Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare
"Animal rights are not a gift we give to animals. They are a birthright we have taken from them."
–Ryan Phillips
Is There Really a Difference?
In the vegan community, there is significant debate and divisiveness when it comes to animal rights versus animal welfare. Animal rights, much like human rights, is a set of standards to which nonhuman animals cannot be harmed, killed, or interfered with by humans; it is a principle that all animals should be free to live their own lives. Animal welfare, on the other hand, is the system in which we currently live that believes animals can be used by humans as long as they are treated well and do not suffer unjustly.
There are vegans on both sides of the issue, but many animal rights activists don't believe in animal welfare, claiming that it perpetuates the idea that sometimes it's acceptable to use animals. Animal welfarists claim that these animal rights vegans are asking too much, that total animal liberation is impossible. Now that we have the basics out of the way, let's take a closer look at the arguments for and against both sides.
The Argument for Animal Rights
Animal rights is viewed as an extremist movement, with activists shouting in the streets and freeing animals from cages all in the name of equal rights for humans and nonhumans. But this simply isn't the case. No animal rights activist will ever say that nonhuman animals require exactly the same kinds of rights as humans because we are fundamentally different from them. What we're talking about is merely the most basic of rights: freedom. That's it. The freedom to live and let live. The media often enjoys portraying animal rights as some fringe movement very much separated from normal society, but animal rights is something almost every person already agrees with. We have no desire to harm animals, and even those who believe it's ok to eat, wear, or use animals in certain ways generally don't want undue stress or pain inflicted on them.
The future that we as vegans should be fighting for is one where all beings are treated with dignity, where we recognize that every individual life is precious. We don't want to continue to live in a world in which animals are still exploited, even if it's in the most humane way possible. And what does it say about us as vegans if we tell nonvegans that certain types of animal abuse are better than others? If we were to say that dairy is cruel because of calf hutches but our friend only drinks milk produced by their small-scale farmer neighbor, we put ourselves in an interesting predicament. If we were a welfarist, then we would say that's great that they're not supporting a factory farm. But animal rights says that any kind of exploitation is wrong, no matter how it's produced.
The main problem that people on the animal rights side have with animal welfarism is that these "animal welfare" activists and organizations advocate only for higher welfare standards, such as the elimination of battery cages, and treat that as the end goal. They don't go further and encourage people to try plant-based foods instead, only higher welfare animal products. It's the philosophy of acquiring bigger cages, whereas animal rights advocates for the elimination of cages.
The Argument for Animal Welfare
Because I've always been a vegan "for the animals," I immediately aligned with the animal rights side. To me, there is absolutely no rational justification for using animals in any way, even as pets. All the excuses we use are for us, because we like how they taste or we enjoy their companionship or we like to see them performing tricks. It's all about us, not them. However, if a law was passed right now that made it illegal to debeak chickens without anesthetic, I would be incredibly grateful. But why? As the animal rights activists say, this is just the animal agriculture industry seeking good publicity, to make it look like they're doing something noble by removing just a fraction of the pain these chickens endure. But no true vegan is going to say that they don't appreciate this step, because they know that the chickens will suffer slightly less; no vegan would reject a law like this, saying they want chickens to be debeaked without anesthesia, because that would cause them undue pain.
The way I see it, animal welfare is just a step on the path to total animal liberation. Though I want all animals free now, I know that can't happen. In the meantime, I want to make it as difficult as possible for these giant agribusinesses to produce animal products. Drown them in legislation and litigation until it doesn't make economic sense to keep producing animal products. Once we get bigger cages, demand even larger ones, demand only open space, demand anesthesia, demand everything they can't afford. Keep pushing them for more and more and more until they're crushed under the weight of their inhumanity.
*For Individuals
What I do need to make clear is that on the individual level, buying animal welfare products is unacceptable. "Free-range" eggs and "grass-fed" beef is not the answer. That is what perpetuates the animal agriculture's agenda that consuming animal products is ok as long as it's done "humanely." And if you've seen Dominion, Earthlings, Land of Hope and Glory, Lucent, "Thousand Eyes," "Meet Your Meat," or any undercover investigations of these "humane" farms, you know it's all just an elaborate façade to make us feel better about our bad habits. I will never support the animal welfare argument for people buying "humane" animal products because that goes against everything I believe as a vegan. That's not welfare; that's harmful.
The Argument for Both
I hope we'll soon be in a world where animal welfare is animal rights and animal rights is animal welfare. Where these two separate entities will come together and coexist, making each other stronger in their fight toward animal liberation. I don't consider myself on either side of the argument because, to me, there aren't sides. Everything is working together toward a common goal. All this infighting is creating a rift in the vegan movement, harming both veganism and the animals. We should reconcile that each side has valid arguments and that we can be so much more effective if we start to work together. In the end, when all animals are free and animal exploitation is documented in the history books, we want to be remembered as the people that practiced what we preached, set aside our many differences, and came together to fight for the greater good.
be conscious, be kind, be vegan