Table Of Content“Coolly, lucidly, and uncompromisingly, with a minimum of horror stories, Gary L.
Francione argues for the right of all sentient beings to a full life. His critique of ani-
mal-welfare legislation, with its many escape clauses that allow the business of animal
exploitation to proceed as usual, is particularly devastating.”
—J. M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Virtually all the articles and essays collected here are milestones in the formation
of the modern theory of the legal and moral rights of animals. Francione knows his
philosophy as well as his law.”
—Julian H. Franklin, author of Animal Rights and Moral Philosophy
“Francione is a radical, in the best sense of that word, always striking out into areas
where the rest of humanity has feared to tread. He goes out, and he comes back with
treasure that the rest of us are only too happy to use and appropriate. We are all deeply
in Francione’s debt, whether we know it or not, whether we like him or not, and
whether we want to acknowledge it or not.”
—Jeffrey Masson, author of
Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras: A Menagerie of 100 Favorite Animals
“The most wholly consistent animal rights position available today is Francione’s. In
philosophical essays such as these his dedication to defning what it means to give the
interests of nonhumans equal moral consideration shines through in a remarkably
clear and uncompromising way.”—Michael Allen Fox, author of Deep Vegetarianism
“This new volume is not only high-quality scholarship but also provides the theo-
retical foundations for a new social movement that takes rights seriously as its core
claims about human-nonhuman relations.”—Roger Yates, University College, Dublin
“Francione’s searing and insightful theoretical vision shines through in this key work,
which will remain a central work in animal studies for years to come.”
—Bob Torres, author of Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
“Francione’s forceful and compelling arguments against contemporary ‘animal wel-
farism’ should be required reading for scholars, activists, and anyone interested in
justice for all the inhabitants of this planet.”
—David Nibert, author of
Animal Rights/Human Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation
G A RY L . F R A N C I O N E is Distinguished Profesor of Law and Nicholas deB. Kat- Animals as Persons
zenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University–Newark.
E S S AY S O N T H E A B O L I T I O N O F A N I M A L E X P L O I TAT I O N
C O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S / N E W Y O R K
www.cup.columbia.edu
C O V E R I M A G E : © Getty Images Gary L. Francione
PR I N T E D I N T H E U . S . A .
Francione Animals as Persons CO L U M B I A
ANIMALS AS PERSONS
Animals as Persons
Essays on the Abolition
of Animal Exploitation
GA RY L . F R A N C I O N E
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2008 Gary L. Francione
All rights reserved
Library of Congress C ataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Francione, Gary L. (Gary Lawrence), 1954–
Animals as persons : essays on the abolition of animal exploitation / Gary L.
Francione.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-231-13950-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-231-13951-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-231-51156-8 (ebook)
1. Animal rights. 2. Animal welfare—Law and legislation.
3. Animals—Law and legislation. I. Title.
k3620.f73 2008
344.04'9—dc22
2007053043
Columbia University Press books are printed
on permanent and durable acid-f ree paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
To the two hamsters and twelve dogs
who taught me the meaning of personhood
CONTENTS
Foreword by Gary Steiner ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Abolition of Animal Use
Versus the Regulation of Animal Treatment 1
1 / Animals—Property or Persons? 25
2 / Refl ections on Animals, Property, and the Law
and Rain Without Thunder 67
3 / Taking Sentience Seriously 129
4 / Equal Consideration and the Interest of Nonhuman
Animals in Continued Existence: A Response to Professor Sunstein 148
5 / The Use of Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Research:
Necessity and Justifi cation 170
6 / Ecofeminism and Animal Rights: A Review of Beyond Animal
Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals 186
7 / Comparable Harm and Equal Inherent Value:
The Problem of the Dog in the Lifeboat 210
Reference Guide to Selected Topics 231
FOREWORD
Gary Steiner
Paradigm shifts in human thought always depend on iconoclasts who
are not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. Although our thinking
in the past generation about the moral status of animals has advanced
in certain respects, its fundamental presuppositions have suffered from
a debilitating stagnation. In contemporary thought no individual has
been doing more to challenge these presuppositions in a fruitful way
than Gary Francione.
The past generation of thinking about animals has been dominated
by the thought of Peter Singer and Tom Regan. Indeed, Singer’s and
Regan’s work on animals has been so infl uential that few thinkers have
been willing to question their basic assumptions. Singer takes a utilitar-
ian approach derived from Bentham and Mill, while Regan takes a deon-
tological approach inherited from Kant. Both seek to refi ne and improve
the views of their historical forebears, and both have done a great deal
to draw attention to the plight of animals. But as Francione has shown
through his meticulous and critical examination of their work, neither
Singer nor Regan has succeeded in overcoming the anthropocentric lim-
itations of traditional Western philosophical thinking about the moral
status of animals. Nonetheless, Francione has succeeded in rethinking
the tenets of utilitarianism and deontology so as to develop an entirely
new approach that identifi es sentience as the necessary and suffi cient
condition for the possession of rights. Specifi cally, he argues that all sen-
tient beings, those capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, have a fun-
damental interest in avoiding suffering and continuing to exist. We pro-
tect (at least in theory) the right of all humans not to have to suffer the
deprivation of their fundamental interests by being used as the resources
