The Contradiction

Every animal lover wants humane treatment for all animals. Animal Rights "seems" like a good idea... and in its purest, simplest form, perhaps it is.

While most people think the Animal Rights activist is interested in simply making sure that no animal is abused, their actual agenda goes far beyond that. It is this "other" agenda that makes Animal Rights a bad idea for anyone who really cares about animals in general, and cats and dogs in particular.

Animal Liberation

So, what is that "other" agenda?

Below is an excerpt from "The politics of Animal Liberation" written by Kim Barlett, Editor of the Animals' Agenda, Nov. 1987, but a slightly modified version is part of the Green Party Platform for 2000.

1. Abolish all animal research by law.
2. Outlaw the use of animals for cosmetic and product testing, classroom demonstrations and weapons development.
3. Vegetarian meals should be made available at all public institutions, including schools.
4. Eliminate all animal agriculture.
5. End herbicides, pesticides, and other Agricultural chemicals. Outlaw predator control.
6. Transfer enforcement of animal welfare legislation away from the dept. of Agriculture
7. Eliminate fur ranching and end the use of furs.
8. Prohibit hunting, trapping and fishing.
9. End the international trade in wildlife goods.
10. Stop any further breeding of companion animals, *including purebred dogs and cats*. Spaying and neutering should be subsidized by State and Municipal governments. Commerce in domestic and exotic animals for the *pet trade* should be abolished.
11. End the use of animals in entertainment.

What Would Result If The Animal Rights Agenda Is Implemented?

1. Abolish by law all animal research... There would be no cures for AIDS, cancer, heart disease, etc., and testing of new drugs would be done on humans, or not at all.
2. Outlaw the use of animals for cosmetic and product testing, and classroom demonstration... Physicians would perform their first surgeries and procedures on humans without any previous experience.
3. Vegetarian meals should be at all public institutions, including schools...
4. Eliminate all animal agriculture... This would mean no milk, eggs, chicken, fish, or meat for food, no leather for shoes or clothing. No food or any product that contain any animal products or their derivatives would be available.
5. Eliminate all herbicides, pesticides or other agricultural chemicals.
   Outlaw predator control, and farmers would not be able to produce as much food as they do now, driving the cost of living up, and eliminating the export of food to hungry nations.
6. Transfer enforcement of animal welfare legislation away from the Department of Agriculture... Animal issues would be controlled by people with little or no experience in customary animal husbandry.
7. Eliminate fur ranching and the use of furs...
8. Prohibit hunting, trapping and fishing...
9. End the international trade in wildlife goods...
10. Stop any further breeding of companion animals, including purebred dogs and cats... Spaying and neutering should be subsidized by state and municipal governments until all companion animals are extinct. Abolish commerce in animals for the pet trade. Eliminate pet ownership.
11. End the use of animals in entertainment and sports... This would mean no horse shows, cat or dog shows, animal actors, rodeos, animal movie stars..
12. Prohibit the genetic manipulation of the species... This would result in the elimination of critical medical research relating to Cancer, AIDS and other life threatening diseases, as well as crop production improvements such as the difference between the Holstein and the Angus, and eliminate all pedigreed animals, etc...

Animal Rights VS Animal Welfare

Animal rights groups seek the end to all breeding of animals. Their stated ultimate goal is no use of animals by man -- for food, fiber, medical research, nor even as pets. This is apparent from the quotes of their agendas and views you will find below.

Animal rights and Animal Welfare have markedly different philosophies.

"We are not especially 'interested in' animals. Neither of us had ever been inordinately fond of dogs, cats, or horses in the way that many people are. We didn't 'love' animals."
-- Peter Singer*, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd ed. (New York Review of Books, 1990), Preface, p. ii.

*Peter Singer is the acknowledged founding father and chief guru of the Animal Rights movement. Singer's disciple is Ingrid Newkirk, who co-founded People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also known as PETA.

Quotes From The Leaders Of The Animal Rights Movement

Below are a few quotes from animal right's leaders demonstrating their true agenda:

"In a perfect world, all other-than-human animals would be free of human interference, and dogs and cats would be part of the ecological scheme, as they were before humans domesticated them and as they remain in some parts of the undeveloped world."
-- From The PETA Statement on Companion Animals

"In a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest: raising their young, enjoying their native environments, and following their natural instincts. However, domesticated dogs and cats cannot survive "free" in our concrete jungles, so we must take as good care of them as possible. People with the time, money, love, and patience to make a lifetime commitment to an animal can make an enormous difference by adopting from shelters or rescuing animals from a perilous life on the street. But it is also important to stop manufacturing "pets," thereby perpetuating a class of animals forced to rely on humans to survive."
-- PETA pamphlet, Companion Animals: Pets or Prisoners?

