, analogies, and thought-experiments, he reveals the dramatic inconsistency between what we say we believe about animals and how we actually treat them.

A clearly written, passionately argued, and compelling and convincing call for widening our circle of moral sympathy and concern. Anyone who cares about animals must read this book, with care. Anyone who loves animals will read this book, with gratitude. --Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals "In this brilliantly argued and very clear and accessible book, Gary Francione argues that the moral significance of animals necessitates that we reject the use and treatment of animals as resources or as property. If we take animal interests seriously, we must abolish and not merely regulate our use of animals for food, research, and entertainment. This book is required reading for anyone interested in clear thinking about the human/animal relationship." --Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University "In this splendidly clear and original book, Gary Francione demonstrates the profound flaw in our thinking about animals and their moral status. He brings to light the clash between the principles to which we take ourselves to be committed, and the reality we live, a reality shaped by the conception of animals as property." --Cora Diamond, University of Virginia "Gary Francione claims that most of us are morally schizophrenic and demonstrates well that there often is a wide gulf between what we claim is due to other animals and what we actually do to them. He argues that animals have a right not to be viewed as things; their lives do matter, they have interests, and they should be firmly entrenched in the moral community." --Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado "[Francione] lays out his argument simply and forcefully...[the book is] a frank, lucid polemic that belongs on every 'animal-lover's' bookshelf." --Vegetarian Voice