Animal rights

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Three PETA protesters in animal masks and green clothing hold signs reading No Fur at a demonstration against fur in clothing at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea.

At a Glance

Jeremy Bentham

animal rights summary

Related Questions

How did Immanuel Kant distinguish humans from nonhuman organisms in his account of moral duties?
How did Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation influence the animal rights movement?
How did Roger Scruton support both animal welfare and human use of animals?
How did William Wilberforce contribute to early British campaigns against animal cruelty?
How did animal rights organizations such as PETA and the Humane Society of the United States promote reform?
How did virtue ethicists argue that a morally exemplary person should treat nonhuman organisms?
How do animal rights differ from animal welfare?
How does Peter Singer argue that humans and animals should receive equal consideration of their interests?
How does Peter Singer use the idea of speciesism to criticize unequal treatment of animals?
How does replacement reduce the use of animals in scientific research?
How does the three Rs principle guide the ethical use of animals in research?
How does utilitarianism support Peter Singer’s argument for animal rights?
How have animal experiments contributed to the development of vaccines, insulin, antibiotics, and anesthetics?
How have factory farms been criticized for their treatment of animals?
How is animal law broader than animal rights law?
What did Jeremy Bentham mean by asking whether animals can suffer?
What ethical concerns are raised by using animals in scientific and medical experiments?
What legal rights did the Nonhuman Rights Project seek for the chimpanzees Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo?
Which qualities have philosophers used to decide whether animals deserve moral consideration?
Why are mice and rats commonly used as animal models in biomedical research?
Why did Aristotle argue in Politics that animals exist for the sake of humans?
Why did Martin’s Act fail to grant animals legal rights?
Why did Roger Scruton condemn factory farms?
Why did Singer compare speciesism with racism and sexism?
Why did Tom Regan describe some animals as “subjects of a life”?
Why did the Nonhuman Rights Project use habeas corpus petitions for captive chimpanzees?
Why do animal rights advocates argue that animals have basic interests deserving protection?
Why do animal rights approaches oppose using animals for food, entertainment, and scientific experiments?
Why do arguments based on language or free will fail to separate all humans from all animals?
Why do critics question whether animal models are always necessary for medical research?
Why do some religious arguments give humans greater moral importance than animals?
Why does Peter Singer believe that an animal’s ability to suffer matters morally?
Why does research involving dogs and nonhuman primates create additional ethical debate?
Why have animals traditionally been treated as legal things rather than legal persons?
Why is an animal’s inability to consent a concern in animal-testing debates?

Three PETA protesters in animal masks and green clothing hold signs reading No Fur at a demonstration against fur in clothing at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea. — Animal-rights protest in Seoul. A PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) demonstration in Seoul, South Korea, against the use of animals for fur in clothing.

Animal rights

applied ethics

Written by

Steven M. Wise

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 31, 2026 •History

Animal rights, moral or legal entitlements attributed to nonhuman animals, usually because of the complexity of their cognitive, emotional, and social lives or their capacity to experience physical or emotional pain or pleasure. Historically, different views of the scope of animal rights have reflected philosophical and legal developments, scientific conceptions of animal and human nature, and religious and ethical conceptions of the proper relationship between animals and human beings. Since the beginning of the modern...

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