"The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by  neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist."
-John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of a Changing Ethic, PETA 1982, p.15.

"It is time we demand an end to the misguided and abusive concept of animal ownership. The first step on this long, but just, road would be ending the concept of pet ownership."
-- Elliot Katz, President, In Defense of Animals, "In Defense of Animals," Spring 1997

"Human care (of animals) is simply sentimental, sympathetic patronage."
-- Dr. Michael W. Fox, HSUS, in 1988 Newsweek interview

"We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. ... One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."
-- Wayne Pacelle, Senior Vice-President oF HSUS, formerly of Friends for Animals; Quoted in Animal People, May, 1993

"The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration."
-- Wayne Pacelle, Senior Vice-President oF HSUS, formerly of Friends for Animals - In Inhumane Society, 1990

"The life of an ant and the life of my child should be accorded equal respect."
-- Wayne Pacelle, Senior Vice-President oF HSUS, formerly of Friends for Animals, The Associated Press, Jan. 15, 1989

"The bottom line is that people don't have the right to manipulate or to breed dogs and cats ... If people want toys they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship they should seek it with their own kind."
-- Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA, "Animals," May/June 1993

"I don't use the word 'pet.' I think it's speciest language. I prefer 'companion animal.' We would no longer allow... pet shops... Eventually companion animals would be phased out."
-- (Harper's Magazine, Aug. 1988)

"One day we would like an end to pet shops and breeding animals [Dogs] would pursue their natural lives in the wild."
-- Ingrid Newkirk, Chicago Daily Herald, March 1, 1990

"I think the whole concept of private property as an ultimate 'good' has got to be replaced. There's a higher good out there than private property...."
-- David Foreman, co-founder and leader, Earth First! (Animal Rights Reporter, June, 1989)

"You don't have to own squirrels and starlings to get enjoyment from them....One day, we would like an end to pet shops and the breeding of animals. [Dogs] would pursue their natural lives in the wild....They would have full lives, not wasting at home for someone to come home in the evening and pet them and then sit there and watch TV."
-- "Where Would We Be Without Animals?", Chicago Daily Herald, March 1, 1990

"Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation."
-- Ingrid Newkirk, PETA, "Just Like Us? Toward a Notion of Animal Rights" (symposium) Harper's, August 1988, p. 50.

"Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles- from our firesides, from the leather nooses and chains by which we enslave it."
-- John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic (Washington D C, PETA, 1982). p. 15

"As the surplus of cats and dogs (artifically engineered by centuries forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship - enjoyment from a distance."
-- Ingrid Newkirk, "Just Like Us?......(see above)

"We feel that animals have the same rights as a retarded human child"
-- Alex Pacheco, then Chairman, People for the Ethical Treatment of animals [PETA] (New York Times, January 14, 1989)

"The theory of animal rights is simply not consistent with the theory of animal welfare or other approaches that reject the rights view and, more importantly, embrace animal exploitation. Animal rights means dramatic social changes for humans and nonhumans alike; if our bourgeois values prevent us from accepting those changes. then we have no right to call ourselves advocates of animal rights."
-- Gary Francione, Director of the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic (The Animals'Voice, VOL. 4, NO. 2, pp. 54-55)

"As long as humans have rights and nonhumans do not, as is the case in the welfarist framework then nonhumans will virtually always lose when their interests conflict with human interests. Thus welfare reforms, by their very nature, can only serve to retard the pace at which animal rights goals are achieved."
-- Gary Francione and Tom Regan ("A Movement's Means Create Its Ends", Animals' Agenda, January-February, 1992)

"I think the whole concept of private property as an ultimate good has got to be replaced. There's a higher good out there than private property."
-- David Foreman, Co-Founder and Leader, Earth First! (Animal Rights Reporter, June, 1989)

In Q&A session following a speech, "Animal Rights, Human Wrongs", University Of Wisconsin-Madison, October 27, 1989, Tom Regan, when asked which he would save, a dog or a baby, if a boat capsized in the ocean, responded:
"If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog."

In Conclusion

Understanding the difference between Animal Welfare and Animal Rights is a critical distinction that all people need to make in order to choose the philosophy that best represents their hopes and wishes for the future of both domesticated and wild animals.